For Visually impaired People (VIPs), the ability to convert text to sound can mean a new level of independence or the simple joy of a good book. With significant advances in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in recent years, a number of reading aids are appearing on the market. These reading aids convert images captured by a camera to text which can then be read aloud. However, all of these reading aids suffer from a key issue – the user must be able to visually target the text and capture an image of sufficient quality for the OCR algorithm to function – no small task for VIPs. In this work, a Sound-Emitting Document Image Quality Assessment metric (SEDIQA) is proposed which allows the user to hear the quality of the text image and automatically captures the best image for OCR accuracy. This work also includes testing of OCR performance against image degradations, to identify the most significant contributors to accuracy reduction. The proposed No-Reference Image Quality Assessor (NR-IQA) is validated alongside established NR-IQAs and this work includes insights into the performance of these NR-IQAs on document images.

This work aimed to develop an easy-to-use smartphone-based electrochemical biosensor to quickly assess coffee blend's total polyphenol (Phs) content at industrial and individual level. The device is based on a commercial carbon-based screen-printed electrode (SPE) modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and gold nanoparticles (GNPs). At the same time, the biotransducer, Laccase from Trametes versicolor, TvLac, was immobilized on the sensor surface by using glutaraldehyde (GA) as cross-linking agent. The platform was electrochemically characterized to ascertain the influence of the SPE surface modification on its performance. The working electrode (WE) surface morphology characterization was obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging. All the measurements were carried out with a micro-potentiostat Sensit Smart by PalmSens connected to a smartphone. The developed biosensor provided a sensitivity of 0.12 μA/μM, a linear response ranging from 5 to 70 μM, and a lower detection limit (LOD) of 2.99 μM. Afterwards, the biosensor was tested for quantifying the total Phs content in coffee blends, evaluating the influence of both the variety and the roasting degree. The smartphone-based electrochemical biosensor performance has been validated though the Folin-Ciocâlteu standard method.

In this paper, we tackle air quality forecasting by using machine learning approaches to predict the hourly concentration of air pollutants (e.g., Ozone, PM_2.5 and Sulfur Dioxide). Machine learning, as one of the most popular techniques, is able to efficiently train a model on big data by using large-scale optimization algorithms. Although there exists some works applying machine learning to air quality prediction, most of the prior studies are restricted to small scale data and simply train standard regression models (linear or non-linear) to predict the hourly air pollution concentration. In this work, we propose refined models to predict the hourly air pollution concentration based on meteorological data of previous days by formulating the prediction of 24 hours as a multi-task learning problem. It enables us to select a good model with different regularization techniques. We propose a useful regularization by enforcing the prediction models of consecutive hours to be close to each other, and compare with several typical regularizations for multi-task learning including standard Frobenius norm regularization, nuclear norm regularization, ℓ_2,1 norm regularization. Our experiments show the proposed formulations and regularization achieve better performance than existing standard regression models and existing regularizations.

Scene classification plays an important role in the intelligent processing of high-resolution satellite (HRS) remotely sensed image. In HRS image classification, multiple features, e.g. shape, color, and texture features, are employed to represent scenes from different perspectives. Accordingly, effective integration of multiple features always results in better performance compared to methods based on a single feature in the interpretation of HRS image. In this paper, we introduce a multi-task joint sparse and low-rank representation model to combine the strength of multiple features for HRS image interpretation. Specifically, a multi-task learning formulation is applied to simultaneously consider sparse and low-rank structure across multiple tasks. The proposed model is optimized as a non-smooth convex optimization problem using an accelerated proximal gradient method. Experiments on two public scene classification datasets demonstrate that the proposed method achieves remarkable performance and improves upon the state-of-art methods in respective applications.

Some studies investigated the relationship between frequency domain analysis of heart rate variability and the cognitive performance at the Stroop task. We propose a combined assessment also of trunk mobility in 72 healthy women to investigate the relationship between cognitive, cardiac and motor variables based on a principal component analysis. We also assessed the change on this result after an intervention of two months aiming at improving the perception-action link. At baseline, the PCA correctly identified 3 components: one related to cardiac variables, one to trunk motion and one to the performance of Stroop task. After the intervention, only two components were found with trunk symmetry and range of motion, accuracy and time to complete the Stroop task and low frequency heart rate variability aggregated in a single component by PCA. It suggested that this protocol was effective in investigating the embodied cognition and we defined this approach as “embodimetrics”.

The essence of cross-modal generation and retrieval modeling for image-text interactions lies in semantic consistency. Among these, cross-modal representation alignment serves as the foundational requirement for achieving cross-modal semantic consistency. The crux of our proposed method entails the collaborative training of an image captioning model(referred to as the ’captioner’) and a pair of contrastive encoders for image-text matching(referred to as the ’concoder’). This synergistic approach yields concurrent enhancements in concoder’s performance, captioner’s proficiency, and cross-modal semantic coherence. We coin the proposed method as ‘ReCap’. To begin, we initialize the concoder through knowledge distillation from a pre-trained model. During the training process, we use the output of the initialized concoder as input to a residual attention network, jointly training it with the captioner to achieve semantic consistency. Subsequently, we iteratively update the concoder during the image-text momentum encoding phase using the residual attention network, creating a closed-loop for semantic consistency resolution. Upon completion of training, the concoder and captioner modules can be used independently to perform tasks related to cross-modal retrieval and cross-modal generation of text and images. In order to substantiate the efficacy of our proposed method, we initially conducted empirical experiments encompassing image-text retrieval and image captioning tasks, employing a widely recognized benchmark dataset, MSCOCO. Subsequently, we assessed the fine-grained cross-modal alignment performance of the concoder through an image classification task on the iNaturalist 2018 dataset. The achieved performance metrics notably surpassed those achieved by several incumbent state-of-the-art models, thus validating the proficiency of our method. Finally, motivated by the practical requirements of handling the nature conservation image data, we performed caption annotation for the iNaturalist 2018 dataset. Subsequently, we trained the ReCap on this annotated data. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method can maintain semantic consistency between cross-modal retrieval and image caption generation for species with similar visual features but distinct semantics. This achievement signifies a meaningful exploration in the field of cross-modal semantic consistency representation, holding significant practical value in the domain of biological research.

Task-Based Instruction (TBI) is a dynamic approach in tertiary language education that emphasizes the integration of authentic and meaningful tasks to enhance language learning outcomes. This study aims to explore the implementation of TBI in the Philippines, investigate its cognitive benefits and transformative nature, identify pedagogical considerations, and provide recommendations for optimization. The study employed a qualitative research design, with data collected from five private schools in Iligan City. A purposive sampling procedure was used to select 20 participants who engaged in interviews, focus group discussions, and thematic analysis. The results revealed that TBI positively influenced language proficiency, cognitive development, learner autonomy, intercultural competence, and pedagogical considerations. Participants reported enhanced language skills and increased confidence in real-life language use. They also highlighted the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills through engaging in challenging tasks. TBI was found to empower learners by promoting autonomy, ownership, and self-directed learning. Additionally, it cultivated intercultural communicative competence and fostered appreciation for diverse perspectives. Pedagogical considerations included task design, clear instructions, scaffolding, and feedback, while recommendations focused on optimizing TBI, integrating technology-enhanced learning, and supporting professional development for educators. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on TBI in tertiary language education and underscores its potential for creating transformative learning experiences. The findings provide valuable insights for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers in enhancing language education practices in the Philippines and beyond.

Objective biomarkers have been a critical challenge for the field of psychiatry, where diagnostic, prognostic and theranostics assessments are still based on subjective narratives. Psychopathology operates with idiographic knowledge and subjective evaluations incorporated into clinical as-sessment inventories, but is considered to be a medical discipline and, as such, uses medical in-tervention methods (e.g., pharmacological, ECT; rTMS; tDCS), and therefore is supposed to oper-ate with the language and methods of nomothetic networks. The idiographic assessments are pro-visionally “quantified” into “structured clinical scales” to in some way resemble nomothetic measures. Instead of fostering data merging and integration, this approach further encapsulates the clinical psychiatric methods, as all other, biological tests (molecular, neuroimaging) are per-formed separately, only after the clinical assessment has provided diagnosis. Translational cross-validation of clinical assessment instruments and fMRI is an attempt to address the gap. The aim of this approach is to investigate whether there exist common and specific neural circuits, which underpin differential item responses to clinical self-rating scales during fMRI session in pa-tients suffering from the two main spectra of mental disorders: schizophrenia and major depres-sion. The current status of this research program and future implications to promote the devel-opment of psychiatry as a medical discipline are discussed.

To compare the quality of low-energy VMIs obtained with three DECT platforms according to phantom diameter. Three sections of the Mercury Phantom 4.0 were scanned on two generations of split-filter CTs (SFCT-1st and SFCT-2nd) and on one Dual-source CT (DSCT). Noise power spectrum (NPS), task-based transfer function (TTF) and detectability index (d’) were assessed on VMIs from 40 to 70keV. Highest noise magnitude values were found with SFCT-1st and noise magnitude was higher with DSCT than with SFCT-2nd for 26-cm (10.2±1.3%) and 31-cm (7.0±2.5%), and the opposite for 36-cm (-4.2±2.5%). The highest average NPS spatial frequencies and TTF values at 50% (f50) values were found with DSCT. For all energy levels, f50 values were higher with SFCT-2nd than SFCT-1st for 26-cm (3.2±0.4%) and the opposite for 31-cm (-6.9±0.5%) and 36-cm (-5.6±0.7%). The lowest d’ values were found with SFCT-1st. For all energy levels, d’ values were lower with SFCT-2nd than with DSCT for 26-cm (-6.2±0.7%), similar for 31-cm (-0.3±1.9%) and higher for 36-cm (5.4±2.7%). In conclusion, compared to SFCT-1st, SFCT-2nd exhibited lower noise magnitude and higher detectability values. Compared with DSCT, SFCT-2nd had lower noise magnitude and higher detectability for the 26-cm but the opposite was true for the 36-cm.

Zoos are increasingly putting in place formalized animal welfare assessment programs to allow monitoring of welfare over time, as well as to aid in resource prioritization. These programs tend to rely on assessment tools that incorporate resource-based and observational animal- focused measures since it is rarely feasible to obtain measures of physiology in zoo-housed animals. A range of assessment tools are available which commonly have a basis in the Five Domains framework. A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to bring together recent studies examining welfare assessment methods in zoo animals. A summary of these methods is provided with advantages and limitations of the approach es presented. We then highlight practical considerations with respect to implementation of these tools into practice, for example scoring schemes, weighting of criteria, and innate animal factors for consideration. It is concluded that would be value in standardizing guidelines for development of welfare assessment tools since zoo accreditation bodies rarely prescribe these. There is also a need to develop taxon or species- specific assessment tools to inform welfare management.

Sleep quality is known to affect automatic and executive brain functions such as gait control and cognitive processing. This study aimed to assess the effect of dual tasks on gait spatiotemporal parameters among young adults with good and poor sleep quality in the United Arab Emirates. In total, 65 young adults with a mean age of 21.1±2.5 were assessed for gait analysis during single-task and dual-task conditions. The participants’ sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and gait was assessed using the BTS Gaitlab System. The participants were asked to walk at natural speed as a single-task condition, followed by walking while performing a cognitive task as a dual-task condition. The parameters assessed included the gait velocity (m/s), cadence (steps/min), step width (m), and stride length (m). The DTC on each gait parameter was calculated. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare the differences in the DTC on gait variables between the good and poor sleep quality groups, and the Spearman correlation test was used to assess the correlation between total PSQI scores and the DTC. At a significance level of p<0.05, a significant difference in cadence between the two sleep quality groups was observed, in addition to a positive correlation between sleep quality and the DTC effect on gait mean velocity, cadence, and stride length. Our findings also revealed a greater DTC on participants with poorer sleep quality. These findings contribute to our understanding of the significance of sleep quality in gait performance while multitasking in younger populations.

The Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) is a high stakes summative assessment that was designed to measure pre-service teacher readiness. We examined the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of trained PACT evaluators who rated 19 candidates. As measured by Cohen’s weighted kappa, the overall IRR estimate was .17 (poor strength of agreement). IRR estimates ranged from -.29 (worse than expected by chance) to .54 (moderate strength of agreement); all were below the standard of .70 for consensus agreement. Follow up interviews of 10 evaluators revealed possible reasons we observed low IRR, such as departures from established PACT scoring protocol, and lack of, or inconsistent, use of a scoring aid document. Evaluators reported difficulties scoring the materials that candidates submitted, particularly the use of Academic Language. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is suggested as a method to improve IRR in the PACT and other teacher performance assessments such as the edTPA.

Ultramafic rocks become promising candidates for carbon sequestration by enhanced carbon dioxide (CO2) mineralization strategies due to their highly CO2-reactive mineral composition and its abundant availability. This study reports a mineralogy and microtextures of a representative ultramafic rock from the Ma-Hin Creek in northern Thailand and observes evidence of CO2 mineralization occurring through the interaction between CO2 and the rock with the existence of water under ambient conditions. After sample collection, rock description was determined by optical petrographic analysis. The rock petrography reveals a cumulated wehrlite comprising over 50% olivine and minor amounts of clinopyroxene, plagioclase, and chromian spinel. Approximately 25% of the wehrlite has altered to serpentine and chlorite. A series of CO2 batch experiments were conducted on six different rock sizes at a temperature of 40°C and pressure of 1 atm over five consecutive days. The post-experimental products were dried, weighed, and geochemically analyzed to detect changes in mineral species. Experimental results showed that product weight and the presence of calcite increased with reducing grain size. Additionally, the modal mineralogy of the wehrlite theoretically suggests a potential CO2 uptake of up to 53%, which is higher than the average uptake values of mafic rocks. These findings support the suitable rock investigation approach and the preliminary assessment of carbon mineralization potential, contributing to enhanced rock weathering techniques for CO2 removal that could be adopted by mining and rock supplier industries.

River monitoring has the potential to grow substantially with present-day available affordable and locally sourced hardware. Yet river monitoring networks are still under pressure due to lack of resources, difficulties with maintenance, and rapidly changing conditions which in part may be due to climate change. We advocate that to turn around this trend, monitoring stations must rely on local people, work with locally available devices, work without contact with water and operate through openly available knowledge. River observations with camera videos have this potential. IP cameras, drones or smartphones are widely available as observation platforms. The scientific methods are well established in literature. Yet current attempts to establish scalable open-source software solutions that can be operated anywhere are lacking. In fact, currently available software is either research-oriented, more aimed at incidental observations, is restricted to single-use licenses, entirely proprietary, or restricted to operations through a third-party Software as a Service. To overcome this obstacle, we present OpenRiverCam, a free and open-source software ecosystem for river observations that can fulfill a wide variety of use cases and business cases through a well-documented and simple to use Application Programming Interface, service workflows, cloud scalability and interoperability, and options to extend to several applications within the hydrological, hydrodynamic, environmental and geospatial domains. We demonstrate its current technical abilities through three different case studies that all originate from a user perspective. We discuss the future developments to meet further requirements, which include documentation, widely available training materials and embedding in curricula, and further hardware and software developments.

The integration of robotics and image processing has led to the realization of robot autonomy in dynamic environments through the provision of visual feedback. This paper presents the application of parallel and open-link robots in palletizing and shape drawing tasks as enhanced by visual feedback from image processing. In determining the set of joint angles that could be used to reach the desired position and orientation of the end effector, the geometric approach in which the spatial geometry of the robotic arms was decomposed into several plane geometry problems was employed. Image processing techniques were used to enhance the performance of the robotic manipulators. In one approach, Color-based segmentation was used to distinguish between different objects in the workspace by using predefined color markers as references in the L*a*b color space. Classification of each pixel in the workspace image was then done by calculating the Euclidean distance between that pixel and a predefined color marker. A second approach employed Edge detection to identify the boundaries of objects within the workspace image by employing the Hough Transform mathematical model to detect the abrupt changes in the image brightness pixel-wise. The pixel locations from Hough were then sorted sequentially to outline the detected object. The integration of image processing with the robotic tasks was expected to improve the precise detection of the position of objects as well as the outline of geometric shapes. The incorporation of visual feedback allowed for dynamic robot manipulation in which prior knowledge of the workspace was not requisite. This led to improved pick and place as well as shape detection as applied in palletizing and shape drawing tasks actuated by the parallel and serial link manipulators, respectively.

Currently, maritime traffic is increasing with economic growth in several regions worldwide. However, this growth in maritime traffic has led to increased risk of marine accidents. These accidents have a higher probability of occurring in regions where geographical features, such as islands, are present. Further, the positioning of rescue ships in a particular ocean region with a high level of maritime activity is critical for rescue operations. This paper proposes a method for determining an optimal set of locations for stationing rescue ships in an ocean region with numerous accident sites in the Wando islands of South Korea. The computational challenge in this problem is identified as the positioning of numerous islands of varying sizes located in the region. Thus, the proposed method combines a clustering-based optimization method and an image processing approach that incorporates flood filling to calculate the shortest distance between two points in the ocean that detours around the islands. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method reduces the distance from rescue ships and each accident site by 5.0 km compared to the original rescue ship locations. Thus, rescue time is reduced.

Transportation tasks in nursing are common and shorten the time for direct patient care in times of nursing shortage and an aging society. There is a lack of research on transportation needs, with most studies focusing on overall nursing task analysis without a deeper analysis of transportation tasks. In July and September 2023, we conducted weekly observations of nurses to assess clinical transportation needs. We aim to understand the economic impact and the methods nurses use for transportation tasks. We conducted a participant observation using a standardized app-based form over a seven-day observation period in two rural clinics. N=1,830 transports were made by nurses and examined by descriptive analysis. Non-medical supplies account for 27.05 % (n=495) of all transports, followed by medical supplies at 17.32 % (n=317), pharmacotherapy at 14.10 % (n=258) and other other categories like meals or drinks contributing 12.68 % (n=232). Most transports had a factual transport time of under a minute, with patient transport and lab samples displaying more variability. In total, 77.15 % of all transports were made by hand. Requirements to collect items or connect transports with patient care were included in 5 % of all transports. Our economic evaluation spotlighted meals as the most costly transport, with 9,596.16€ p.a. in the observed clinics. Budget-friendly robots would amortize over one year by transporting meals. We support understanding nurses’ transportation needs via further research on assistive robots to validate our findings and determine the feasibility of transport robots.

Human induced climate change led to the recognition of Community-Based Adaptation (CBA) as one of the remedies in building adaptive capacity and resilience of communities. It recognizes the resources and the skills as well as the agency of communities in shaping the optimal strategy. CBA interventions are vital in addressing community needs and contextual specificities, enable participatory and inclusive engagement and thereby facilitate more profound adaptation impacts. Agent-based modelling (ABM) harbors the potential to be the ideal tool to support developing of tailored adaptation strategies while considering capacities, resources, skills, priorities, needs and the cultural context of local communities. ABM allows to capture the complex relationships among various components within community decision making on CBA actions, the CBA actions themselves and the environment. There exist plenty of tools, however they provide for varying degrees of freedom in agent definition, sensitivity analysis, scalability, experiment design and output analysis to name a few. A set of required key criteria for CBA modelling is developed and all available ABM modelling and simulation tools are assessed for their suitability for CBA. NetLogo emerges as the most fitting tool for incorporating and handling the special features of CBA. It is closely followed by GAMA and Envision. The article provides insights and guidance to researchers and practitioners in selecting ABM tools aligned with the specific requirements of their CBA simulations and projects.

In industry 4.0 era, video applications such as surveillance visual systems, video conferencing, or video broadcasting have been playing a vital role. In these applications, for manipulating and tracking objects in decoded video, the quality of decoded video should be consistent because it largely affects to the performance of the machine analysis. To cope with this problem, we propose a novel perceptual video coding (PVC) solution in which a full reference quality metric named Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) is employed together with a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to obtain the consistent quality while still achieving the high compression performance. First of all, to achieve the consistent quality requirement, we propose a CNN model with an expected VMAF as input to adaptively adjust the quantization parameters (QP) for each coding block. Afterwards, to increase the compression performance, a Lagrange coefficient of Rate-Distortion optimization (RDO) mechanism is adaptively computed under Rate-QP and Quality-QP models. Experimental results show that the proposed PVC has achieved two targets simultaneously: the quality of video sequence is kept consistently with an expected quality level and the bit rate saving of the proposed method is higher than traditional video coding standards and relevant benchmark, notably with around 10% bitrate saving in average.

With the rapid development of satellite remote sensing technology, the volume of image datasets in many application areas is growing exponentially and the demand for Land-Cover and Land-Use change remote sensing data is growing rapidly. It is thus becoming hard to efficiently and intelligently retrieve the change information that users need from massive image databases. In this paper, content-based image retrieval is successfully applied to change detection and a content-based remote sensing image change information retrieval model is introduced. First, the construction of a new model framework for change information retrieval in a remote sensing database is described. Then, as the target content cannot be expressed by one kind of feature alone, a multiple-feature integrated retrieval model is proposed. Thirdly, an experimental prototype system that was set up to demonstrate the validity and practicability of the model is described. The proposed model is a new method of acquiring change detection information from remote sensing imagery and so can reduce the need for image pre-processing, deal with problems related toseasonal changes as well as other problems encountered in the field of change detection. Meanwhile, the new model has important implications for improving remote sensing image management and autonomous information retrieval.

Earth observation satellites can capture images of specific areas in Earth's orbit based on user requirements. Despite the high demand for satellite imagery, satellites remain a scarce resource. When there are many observation tasks that are large and dense, they may interfere with each other due to satellite mobility. To address this issue, a multi-satellite scheduling algorithm based on a task merging mechanism has been proposed. This paper proposes a two-stage approach to the problem: task merging phase and merging task scheduling phase. The task merging phase introduces two methods based on Mean Shift and Complete Graph to generate the merging task set. In the merging task scheduling phase, a multi-satellite scheduling algorithm based on merging tasks is employed to solve the problem. Finally, certain measurement experiments suggest the effectiveness of the algorithm.

The global construction sector contributes a significant share of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Australia, infrastructure activity alone generates 18% of the GHG emissions budget. The use of low-embodied carbon building materials is crucial to achieving sustainability in the construction sector and to fulfill national and international climate goals. Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is considered a promising feedstock for sustainable construction materials because of its biogenic carbon content, fast-growing cycles with low agricultural input requirements, and technical functionality which is comparable to traditional materials. This study has applied the life cycle assessment (LCA) guideline of ISO 14040:2006 to estimate the carbon footprint (CF) expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) emissions of hemp-based building materials in Western Australia. The functional unit is 1 m2 of hemp-based board, and the system boundary includes cradle-to-gate stages, i.e., pre-farm, on-farm, and post-farm activities. The production of 1 m2 of hemp-based board is estimated to be - 2.302 kgCO2eq. Electricity from the public grid for lignin extraction during the post-farm stage is the main contributor to total CO2eq emissions (26%), followed by urea production (14%) during the pre-farm stage. Overall, the use of electricity from the SWIS during the post-farm stage accounts for 45% of total emissions. Sensitivity analysis shows that the CF of hemp-based boards is highly sensitive to the source of energy, i.e., total replacement of the SWIS by solar power decreases the CF from - 2.30 to -6.07 kgCO2eq (164%). The results suggest that hemp-based boards exhibit lower embodied GHG emissions compared to traditional materials, such as gypsum plasterboards.

Industrial manipulators and parallel robots are often used for tasks like drilling or milling, that require three translational, but only two rotational degrees of freedom (“3T2R”). While kinematic models for specific mechanisms for these tasks exist, a general kinematic model for parallel robots is still missing. This paper presents the definition of the rotational component of kinematic constraints equations for parallel robots based on two reciprocal sets of Euler angles for the end-effector orientation and the orientation residual. The method allows to completely remove the redundant coordinate in 3T2R tasks and to solve the inverse kinematics for general serial and parallel robots with the gradient-descent algorithm. The functional redundancy of robots with full mobility is exploited using nullspace projection.

This study assessed the performance of low-dose CT lung scans across various acquisition parameters and examined the impact of iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms on image quality for lung cancer screening. The performance of multi-slice CT scanners was assessed by using a Catphan 600 phantom, specifically within the CTP404 test module that contains materials like Teflon, Delrin, Acrylic, Polystyrene, LDPE, PMP, Air, and water. Three protocols were selected and categorized into standard, low dose, and ultra-low dose. The standard protocol featured a tube voltage of 100 kVp for single-detector CT, a pitch of 0.75, detector collimation of 0.60 mm, and a gantry rotation time of 0.33 seconds, with 5 mm slice thickness. Images were reconstructed using standard kernels like B80f and 170f, combined with either FBP or various IR algorithms. Findings indicated that the noise power spectrum (NPS) peak value (HU2mm2) increased with higher IR levels, with FBP showing the highest peak. Additionally, NPS spatial frequency diminished as IR levels rose. Optimizing contrast and spatial resolution for both background and regions of interest involved adjusting the target transfer function (TTF) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), crucial for protocol optimization. Proper adjustment of IR levels is vital, as higher levels can alter image texture and affect NPS spatial frequency. The results of this study showed that the use of IR algorithms in low-dose CT lung scans significantly improved image quality, particularly in terms of noise reduction and spatial resolution. However, the choice of acquisition parameters also played a crucial

Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) has been successfully used to map slums. In general, the occurrence of uncertainties in producing geographic data is inevitable. However, most studies concentrated solely on assessing the classification accuracy and neglecting the inherent uncertainties. Our research analyses the impact of uncertainties in measuring the accuracy of OBIA-based slum detection. We selected Jakarta as our case study area, because of a national policy of slum eradication, which is causing rapid changes in slum areas. Our research comprises of four parts: slum conceptualization, ruleset development, implementation, and accuracy and uncertainty measurements. Existential and extensional uncertainty arise when producing reference data. The comparison of a manual expert delineations of slums with OBIA slum classification results into four combinations: True Positive, False Positive, True Negative and False Negative. However, the higher the True Positive (which lead to a better accuracy), the lower the certainty of the results. This demonstrates the impact of extensional uncertainties. Our study also demonstrates the role of non-observable indicators (i.e., land tenure), to assist slum detection, particularly in areas where uncertainties exist. In conclusion, uncertainties are increasing when aiming to achieve a higher classification accuracy by matching manual delineation and OBIA classification.

HTA introduced by Annett and Duncan is widely recognized for breaking down complex tasks into manageable subtasks, data, and quantitative analysis confirming its effectiveness are limited. By combining the HTA with the NASA Workload Index (NASA-TLX), a subjective workload assessment tool, this study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of task performance and workload. The project involved assembling a three-jaw chuck with HTA for process definition and subtasks, while NASA-TLX was used for workload determination. Data were collected through questionnaires and observation forms and analyzed to determine the impact of HTA on task performance and workload distribution. The results show that HTA effectively identifies task complexity and bottlenecks, which facilitates task optimization and improves performance. The NASA-TLX integration provides critical insights into individuals' subjective workload and targets areas where task performance and resource allocation can be improved. This study shows that combining HTA and NASA-TLX provides a holistic approach to understanding and improving task performance, ultimately leading to better user experience and productivity.

Flooding during the rainy season poses a significant threat to the city of Hargeisa, impacting the well-being of both its residents and the local ecosystems. This research focuses on urban flood control, with a specific emphasis on finding sustainable solutions for managing large stream in Hargeisa. The study identifies five key dimensions, including infrastructure, transportation, environmental soil, life, and property, as critical factors in addressing the issue. By employing a comparative method and collecting data through closed-ended questions, the research aims to analyze and weigh eleven potential solutions, seeking to identify the most effective approaches. The findings of the study indicate that constructing a dam emerges as a promising and sustainable solution, with a weightage of 70 percent. This highlights the potential of a dam in mitigating the impact of floods in the region. Additionally, considering the government's economic capacity, the implementation of check dams is identified as another viable option, with a weightage of 95 percent for reducing the flood power of the stream. These solutions offer practical and effective measures to address the recurring problem of flooding in Hargeisa. To support future decision-making and planning, the research underscores the need for establishing a comprehensive rainfall data database. This database would store relevant information on rainfall patterns, enabling better understanding and prediction of flood events. The study emphasizes the importance of collaboration between local government authorities, environmental organizations, and stakeholders to develop and implement effective flood control strategies. This research provides a systematic approach that can inform and benefit regional and global researchers, policymakers, and municipal governments in their efforts to address urban flood control challenges, not only in Hargeisa but also in similar contexts worldwide.

Pain is a multifaceted multisystem disorder that adversely affects neuro-psychological processes. This study compares the effectiveness of central-stimulation (tDCS) and peripheral-stimulation (TENS) in pain-inhibition during a cognitive-task in healthy volunteers and to observe potential neuro-cognitive improvements. Healthy eighty volunteers went through a complete experimental protocol comprising pain-induction (CPT), administration of tDCS/TENS, EEG-data acquisition, and cognitive assessments. The protocol for this study is categorized into 04-groups: G1(Control), G2(TENS), G3(Anodal-tDCS), and G4(Cathodal-tDCS). Paired t-tests (p

The rapid growth in the number of interconnected devices on the Internet (referred to as the Internet of Things – IoT), along with the huge volume of data that are exchanged and processed, has created a new landscape in network design and operation. Due to the limited battery size and computational capabilities of IoT nodes, data processing usually takes place on external devices. Since latency minimization is a key concept in modern era networks, edge servers that are in close proximity to IoT nodes gather and process related data, while in some cases data offloading in the cloud might have to take place. The interconnection of a vast number of heterogeneous IoT devices with the edge servers and the cloud, where IoT, edge and cloud converge to form a computing continuum, is also known as IoT-edge-cloud (IEC) continuum. Several key challenges are associated with this new computing systems architectural approach, including: i) design of connection and programming protocols aimed at properly manipulating a huge number of heterogeneous devices over diverse infrastructures; ii) design of efficient task offloading algorithms aimed at optimizing services execution; iii) support for security and privacy enhancements during data transfer to deal with the existent and even unforeseen attacks and threats landscape; iv) scalability, flexibility and reliability guarantees to face the expected mobility for IoT systems, and; v) design of optimal resource allocation mechanisms to make the most out of the available resources. These challenges become even more significant towards the new era of sixth generation (6G) networks, which will be based on the integration of various cutting edge heterogeneous technologies. Therefore, the goal of this survey paper is to present all recent developments in the field of IEC continuum systems, with respect to the aforementioned deployment challenges. In the same context, potential limitations and future challenges are highlighted as well. Finally, indicative use cases are also presented, from an IEC continuum perspective.

Regardless of country and age, the importance of history education is always being emphasized. Although the importance of history education is being emphasized in Korea, there are many difficulties in getting students to understand history properly through school classes alone, and it is also difficult to attract students to participate in classes. The effectiveness of education using games has been proven 20 years ago, and the demand for game-based education is gradually increasing in the current education world, which is becoming more open. In this paper, based on the effects proven through research on the existing game-based education, the improvement of historical thinking ability, experiential history learning, and the problems of game-based education introduced in the ESN report and the discomfort of teachers who participated in the education were improved. A plan was suggested to select and use games suitable for basic education. In this thesis, we selected a history game with a clear historical and periodic background and without distortion of history, and experimented with teaching using games focusing on historical thinking and empirical history learning. The learning achievement of textbook-based education was compared.

Regardless of country and age, the importance of history education is always being emphasized. Although the importance of history education is being emphasized in Korea, there are many difficulties in getting students to understand history properly through school classes alone, and it is also difficult to attract students to participate in classes. The effectiveness of education using games has been proven 20 years ago, and the demand for game-based education is gradually increasing in the current education world, which is becoming more open. In this paper, based on the effects proven through research on the existing game-based education, the improvement of historical thinking ability, experiential history learning, and the problems of game-based education introduced in the ESN report and the discomfort of teachers who participated in the education were improved. A plan was suggested to select and use games suitable for basic education. In this thesis, we selected a history game with a clear historical and periodic background and without distortion of history, and experimented with teaching using games focusing on historical thinking and empirical history learning. The learning achievement of textbook-based education was compared.

In the current study, the failure behavior of retrofitted steel structures was studied experimentally and theoretically with steel/CFRP double strap joints (DSJs) under quasi-static tensile loading. A series of DSJs with different bonding lengths are also considered and examined to experimentally assess the effective bond length. To predict the failure load values of the tested specimens, a new stress-based criterion, namely the point stress (PS) criterion is proposed. Although some theoretical predictive modelling for the strength between steel/CFRP joints under various loading conditions has been presented, in this work by using the new proposed approach, one can calculate rapidly and conveniently the failure loads of the steel/CFRP specimens. Furthermore, to assess the validity of the new proposed criterion, further experimental data on steel/CFRP DSJs available in the open literature are predicted using the PS criterion. Finally, it was found that a good agreement exists between the experimental results and the theoretical predictions based on the PS criterion.

Promoting the sustainable development of resource-based cities is of great significance to the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. Combining the environmental status and economic development, we objectively evaluate the ecological safety level of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin, compare and analysis the main factors affecting the ecological safety of different resource-based cities, and formulate precise and differentiated ecological safety protection measures in river basins to achieve high-quality development. Taking the Yellow River Basin as an example, this paper analyses the ecological level of the Yellow River Basin based on the theory of sustainable development, calculates the ecological safety level of 30 resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2006 to 2020 by TOPSIS model, and makes convergence analysis by classification. Through the DID empirical test of sustainable development planning policy on ecological safety factors, distinguish the development characteristics of different resource-based cities. The results show that: (1) the ecological safety level of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin is generally developing well, and there are differences among different types of resource-based cities; (2) the kinetic energy of sustainable development of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin is mainly industrial transformation, and the power of science and technology is insufficient; (3) local governments pay limited attention to environmental protection, and the sustainable development planning of resource-based cities in 2013 mainly promotes the adjustment of industrial structure of resource-based cities.

A 'little brother' of pain, itch is an unpleasant sensation that creates a specific urge to scratch. To date, various machine-learning based image classifiers (MBICs) have been proposed for quantitative analysis of itch-induced scratch behaviour of laboratory animals in an automated, non-invasive, inexpensive and real-time manner. In spite of MBICs' advantages, the overall performances (accuracy, sensitivity and specificity) of current MBIC approaches remains inconsistent, with their values varying from ~50% to ~99%, for which the reasons underlying have yet to be investigated further, both computationally and experimentally. To look into the variation of the performance of MBICs in automated detection of itch-induced scratch, this article focuses on the experimental data recording step, and reports here for the first time that MBICs' overall performance is inextricably linked to the sharpness of experimentally recorded video of laboratory animal scratch behaviour. This article furthermore demonstrates for the first time that a linearly correlated relationship exists between video sharpness and overall performance (accuracy and specificity, but not sensitivity) of MBICs, and highlight the primary role of experimental data recording in rapid, accurate and consistent quantitative assessment of laboratory animal itch.

This study measured secondary students’ digital literacy using a digital game-based assessment system that was designed and developed based on the Evidence-Centered Game Design (ECGD) approach. A total of 188 secondary students constituted the valid samples in this study. Fine-grained behavioral data generated from students’ gameplay processes were collected and recorded with the assessment system. The Delphi method was used to extract feature variables related to digital literacy from the process data, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was used to construct the measurement model. The assessment results of the ECGD-based assessment had a high correlation with standardized test scores, which have been shown to be reliable and valid in prior large-scale assessment studies.

General Linear Modelling (GLM) has been widely employed to estimate the hemodynamic changes evoked by cognitive processing, which are more likely to be nonlinear than linear. First, this study re-analyzed the fNIRS data (N = 38, Mage = 5.0 years, SD = 0.69 years, 17 girls) collected in the Mixed-Order Design Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task. The results indicated that the quadratic equation was better than GLM to model HbO changes in this task. Second, analysis of a new set of data indicated that the Habit-DisHabit design of DCCS was more effective in identifying the neural correlates of cognitive shifting than the Mixed-Order Design. Third, this study found that the Non-users were more attentive and engaged than the Heavy-users, with a slower but more steady increase of brain activation in BA8 and BA9.

This study aims to examine the impact of tablet use on preschoolers’ executive function during the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task (DCCS) task using the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Altogether 38 Chinese preschoolers (Mage = 5.0 years, SD = 0.69 years, 17 girls) completed the tasks before the COVID-19 lockdown. Eight children never used tablets, while 16 children were diagnosed as the ‘heavy-user'. The results indicated that: (1) the 'Non-user' outperformed the 'Heavy-user' with a significantly higher correct rate in the DCCS task; (2) the two groups differed significantly in the activation of the prefrontal cortex (BA 9): the 'Non-user' pattern is normal and healthy, whereas the 'Heavy-user' pattern is not normal and needs further exploration.

The paper explores the potential of a low-cost advanced video-based technique for the assessment of structural damage induced to buildings by seismic loading. A low-cost high-speed video camera was utilized for motion magnification (MM) processing of footages of a two-story reinforced concrete frame building subjected to shaking table tests. The damage after seismic loading was estimated by analyzing the dynamic behavior (i.e. in terms of modal parameters) and the structural deformations of the building in the MM videos. The results by MM were compared for method validation to damage assessment obtained by the analyses of conventional accelerometers and high-precision optical markers tracked by a passive 3D motion capture system. Also, 3D laser scanning to obtain an accurate survey of the building geometry before and after the seismic tests was carried out. In particular, accelerometers were also processed and analyzed by using several stationary and non-stationary techniques with the aim to analyze the linear behavior of the undamaged structure and the nonlinear structural behavior during damaging shaking table tests. The proposed MM-based procedure provided accurate estimate of the main modal frequency and the damage location through the analysis of modal shapes, which were confirmed by advanced analyses of accelerometric data.

Agriculture is an important sector of European Union in societal , economic and environmental dimensions. Sustainability of the sector require improvements in its key operations. Weeding is one of the crucial operation having impact on farms’ productivity, safety for farmers, food security and environmental state. To achieve EU policy goals of sustainable agriculture there are needed new technical and organizational solutions. One of the advanced techniques are laser based weeding technique. It is important to understand well the impacts of introduction of these tech-niques to the markets and agricultural practice in sustainability context. For that reason Social Life Cycle Assessment was performed. The method was based on participatory approach. The as-sessment was carried in three perspectives: general society, farmers, and business perspective re-lated to agriculture. Expert interviews based on questionnaires and workshops were realized to get the opinions on the impacts of a new laser technique on particular aspects of its implementation. The results show generally positive impact in all perspectives, especially in the perspective of farmers.

Designing motion representations for the problem of 3D human action recognition from skeleton sequences is an important yet challenging task. An effective representation should be robust to noise, invariant to viewpoint changes and result in a good performance with low-computational demand. Two main challenges in this task include how to efficiently represent spatio-temporal patterns of skeletal movements and how to learn their discriminative features for classification task. This paper presents a novel skeleton-based representation and a deep learning framework for 3D action recognition using RGB-D sensors. We propose to build an action map called SPMF (Skeleton Posture-Motion Feature), which is a compact image representation built from skeleton poses and their motions. An Adaptive Histogram Equalization (AHE) algorithm is then applied on the SPMF to enhance their local patterns and form an enhanced action map, namely Enhanced-SPMF. For learning and classification tasks, we exploit Deep Convolutional Neural Networks based on the DenseNet architecture to learn directly an end-to-end mapping between input skeleton sequences and their action labels via the Enhanced-SPMFs. The proposed method is evaluated on four challenging benchmark datasets, including both individual actions, interactions, multiview and large-scale datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms previous state-of-the-art approaches on all benchmark tasks, whilst requiring low computational time for training and inference.

Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotropic main component of the Cannabis plant, is approved as a drug in the European Union (EU) under the name “Epidyolex”. However, the approval process as a food ingredient under the Novel Food Regulation was paused by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) due to a lack of safety data. Nevertheless, there is a growing, unregulated market in which CBD is advertised with various health claims and different dosage instructions. Of particular concern is its toxic effect on the liver and possible reproductive toxicity in humans. Studies suitable for calculating a benchmark dose were identified from the available data. Animal studies yielded a Benchmark Dose Lower Confidence Limit (BMDL) of 43 mg/kg bw/day, which translates into a safe human dose of approximately 15 mg/day. Only a Lowest Observed Adverse Effect Level (LOAEL) of 4.3 mg/kg bw/day could be identified from the human data. This updated risk assessment confirmed the Health-based Guidance Value (HBGV) of 10 mg/day based on human LOAEL. Despite existing data gaps, preliminary regulation appears advisable as the current form of the gray CBD market is unacceptable from the standpoint of consumer safety and protection.

Enzymatic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling processes are gaining interest for their low environmental impact, use of mild conditions, and specificity. Furthermore, PET hydrolase enzymes are continuously being discovered and engineered. In this work, we studied a PET hydrolase (PET2), initially characterized as an alkaline thermostable lipase. PET2 was produced in a fusion form with a 6-histidine tag in the N-terminal. The PET2 activity on aromatic terephthalate and new indole-based polyesters was evaluated using polymers in powder form. Compared with IsPETase, an enzyme derived from Ideonella sakaiensis, PET2 showed a lower PET depolymerization yield. However, interestingly, PET2 gave significantly higher polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and polyhexylene terephthalate (PHT) depolymerization yields. A clear preference was found for aromatic indole-derived polyesters over non-aromatic ones. No activity was detected on Akestra™, an amorphous copolyester with spiroacetal structures. Docking studies suggest that a narrower and more hydrophobic active site reduces its activity on PET but favours its interaction with PBT and PHT. Understanding the enzyme preferences of polymers will contribute to their effective use to depolymerize different types of polyesters.

Task fMRI has played a critical role in recognizing the specific functions of the different regions of human brain during various cognitive activities. This study aimed to investigate group analysis and functional connectivity in the Faradarmangars brain during the Faradarmani CF (FCF) connection. Using task functional MRI (task-fMRI), we attempted the identification of different activated and deactivated brain regions during the Consciousness Filed connection. Clusters that showed significant differences in peak intensity between task and rest group were selected as seeds for seed-voxel analysis. Connectivity of group differences in functional connectivity analysis was determined following each activation and deactivation network. In this study, we report the fMRI-based representation of the FCF connection at the human brain level. The group analysis of FCF connection task revealed activation of frontal lobe (BA6/BA10/BA11). Moreover, seed based functional connectivity analysis showed decreased connectivity within activated clusters and posterior Cingulate Gyrus (BA31). Moreover, we observed an increased connectivity within deactivated clusters and frontal lobe (BA11/BA47) during the FCF connection. Activation clusters as well as the increased and decreased connectivity between different regions of the brain during the FCF connection, firstly, validates the significant effect of the FCF and secondly, indicates a distinctive pattern of connection with this non-material and non-energetic field, in the brain.

Exploring new approaches to innovating higher vocational education is a worldwide pursuit driven by the increasing demand for graduates equipped with competencies. This study investigated how Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) influences the attainment of graduate competence (AGC) in China’s higher vocational education, using the theory of Constructive Alignment (CA) as its foundation. The OBE framework incorporates intended learning outcomes (ILOs), project-based learning (PjBL), assessment strategies (ASs), and AGC. The study tested the model by assessing the impact of ILOs, PjBL, and ASs on AGC, respectively and sequentially. Surveys were administered to 320 CBEC learners in April 2024, resulting in 301 usable responses. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 24.0. Results indicated that PjBL and ASs were directly and positively related to graduate competency attainment, while ILOs were indirectly associated with graduate competence through the mediating roles of PjBL and ASs. The most substantial mediating effect between ILOs and graduate competence was ASs, followed by PjBL, and then, the chain mediating effect of PjBL and ASs. These findings enhance the theoretical understanding of OBE and provide detailed procedures for tracking and enhancing sustainability in higher vocational education. Beneficiaries include educators, policymakers, and accreditation bodies.

There is an international concern for reducing energy consumption and protecting the environment in the construction industry. The energy efficiency of a building depends on the thermal resistance of concrete, and utilizing concrete products with elevated thermal resistance can enhance this aspect. This study analyzes the impact of perlite, as an addition, on the physico-mechanical properties of concrete, with the aim of identifying perlite concrete products that will respond to the improvement of the heat transfer resistance of the building envelope. The study examines the effect of replacing different amounts of concrete aggregates with perlite in percentages of 10%, 20%, 30%, and 100%. The results show that substituting sand with perlite improves the thermal performance of concrete, but its mechanical properties are negatively affected. The research carried out highlighted that perlite can be successfully introduced in the production of concrete blocks used for external non-bearing wall panels, the outstanding feature being the reduction of energy consumption in buildings. Overall, the paper identifies an efficient and environmentally friendly way of using perlite in the construction industry, enhancing the energy efficiency of buildings while minimizing the environmental footprint caused by the construction industry.

Background: This year has seen the emergence of two major crises, a significant increase in frequency and severity of hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known as to how each of these two events have impacted the other. A rapid qualitative assessment was conducted to determine the impact of the pandemic on preparedness and response to natural disasters and the impact of past experiences with natural disasters in responding to the pandemic. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 representatives of 24 different community-based programs in southern Louisiana. Data were analyzed using procedures embedded in the Rapid Assessment Procedure – Informed Community Ethnography methodology, using techniques of immersion and crystallization and focused thematic analysis. Results: The pandemic has impacted the form and function of disaster preparedness, making it harder to plan for evacuations in event of a hurricane. Specific concerns included being able to see people in-person, providing food and other resources to residents who shelter in place, finding volunteers to assist in food distribution and other forms of disaster response, competing for funds to support disaster-related activities, developing new support infrastructures, and focusing on equity in disaster preparedness. However, several strengths based on disaster preparedness experience and capabilities were identified, including providing a framework for how to respond and adapt to COVID and integration of COVID response with their normal disaster preparedness activities. Conclusions: Although prior experience has enabled community-based organizations to respond to the pandemic, the pandemic is also creating new challenges to preparing for and responding to natural disasters.

Deep learning methods have been widely used in PolSAR image classification. To learn the polarimetric information, many deep learning methods expect to learn high-level semantic features from original PolSAR data. However, only original data cannot learn multiple scattering features and complex structures for extremely heterogeneous terrain objects. In addition, deep learning methods always cause edge confusion due to the high-level features. To overcome these shortages, we propose a double-channel CNN network combined with an edge-preserving MRF model(DCCNN-MRF) for PolSAR image classification. Firstly, to combine complex matrix data and multiple scattering features together, a double-channel convolution network(DCCNN) is developed, which consists of a Wishart-based complex matrix and multi-feature subnetworks. The Wishart-based complex matrix network can learn the statistical characteristics and channel correlation well, and the multi-feature network can learn high-level semantic features well. Then, a unified network framework is designed to fuse two kinds of features to enhance advantageous features and reduce redundant ones. Finally, an edge preserving MRF model is designed to combine with the DCCNN network. In the MRF model, a sketch map-based edge energy function is designed by defining adaptive weighted neighborhood for edge pixels. Experiments are conducted on four real PolSAR data sets with different sensors and bands. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed DCCNN-MRF method.

Mirror Therapy (MT) and Cognitive Therapeutic Exercise (CTE) are two neurorehabilitation techniques based on neuroplasticity and designed to enhance the functionality of the upper limb. Therefore, the aim is to assess the effectiveness of the combination of CTE and MT with task-oriented training (TOT) on fine and gross motor skills of the affected hand, as well as the functionality of the affected upper limb, autonomy, independence, and quality of life (QoL) in patients with acute stroke. This longitudinal and multicenter study involved a sample of 120 participants selected randomly and consecutively. Three groups were formed, including a control group (CG) and two treatment groups, one with MT and the other with CTE. The functionality of the upper limb, fine and gross motor skills, the quantity and quality of use of the affected upper limb, autonomy, and QoL were evaluated using various scales validated in the Spanish population at the baseline, after 20 treatment sessions, and at three months of follow-up. ANCOVA analysis was conducted, revealing statistically significant differences between assessments in the CG compared to the experimental groups (GEs), indicating a notable improvement in overall functionality, fine and gross motor skills, autonomy, and QoL in the latter. However, there were no significant differences between the GEs. Therefore, the application of either of these experimental combinations is crucial for the motor recovery, functionality, and improvement of the quality of life of individuals who have suffered a stroke.

Most of the municipalities in the Gulf region are facing performance related issues in their municipal solid waste management (MSWM) systems. They lack to possess a deliberate inter-municipality benchmarking processes. Instead of identifying the performance gaps for their key components (e.g., personnel productivity, operational reliability, etc.) and adopt proactive measures, the municipalities primarily rely on an efficient emergency response. A novel hierarchical modeling framework, based on deductive reasoning, is developed for performance assessment of MSWM systems. Fuzzy rule based modeling using Simulink-MATLAB was used for performance inferencing at different levels, i.e., component, sub-components, etc. The model is capable of handling the inherent uncertainties due to limited data and imprecise knowledge base. The model’s outcomes can exclusively assist the managers working at different levels of organizational hierarchy for effective decision-making. Performance of the key component, assists the senior management to assess the overall compliance level of performance objectives. Subsequently, operation management can hone in the sub-components to acquire useful information for intra-municipality performance management. While, individual indicators are useful for inter-municipality benchmarking. The model has been implemented on two municipalities operating in Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia. The results demonstrate the model’s pragmatism for continuous performance improvement of MSWM systems in the country and elsewhere.

Orbit and clock products are used in real-time GNSS precise point positioning without knowing their quality. This study develops a new approach to detect orbit and clock errors through comparing geometry-free and geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities in PPP model. The reparameterization and estimation procedures of the geometry-free and geometry-based ambiguities are described in detail. The effects of orbit and clock errors on ambiguities are given in analytical expressions. The numerical similarity and differences of geometry-free and geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities are analyzed using different orbit and clock products. Furthermore, two types of typical errors in orbit and clock are simulated and their effects on wide-lane ambiguities are numerically produced and analyzed. The contribution discloses that the geometry-free and geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities are equivalent in terms of their formal errors. Although they are very close in terms of their estimates when the used orbit and clock for geometry-based ambiguities are precise enough, they are not the same, in particular, in the case that the used orbit and clock, as a combination, contain significant errors. It is discovered that the discrepancies of geometry-free and geometry-based wide-lane ambiguities are coincided with the actual time-variant errors in the used orbit and clock at the line-of-sight direction. This provides a quality index for real-time users to detect the errors in real-time orbit and clock products, which potentially improves the accuracy of positioning.

Grinding processes’ stochastic nature poses a challenge in predicting the quality of the resulting surfaces. Post-production measurements for form, surface roughness, and circumferential waviness are commonly performed due to infeasibility in measuring all quality parameters during the grinding operation. Therefore, it is challenging to diagnose the root cause of quality deviations in real-time resulting from variations in the machine’s operating condition. This paper introduces a novel approach to predicting the overall quality of the individual parts. The grinder is equipped with sensors to implement condition-based maintenance and is induced with five frequently occurring failure conditions for the experimental test runs. The crucial quality parameters are measured for the produced parts. Fuzzy c-means (FCM) and Hotelling’s T-squared (T2) have been evaluated to generate quality labels from the multi-variate quality data. Benchmarked random forest regression models are trained using fault diagnosis feature set and quality labels. Quality labels from the T2 statistic of quality parameters are preferred over FCM approach for their repeatability. The model, trained from T2 labels achieves more than 94% accuracy when compared to the measured ring disposition. The predicted overall quality using the sensors’ feature set is compared against the threshold to reach a trustworthy maintenance decision.

Timely and accurate acquisition of information on distribution of the crop planting structure in Loess Plateau of eastern Gansu Province, one of the most important agricultural areas in western China, is crucial for promoting fine management of agriculture and ensuring food security. In this study, the Object-Based Image Classification (OBIC), the Random Forest (RF) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models were employed to classify the crop planting structure of four representative test areas in Qingyang City in a precise manner. Firstly, different optimal segmentation scales for various crops were selected using the Estimation of Scale Parameter 2 (ESP2) tool and the Ratio of Mean Difference to Neighbors(ABS) to Standard Deviation (RMAS)model. The images were then segmented through multiresolution segmentation combined with the Canny Edge Detection algorithm. Secondly, the L1 regularized logistic regression model was utilized to select and optimize 39 spatial feature factors including spectral, textural, geometric, and index features, in conjunction with phenological factors. Lastly, under the multi-level classification framework, the Random Forest (RF) classifier and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model, combined with object-based multiresolution segmentation, was used to classify the crop planting structure. The findings show that: Thanks to the Canny Edge Detection algorithm, we can obtain a more complete boundary of the segmented objects and improve the separability. The optimal segmentation scales for corn, vegetables, and buckwheat were found to be 55, 70, and 35, respectively, while wheat and apple had optimal segmentation scales of 65. In addition to phenological characteristics, the number of selected spatial features for corn, vegetables, buckwheat, wheat, and apple were 9, 7, 16, 12, and 10, respectively. The CNN model demonstrated high consistency with the RF model in the classification results, but the accuracy of RF model is higher than that of CNN model on the whole. The overall accuracy of classification using RF model in four test areas registered 91.93%, 94.92%, 89.37% and 90.68%, respectively. This paper introduced crop phenological factors, effectively improving the extraction precision of shattered agricultural planting structure in the Loess Plateau of eastern Gansu Province. Its findings have important application value in crop monitoring, management, food security and other related fields.

The present era of the Internet of Things (IoT) having intelligent functionalities in solving problems pertaining to realtime mission-critical systems has brought an immense revolution in diverse fields including healthcare and navigation systems. However, to the best of our knowledge, the potential of IoT has not been fully exploited yet in the field of the energy sector. We argue that there is an immense need to shift the traditional mission-critical electric power system architecture to IoT-based fully orchestrated architecture in order to increase efficiency, as billions of investment is reserved for the energy sector globally. Since network orchestration deals with auomating the interaction between multiple components involved to execute a particular service, therefore, scheduling the relevant processes within strict deadlines becomes the core pillar of the architecture. The mission-critical systems with urgent task execution often suffer from issues of missing task deadlines. In this study, we present a novel IoT task orchestration architecture for efficient energy management of a nanogrid system that focuses on minimizing the use of nonrenewable energy resources and maximizing the use of renewable energy resources. Moreover, major components of IoT task orchestration such as task mapping and task scheduling are also enhanced using NLP and PSO optimization modules. The proposed task scheduling algorithm incorporates the optimized surplus time, and efficiently executes the energy management-related tasks contemplating to their types. The study utilizes sensors to obtain data from physical IoT devices, including photovoltaic (PV), Energy Storage System (ESS), and diesel generator (DG). The performance of the proposed model is evaluated using data set of nanogrid houses. The outcomes revealed that IoT-task orchestration has played a pivotal role in efficient energy management for nanogrid mission-critical system. Furthermore, the comparison with state-of-the-art scheduling algorithms showed that the task starvation rate is reduced to 16% and 12% when compared with RR and FEF algorithms, respectively.

The oil and gas sector has recognised structural integrity assessment of ageing platform for prospective life extension as a rising concern, particularly in encountering the randomness of the harsh ocean environments. This condition leads to uncertainty in wave-in-deck load estimates and a high load level being imposed on offshore structures. This emphasises the necessity of enhanced reliability, as failure might result in inaccessibility because of the uncertainties related to long-distance services, such as accuracy of predictions of loads and responses. Even though the established guidelines present a fundamental assessment, additionally, comprehensive rules are required. This paper performed a reliability analysis incorporating practical approaches that can more accurately represent time-dependent structural deterioration. The following two procedures have been adopted by a majority of significant oil and gas operators to monitor the safety and integrity of these structures: a) Ultimate Strength Assessment (USA) method and b) Reliability Design Assessment (ReDA) method. A comparison of these two reliability approaches was performed on selected ageing jacket structures in the region of the Malaysian sea. The comparative findings, namely, reserve strength ratio (RSR) at various years of the return period (RP) and ratio value for risk of failure regarding the probability of failure (POF), provided a check and balance in strengthening confidence in the results. The findings showed that the structural components might safely survive either using the USA and ReDA method in such conditions, as the reliability indexes were determined to be satisfactory compared to allowable values from ISO 19902 design specifications. Therefore, these evaluations were determined to control the risk level of the structure during the remaining of its lifetime and undertake cost-effective inspections or mitigation strategies when necessary.

Over the last few decades there has been an exponential growth in IT, motivating IT professionals and scientists to explore new dimensions resulting in the advancement of artificial intelligence and its subcategories like computer vision, deep learning and augmented reality. AR is comparatively a new area which was initially explored for gaming but recently a lot of work has been done in education using AR. Most of this focuses on improving students understanding and motivation. Like any other project, the performance of an AR based project is determined by the customer satisfaction which is usually affected by the theory of triple constraints; cost, time and scope. many studies have shown that most of the projects are under development because they are unable to overcome these constraints and meet project objectives. We were unable to find any notable work done regarding project management for augmented reality systems and application. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a system for management of AR applications which mainly focuses on catering triple constraints to meet desired objectives. Each variable is further divided into subprocesses and by following these processes successful completion of the project can be achieved.

Indonesia's government anticipates waste problems by managing them through a large number of waste reduction programs. From a governance perspective in Indonesia, it is known that actors from diverse governmental levels and across sectors are involved in waste management, and their involvement largely depends on their institutional goals and problems. Hence, they are expected to coherently collaborate together by developing and implementing sustainable instruments and resources for improving waste management problems. However, it is necessary to understand how supportive and restrictive the governance of waste reduction programs is to encourage successful trash reduction. This study is designed to evaluate and examine the application of Community-Based Solid Waste Management (CBSWM) in Makassar. In this research, The Governance Assessment Tool (GAT) was applied to analyze the governance context of the waste reduction programs in Makassar qualitatively. From the assessment, contexts can be described as either supportive or restrictive of the processes of implementing public policies on waste management. As a result of such an assessment, this study shed light on some opportunities to improve the governance of waste management implementation's impact on reducing waste in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The conclusion of this study depicts that the most important actors are affiliated with the local government and the community. Moreover, this study shows that the assessment of contextual governance is predominantly restrictive.

Water scarcity challenges have necessitated the adoption of water-saving techniques in protected and nom-protected farming. This study aimed to assess the performance of a water-saving soil-less cultivation technique and to compare it with conventional soil-based cultivation in protected farming. The soilless technique used local gravel and a mixture of peat-moss, humin-substrate, and perlite in ratios of 4:3:1.5. Three irrigation regimes were imposed using emitters 8Lh-1 design discharge (D1) emitters with 6Lh-1 design discharge (D0.75) and 4Lh-1 de-sign discharge (D0.5) for the two cultivation methods during the growth cycle of tomato by drip irrigation. The vegetative growth, fruit yield and water consumption were measured and water productivity was determined. Moreover, an economic assessment was carried out by estimating and comparing economic coefficients for the two cultivation methods. Estimated coefficients include revenues, net profit, benefit-cost ratio, break-even levels of production and prices, revenues over variable cost, and revenues on investment. The tomato fruit yield under soil-based cultivation overtopped the yield under soilless cultivation. The water productivity under the soilless cultivation was almost twice that (24.3 kg m-3) of the soil-based cultivation (15.5 kg m-3). The soilless cultivation saved 50% of irrigation water applied by the conventional soil-based method, saving energy and soil from deterioration. Revenues and net profits stimulated by higher yield coupled with lower variable cos supported the soil-based cultivation. The economic assessment showed that both cultivation methods were economically viable. However, the soil-based cultivation method was more profitable due to its higher fruit yield. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the soilless cultivation technique is a viable option for wa-ter-saving cultivation. However, the soil-based cultivation method is still more profitable due to its higher fruit yield

In this paper, we present a multi-task model that predicts disparities and confidence levels in deep stereo matching simultaneously. We do this by combining its successful model for each separate task and obtaining a multitask model that can be trained with a proposed loss function. We show the advantages of this model compared to training and predicting disparity and confidence sequentially. This method enables an improvement of 15% to 30% in the area under the curve (AUC) metric when trained parallel rather than sequential. In addition, the effect of weighting the components in the loss function on the stereo and confidence performance is investigated. By improving the confidence estimate, the practicality of stereo estimators for creating distance images is increased.

This study establishes a multivariate function model for natural human load carrying walking in some typical scenarios like college equipments and materials relocation for students. For classified materials relocation needs and constraints, we obtain the relationship between walking speed and load weight for single person, as well as the time cost for different round trips. By establishing an integer programming model with the minimum total transportation time cost and quality assurance as the objective function and the requirements of negative weight and speed as the constraints conditions, we reach the optimal item allocation methods considering time cost and shelf life were obtained. We discover that there is an approximate linear relationship between the change in natural walking speed and travel time when the load is small, thus obtaining the time cost of student transportation under different round-trip situations. The Monte Carlo simulation algorithm is used to obtain the optimal allocation scheme that meets the efficiency and quality requirements. The analysis methods and results can be used as guidance for task scheduling optimization for material relocation in educational organizations as well as commercial agencies.

It is difficult to effectively operate a dual-arm robot using only the information written in a cooking recipe. To cope with this problem, this paper proposes a graph based approach on bimanual cooking motion planning from a cooking recipe. In our approach, we first decompose the cooking recipe into graph elements. Then, we try to connect the graph elements taking into account the attributes of the input/output nodes. If two graph elements cannot be connected each other, we search for a graph element that can be inserted between them from the database of graph elements. Since the constructed graph includes the whole sequence of the robot’s motions to perform the cooking task, we can generate a task sequence of a dual-arm manipulator simultaneously performing two different tasks by using two arms. Through experimental study, we show that it is possible to generate robot motions from a cooking recipe and perform the cooking motions while simultaneously moving the left and right arms.

Spatial crowdsourcing emerges as a new computing paradigm that enables mobile users to accomplish spatio- temporal tasks in order to solve human-intrinsic problems. Existing crowdsourcing systems critically use centralized servers for interacting with workers and making task assignment decisions. These systems are hence susceptible to issues such as the single point of failure and the lack of operational transparency. Prior work, therefore, turns to blockchain-based decentralized crowdsourcing systems, yet still suffers from problems of lacking efficient task assignment scheme, requiring a deposit to an untrusted system, low block generation speed, and high transaction fees. To address these issues, we design a blockchain-based decentralized framework for spatial crowdsourcing, which we call SC-EOS. Our system does not rely on any trusted servers, while providing efficient and user-customizable task assignment, low monetary cost, and fast block generation. More importantly, it frees users from making a deposit into an untrusted system. Our framework can also be extended and applied to generic crowdsourcing systems. We implemented the proposed system on the EOS blockchain. Trace-driven evaluations involving real users show that our system attains the comparable task assignment performance against a clairvoyant scheme. It also achieves 10× cost savings than an Ethereum-based implementation.

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of DìRelaxTM, a nutraceutical formulated to reduce anxiety in dogs. The CBARQ questionnaire, some clinical investigations, and the impossible task test were performed in dogs before and after the treatment. Results showed an ameliorative effect on the performances of treated dogs during the solvable phases, with a significant decrease of the time needed to solve the task. No behavioral difference was found between treated and untreated anxious dogs during the unsolvable phase. According to the results from the C-BARQ questionnaire, some of the behaviors appear improved. In general, this study suggests that DiRelaxTM can be safely administered with no adverse effects and can exercise a beneficial effect on anxious dogs by enhancing their cognitive abilities.

OBJECTIVE: Cervical cancer is a major cause of cancer-related mortality, necessitating effective screening and diagnostic methods. This study aimed to assess the performance of cervicovaginal smear (CVS) and Human papilloma virus (HPV)-DNA cotest. STUDY DESIGN: The pathology results of 225 female patients who underwent HPV-DNA testing with CVS between 2014 and 2022 and were subsequently diagnosed by colposcopic cervical biopsy or second CVS were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: CVS samples showed Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance (ASCUS), Low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and cervical cancer. Concordance between the first and second diagnoses demonstrated moderate agreement for LSIL. ASCUS cases exhibited a significant correlation with HPV-DNA positivity and higher-grade cervical lesions. In biopsy, sensitivity and specificity for CIN 2 were 67.8% and 67.9%, respectively, while for CIN 3, they were 81.8% and 58.5%. HPV testing showed significant correlation with histopathologic results. In women over 40 years, more intraepithelial lesions were diagnosed compared to younger women (p<0.005). The conventional smear technique proved reliable in detecting high-grade lesions. CONCLUSION: Despite the limitations of our study, our results emphasize the value of HPV-DNA testing to avoid unnecessary interventions and to establish appropriate follow-up strategies.

(1) Background: COVID-19 had devastating effects on both physical and mental well-being, prompting the need for interventions. This study aimed to explore the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction on mental health, mindfulness, and sleep disorders in COVID-19 survivors.; (2) Methods: In this interventional parallel study, the sample was selected university students in nursing and midwifery faculties using total population sampling. The intervention included providing counseling on mindfulness methods by trained experts. General health, mindfulness and sleep quality questionnaires were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS22, descriptive and interferential statistic. A significance level of 0.05 was considered; (3) Results: In this study, the mean age of the students was 20.29 ± 2.03 years. 69.5% of the participants were female and 96% were single. 71.3% were studying nursing and 67% had a history of Corona infection. The intervention was only effective on general health questionnaire and the mean score of this questionnaire was 1.7 higher than the control group; (4) Conclusions: the study indicated that MBSR intervention improves mindfulness, mental health, and sleep quality in COVID-19 survivors. Regular assessment and use of this intervention can help address long-term challenges and improve overall well-being.

Cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of death in Croatia, are linked to the high prevalence of hypertension. Both are associated with high salt intake which was determined almost two decades ago when Croatian Action on Salt and Health (CRASH) was launched. The main objective of the present study was to evaluate salt, potassium, and iodine intake using 24-hour urine samples in a random sample of adult Croatian population, and to analyse trends in salt consumption after the CRASH has intensively started. Methods: In this national population-based EH-UH 2 study performed in 2018-2021 (participation rate 72 %) in which we analysed a single 24-hour urine sample, 1067 adult participants (mean age 57.12 (SD 13.9), men 35%) were included. Results: Mean salt and potassium intakes were 8.6 g/day (IQR 6.2-11.2) and 2.8 g/day (IQR 2.1-3.5), respectively, with sodium-to-potassium ratio of 2.6 (IQR 1.8-3.3). We detected a decrease of 17.6% (2 g/day less) in salt consumption compared to our previous salt-mapping study. However, only 13.7%, and 8.9 % met the WHO salt and potassium recommended target of 5 g/day, and 3.5 g/day, respectively. Salt intake was higher, and potassium ingestion was lower in rural vs. urban regions, and in continental vs. Mediterranean parts of Croatia. Moderate to severe iodine insufficiency was determined in only 3% adult participants. Conclusion: In the last fifteen years, salt consumption has been significantly reduced in Croatian adult population because of intensive and broad CRASH program led by the Croatian Society of Hypertension and the Croatian Hypertension League. However, salt intake is still too high, and potassium ingestion is too low. With expected more active engagement and help of the government, obtained results could be significantly improved. Salt reduction programs are most cost-effective methods of cardiovascular disease prevention and should be considered more seriously by the government and health policy makers.

Identifying productive, profitable and less risky cropping systems is important for sustaining farm-based livelihoods in the context of climatic uncertainties and market volatility in many developing nations. Reductionist field crop research identifies the best-bet solutions based on treatment replicates at a single point in time, which may not account for price instability under climatic uncertainties and volatile markets. Keeping this in mind, we estimated productivity, profitability and weather-related risk from eleven different rice-based cropping systems (eight existing and three potential systems) in the coastal region of West Bengal, India. Information on the crop management practices, yield and prices of the component crops of these eleven cropping systems, under ’best,’ ’normal’ and ‘worst’ situations (scenario), were collected through a ques-tionnaire survey on50 farms of Gosaba Block, West Bengal, India. Irrespective of the scenarios, the rice-lathyrus systems, followed by rice-onion and rice-lentil systems recorded the lowest rice-equivalent yields and system yields. However, the highest rice-equivalent yields and system yields were recorded for rice-chilli systems, followed by rice-tomato and rice-potato-green gram systems. Per hectare total paid-out cost (TPC) of rice-tomato systems was higher, followed by rice-chilli, rice-potato-green gram and rice-potato systems. However, irrespective of seasonal conditions (best, normal and worst), rice-chilli systems gave a higher net return followed by rice-tomato and rice-potato-green gram systems. The rice-fallow system recorded the lowest value for both parameters. Under the worst seasonal conditions, the rice-onion system gave a negative net return. Under all the scenarios, the highest B:C ratio was observed for rice-chilli, rice-tomato, rice-potato-green gram and rice-potato systems. The cumulative probability distribution of the rice-tomato system showed first-degree stochastic dominance over other systems and the rice-chilli system showed second-degree stochastic dominance over the rest of the systems. Only the rice-onion system had a small chance (< 1%) of a negative net return, while the rest of the cropping systems were highly likely to get a positive net return. Taking productivity, economics, and risk assessment of different rice-based systems into account, rice-vegetable systems, especially rice-tomato and rice-chilli among the existing systems and rice-potato-green gram system among the potential systems, can be recommended for sustainable intensification in these coastal saline tracts of the region. We also discuss additional socio-economic factors explored by in-depth in-terviews with the farmers, which might influence the adoption and upscaling of these cropping systems in the region.

The paper delineates the developed vision system of the UR5 cobot and the operating algorithm of the robotic quality control station. The hardware-software architecture of the developed robotic station was shown, consisting of a UR5 cobot equipped with a web camera and a stationary industrial camera with a lighting system. Image processing and analysis algorithms were described, the method of control and communication between the station components was discussed, and two operating scenarios were presented as a single robotic station and a robotic line. Based on the results obtained, the level of measurement noise, accuracy, and repeatability of the developed vision system were estimated.

Tea infusions are the most consumed beverages in the world after water, their pleasant yet peculiar flavor profile drives consumer choice and acceptance and becomes a fundamental benchmark for industry. Any qualification method capable of objectifying the product's sensory features effectively supports industrial quality control laboratories guaranteeing high sample throughputs even without the human panel intervention. The current study presents an integrated analytical strategy acting as an Artificial Intelligence decision tool for black tea infusion aroma and taste blueprinting. Key markers validated by sensomics are accurately quantified in a wide dynamic range of concentrations. Thirteen key aromas are quantitatively assessed by standard addition with in-solution solid-phase microextraction sampling followed by GC-MS. On the other hand, nineteen key taste and quality markers are quantified by external standard calibration and LV-UV/DAD. The large dynamic range of concentration for sensory markers is reflected in the selection of seven high-quality teas from different geographical areas (Ceylon, Darjeeling Testa Valley and Castleton, Assam, Yunnan, Azores, and Kenya). The strategy acts as an AI smelling and taste machine predicting teas sensory features without the human panel intervention.

Coal combustion in thermal power plants releases ash. Ash is reported to cause different adverse health hazards in humans and other organisms. Owing to the presence of radionuclides, it is also considered as a potential radiation hazard. In this study, based on the surface radiation measurements and relevant ancillary data, expected radiation risk zones were identified with regard to the human population residing near the Thermal Power Plant. With population density as the risk determining criteria, about 20% of the study area was at ‘High’ risk and another 20% of the study area was at ‘Low’ risk zone. The remaining 60% was under medium risk zone. Based on the findings remedial measures which may be adopted have been suggested.

This study investigates the cyclic load application impact on fly ash-based geopolymer composites that are reinforced with a low amount of fibre reinforcement. For reinforcement purposes, PVA and steel fibres are used. For testing purposes, four geopolymer composite mixes were made, 3 of which had fibre reinforcement. Simultaneously specimens were tested for shrinkage, static load-induced creep, and cyclic load-induced creep. For static and cyclic creep testing, specimens were loaded with 20% of their strength. For cyclic creep testing, load application and release cycles were seven days long. When each cycle was introduced, the load was added in steps. In 5 minutes, by 25% steps of the necessary load, the specimens were loaded or unloaded. Only plain specimens show that static creep strains are within cyclic creep strains. For all the other specimens, the static load is higher than the cyclic load-induced creep amplitude. Also, 1% PVA fibre-reinforced specimens show the most elastic characteristics under cyclic load, and 1% steel fibre-reinforced specimens appear to be the most resistant to the cyclic load introduction.

As the world attempts to decarbonise the food industry and limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, plant-based meat analogues (PBMAs) have emerged as a sustainable alternative to traditional meat. This study implemented a life cycle assessment (LCA) to rigorously compare the environmental impacts of a beef burger (BB), produced with British beef, against a meat analogue (MA) equivalent with a publicly available recipe. For the LCA, a cradle-to-fork system boundary was utilised, alongside a functional unit of a single 100 g burger patty. Results from the LCA revealed that the BB patty had more than double the total environmental impact than the MA equivalent, as well as possessing a global warming impact that was 62% higher. A simple extrapolation illustrated that if the UK population switched from beef to meat analogue patties, 3 million tonnes of CO2e could be saved annually, corresponding to 0.74% of the country’s yearly territorial GHG emissions. Scenario analyses displayed how the environmental impact of the MA patty remained stable regardless of changes in exportation, ingredient origin or soy protein sourcing. Moreover, sensitivity analysis conducted with an alternative characterisation method corroborated initial findings, whilst uncertainty analysis ensured that nearly all conclusions generated from the original comparison were robust. Future studies should conduct peer-reviewed LCAs on PBMA patties with commercial recipes based on other plant-based proteins, as well as fully understanding any potential health implications of long-term PBMA consumption.

Detecting, especially locating local degradations at an incipient stage, is very important for mission-critical high voltage rotating machines. One particular challenge of the existing testing techniques is that the characteristic of a local incipient defect is not prominent due to various factors such as averaging with the healthy remainder, attenuation in signal propagation, interference, and varied operating conditions. This paper proposes and investigates the frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) technique based on scattering parameter measurement. The FDR result presents the object length, wave impedance, and reflections due to impedance discontinuity along the measured windings. Experiments were performed on two commercial coils with artificially made defects. These defects include turn-to-turn short, surface creepage, loose coils, and local overheating, which are commonly seen in practice. Two practical water pumps in the field were also selected for investigation. The study outcome shows that the FDR can identify and locate both structure and insulation degradations of both shielded and unshielded objects with good sensitivity. This makes the FDR a comprehensive tool for fault diagnosis and aging assessment.

(1) Exoskeletons offer potential benefits for overhead working tasks, but gender effects or differences are unclear. This study aimed to compare the performance, strain, and comfort of men and women using an upper-body exoskeleton. (2) n=20 female and n=16 male participants performed an overhead drilling task with and without a passive upper-body exoskeleton in a randomized cross-over study. Task performance of different movement phases, perceived exertion, and ease of use were measured to compare gender differences. One and two-way analyses were used to com-pare genders in the different conditions. (3) Gender differences after controlling for BMI in task performance were found for error integrals (p <.001) with higher values in male participants. Moreover, there was a significant interaction effect for gender x exoskeleton use. While females showed performance decrements in aiming with exoskeleton use, the male's performance increased (p=.025). No other gender differences were observed. (4) Gender differences in task performance using an upper-body industrial exoskeleton were less detectable than expected after controlling for BMI, indicating that body composition and anthropometrics might be valuable indicators for per-formance including assisting devices. Moreover, future studies should also integrate the examina-tion of muscle activity to gain more insights into potential gender movement control patterns.

Sensory integration is an essential function of human life, and its decline causes difficulties in the quality of life, especially in older adults. In this study, we proposed an arm-reaching task based on a virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) system to assess sensory integration in daily life, and examined whether reaching task performance was associated with age and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the brain regions of interest involved in sensory integration. We hypothesized that performance during a reaching task with multiple cognitive loadings would be affected by aging. The gap angle between the reaching hand and target positions was compared between older and middle-aged adults as a measure of sensory integration function. In addition, rsFC, which was significantly correlated with the gap angles of individual participants in the older adult group, was identified using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. The mean gap angle was significantly larger in the older adults than in the middle-aged group and was also significantly correlated with connections between the left primary motor area and the left inferior temporal gyrus, temporo-occipital part. Because the connectivity between the areas is known to be related to visuomotor integration, the results suggest the involvement of visuomotor integration in the decline of sensory integration function in old age and the validity of the gap angle during the proposed VR-HMD task as an index for the decline in function.

Clinical screening tests for balance and mobility often fall short of predicting fall risk. Cognitive distractors and unpredictable external stimuli, common in busy natural environments, contrib-ute to this risk, especially in the elderly. Less is known about the effects of upper sensory-motor coordination such as coordinating one’s hand with an external stimulus. We combined move-ment sonification and affordable inertial motion sensors to develop a task for the precise meas-urement and manipulation of full-body interaction with stimuli in the environment. In a double-task design, we studied how a supra-postural activity affected quiet stance. The supra-postural task consisted of rhythmic synchronization with a repetitive auditory stimulus. The stimulus was attentionally demanding because it was being modulated continuously. The participant’s hand movement was sonified in real-time, and their goal was to synchronize their hand move-ment with the stimulus. In the unpredictable condition, the tempo changed at random points in the trial. A separate sensor recorded postural fluctuations. Young healthy adults were compared to elderly participants without known risk of falling. Results supported the hypothesis that su-pra-postural coordination would entrain postural control. The effect was stronger in the elderly, supporting the idea that diminished reserve capacities reduce the ability to isolate postural con-trol from sensory-motor and cognitive activity.

To maintain a healthy lifestyle, adults rely on their ability to walk while simultaneously managing multiple tasks that challenge their coordination. This study investigates the impact of cognitive dual-task on lower limb muscle activities in 21 healthy young adults during both gait initiation and steady-state gait. We utilized wireless electromyography sensors to measure muscle activities, along with a 3D motion capture system and force plates to detect the phases of gait initiation and steady-state gait. Participants were asked to walk at their self-selected pace, and we compared single-task and dual-task conditions. We analyzed mean muscle activation and co-contraction in the biceps femoris, vastus lateralis, gastrocnemius, and tibialis anterior muscles. The findings revealed that during gait initiation with the dual-task condition, there was a decrease in mean muscle activation and an increase in mean muscle c-contraction between the swing and stance limb compared to the single-task condition. In steady-state gait, there was also a decrease in mean muscle activation in the dual-task condition compared to the single-task condition. When participants performed dual-task activities during gait initiation, early indicators of reduced balance capability were observed. Additionally, during dual-task steady-state gait, knee stabilizer muscles exhibited signs of altered activation, contributing to balance instability.

Benefits of baby swimming have been established, but there is limited knowledge about the methodologies used by practitioners. To address this knowledge gap, this study aimed to categorize and classify the equipment and environmental used in baby swimming programs worldwide. A descriptive categorical content analysis approach was employed to analyse videos of baby swimming programs obtained from YouTube. The framework created was validated for interrater reliability, and a pilot study was conducted to classify videos from different countries based on the equipment and environment used. Results indicated that the physical environments observed were pool tanks and swimming pools with and without depth reduction zones, while the equipment used included assistive devices, toys, and clothes. This study represents a significant first step in the development of a comprehensive tool to systematize and characterize the methodologies used in baby swimming programs globally.

When following a prescribed route, we need to decide at each intersection which way to proceed. The present work addressed several factors that might influence the difficulty of this decision making process. Participants repeatedly followed a route through a virtual maze with twelve or eighteen intersections, and with two or three choices per intersection. One group performed task S, which promoted decision making by the serial order strategy since all intersections looked alike. Another group performed task SA, which allowed the use of the serial order and the associative cue strategy since unique visual cues were presented at each intersection. We found that in both tasks, participants were more accurate in making decisions on routes with twelve rather than eighteen intersections, and more accurate by a similar amount on routes with two rather than three choices. Reaction time in task SA was reciprocal to accuracy; reaction time in task S was generally lower and route-independent. Accuracy in task SA was similar for participants who experienced smooth transport across intersections and those who experienced abrupt transport, while accuracy in task S was lower for participants who experienced smooth rather than abrupt transport across intersections. We conclude that the number of intersections and the number of choices were equivalent determinants of route following difficulty. We further conclude that optic flow during turns at intersections interfered with anticipatory decision making in task S; hence natural (smooth) transport across intersections did not enhance route following performance.

This study aims to examines three elements shape leadership in Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory as a relationship and process. LMX quality is important for the company, because it relates to employee behavior and attitudes, including improving employee performance. The research method applied literature review using description logic and systematics. In this article the theory will be observed specially the effect of LMX on employee performance and antecedents of LMX. The results of the study found that the effect of LMX quality on performance is determined by the characteristics of the task as antecedent LMX in the company.

The resource allocation for tasks in heterogeneous distributed system is a well known NP-hard problem. For the sake of making the makespan is minimized, it is hard to distribute the tasks to proper processors. The problem is even more complex and challenging when the processors have unavailable time and the tasks type are various. This paper investigates a resource allocation problem for hybrid tasks comprising both divisible and bag-of-tasks(BoT) in heterogeneous distributed system when the processors has unavailable time. First, the mathematical model, which minimizes the makespan of the hybrid tasks when the processors have unavailable time, is established. Second, we propose a scheduling algorithm referred to as bag-of-tasks allocate-pull and divisible task allocation (BoTAPDTA) algorithm for handling hybrid tasks on heterogeneous distributed systems. In addition, to solving the optimization model efficiently, a generic algorithm(GA) is proposed. For the sake of reducing the search space and solving the optimization model effectively, a two step scheduling algorithm(TSGA), which first allocate bag-of-tasks(BoT) using generic algorithm and then assign divisible task to processors like BoTAPDTA, is designed. Finally, numerical simulation experiments are conducted, and experimental results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm.

Due to the rapid development and popularity of the Internet, cloud computing has become an indispensable application service. However, how to assign various tasks to the appropriate service nodes is an important issue. Based on the reason above, an efficient scheduling algorithm is necessary to enhance the performance of system. Therefore, a Three-Layer Cloud Dispatching (TLCD) architecture is proposed to enhance the performance of task scheduling. In first layer, the tasks need to be distinguished to different types by their characters. Subsequently, the Cluster Selection Algorithm is proposed to dispatch the task to appropriately service cluster in the secondly layer. Besides, a new scheduling algorithm is proposed to dispatch the task to a suitable server in a server cluster to improve the dispatching efficiency in the thirdly layer. Basically, the TLCD architecture can obtain better task completion time than previous works. Besides, our algorithm and can achieve load-balancing and reliability in cloud computing network.

Background: MR image classification in datasets collected from multiple sources is complicated by inconsistent and missing DICOM metadata. Therefore, we aimed to establish a method for the efficient automatic classification of MR brain sequences. Methods: Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) were trained as one-vs-all classifiers to differentiate between six classes, T1 weighted (w), contrast-enhanced T1w, T2w, T2w-FLAIR, ADC, and SWI. Each classifier yields a probability, allowing threshold-based and relative probability assignment while excluding images with low probability (label: unknown, open-set recognition problem). Data from three high-grade glioma (HGG) cohorts was assessed; C1 (320 patients, 20101 MRI images) was used for training, while C2 (197, 11333) and C3 (256, 3522) were for testing. Two raters manually checked images through an interactive labeling tool. Finally, MR-Class' added value was evaluated via radiomics models' performance for progression-free survival (PFS) prediction in C2, utilizing the concordance index (C-I). Results: Approximately 10% of annotation errors were observed in each cohort between the DICOM series descriptions and the derived labels. MR-Class accuracy was 96.7% [95%-Cl: 95.8, 97.3] for C2 and 94.4% [93.6, 96.1] for C3. 620 images were misclassified; Manual assessment of those frequently showed motion artifacts or alterations of anatomy by large tumors. Implementation of MR-Class increased on average the PFS model C-I by 14.6% compared to a model trained without MR-Class. Conclusions: We provide a DCNN-based method for sequence classification of brain MR images and demonstrate its usability in two independent HGG datasets.

the intermittency and variability of these permeated Distributed Generators (DGs) could critically cause many security and economy risks to distribution systems. This paper applied a certain mathematical distribution to imitate the output variability and uncertainty of DGs. And then, four risk indices EENS, PLC, EFLC and SI were established to reflect the system risk level of distribution system. For the certain mathematical distribution of the DGs' output power, a developed PEM (point estimate method)-based method was proposed to calculate these four system risk indices. In this developed PEM-based method, enumeration method was used to list the states of distribution systems, an improved PEM was presented to deal with the uncertainties of DGs and the value of load curtailment in distribution systems was calculated by an optimal power flow algorithm. Finally, the effectiveness and advantages of this proposed PEM-based method for distribution system assessment were verified by the tests of a modified IEEE 30-bus system. Simulation results have shown that this proposed PEM-based method has a high computational accuracy and highly reduced computational costs compared with other risk assessment methods and is very effective for risk assessments.

Water scarcity presents one of the greatest challenges of our time. Especially in naturally water scarce regions, the need of additional water resources is rising, requiring innovative and site-adapted technologies. In this review, selected non-conventional water technologies for sustainable water management are strategically evaluated. Focused on a matrix-based assessment incorporating key indicators, the study discusses the availability, applicability, environmental impact, scalability, and economic viability of the selected technologies. Based on a comprehensive literature review, the methodology involves a systematic comparison of technologies for desalination, water reuse, groundwater utilization, agricultural reuse, and unconventional approaches like cloud seeding, dew water, and fog water harvesting. The indicators covering the respective categories are presented in the results. On this basis, the different technologies are analyzed by matrix-based evaluation, highlighting various strengths and weaknesses and providing insights into technology selection based on regional needs. The discussion interprets the findings, deriving implications for dry environments, acknowledging limitations and suggesting pathways for future research. Through a rigorous analytical framework, this study contributes to the discourse on sustainable water solutions, offering valuable insights for policymakers, researchers and industries during a decision-making progress.

Plant-based diets are increasingly popular for health as well as financial, ethical, and religious reasons. The medical literature clearly demonstrates that plant-based diets can be both nutritionally sufficient and medically beneficial. However, any person on an intentionally restrictive but poorly-informed diet may predispose themselves to clinically-relevant nutritional deficiencies. For persons on a poorly-informed plant-based diet, deficiencies are possible in both macronutrients (protein, essential fatty acids) and micronutrients (vitamin B12, iron, calcium, zinc and vitamin D). Practitioner evaluation of symptomatic patients on a plant-based diet requires special consideration of 7 key nutrient concerns for plant-based diets. This article translates these concerns into 7 practical questions that all practitioners can introduce into their patient assessments and clinical reasoning. Ideally, persons on plant-based diets should be able to answer these 7 questions. Each serves as a heuristic prompt for both clinician and patient attentiveness to a complete diet. As such, these 7 questions support increased patient nutrition knowledge and practitioner capacity to counsel, refer, and appropriately focus clinical resources.

Estimating the economic risks of climate shocks and climate stressors on spatially heterogeneous cities over time remain highly challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical methodology to assess the economic risks of climate change in developing cities to inform spatially sensitive municipal climate response strategies. Building on a capital-based framework (CBF), spatially disaggregated baseline and future scenario scores for economic wealth and its exposure to climate change are developed for six different classes of capital and across 77 major suburbs in Cape Town, South Africa. Capital-at-risk was calculated by combining relative exposure and capital scores across different scenarios and with population impacted plotted against the major suburbs and the city’s 8 main planning districts. The economic risk assessment presented here provides a generic approach to assist investment planning and the implementation of adaptation options through an enhanced understanding of relative levels of capital endowment vis-à-vis relative levels of exposure to climate-related hazards over time. An informed climate response strategy in spatially heterogeneous cities need to include spatially sensitive estimates on capital-at-risk and populations disproportionally impacted by climate exposure over time. The economic risk assessment approach presented here helps in advancing to such a goal.

The COVID-19 pandemic situation, disease intensity, weak healthcare facilities, unawareness, and misinformation led people to fear and anxiety in Bangladesh. This study intended to get peoples’ perception on psychosocial, socio-economic and environmental crisis amidst the pandemi. An online questionnaire was surveyed nationwide (respondents no.1066). Datasets were analyzed through the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), hierarchical Cluster Analysis (CA), Pearson’s correlation matrix (PCM), Linear regression analysis (LRA), and psychometric characteristics were included in the Classical Test Theory (CTT) analysis. There were good associations among the psychosocial, socio-economic and environmental parameters. A significant association between fear of COVID-19 with struggling healthcare system (p<0.05) was found. Also, negative association between fragile health system and government’s ability to deal with the pandemic (p<0.05) revealing poor governance. Again, a positive association of shutdown and social distancing with fear of losing life, and due to lack of health treatment (p<0.05) reveals that shut down hampers normal activities which may lead to mental and economic stress. However, a positive association of socio-economic impact of the shutdown with poor people’s suffering, the price hike of basic need, hamper of formal education (p<0.05) may lead to severe socio-economic and health crisis. There is a possibility of climate-induced disaster during/after the pandemic, which will create severe food insecurity (p<0.01). Daily wage earners and poors will suffer most by food and nutritional deficiency, and the country may face huge economic burden. Proper risk assessment and communications is needed to alleviate fear and anxiety. Thus, financial support and mental boosting is required.

Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Models (PBPK) are mechanistical tools generally employed in the pharmaceutical industry and environmental health risk assessment. These models are recognised by regulatory authorities for predicting organ concentration-time profile, pharmacokinetic and daily intake dose of xenobiotics. Extension of PBPK models to capture sensitive populations like pediatric, geriatric, pregnant females, fetus etc. and diseased population like renal impairment, liver cirrhosis etc. is a must. However, the current modelling practice and existing models are not mature enough to confidently predict the risk in these populations. A multidisciplinary collaboration between clinicians, experimental and modeler scientist is vital to improve the physiology, and calculation of biochemical parameters for integrating the knowledge and refining existing PBPK models. Specific PBPK covering compartments like cerebrospinal fluid, and hippocampus are required to gain mechanistic understanding about xenobiotic disposition in these sub-parts. The PBPK model assists in building quantitative adverse outcome pathways (qAOPs) for several endpoints like developmental neurotoxicity (DNT), hepatotoxicity and cardiotoxicity. Machine learning algorithms can predict physicochemical parameters required to develop in-silico models where experimental data is unavailable. Integrating machine learning with PBPK carries the potential to revolutionize the field of drug discovery and development and environmental risk. Overall, this review tried to summarize the recent developments in the in-silico models, building qAOPs, use of machine learning for improving existing models along with a regulatory perspective. This review can act as a guide for toxicologists who wish to build their careers in kinetic modeling.

External motivational stimuli have been shown to improve athletic performance. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this improvement remain poorly understood. This randomized crossover study investigated the effects of music and verbal encouragement on measures of muscle excitation and myoelectric manifestations of fatigue in the biceps brachii (BB) and brachioradialis (BR) muscles during an endurance task. Fifteen untrained (mean age 29.57 ± 2.77 years) and 13 trained individuals (mean age 32.92 ± 2.90 years) were included. The endurance task, performed to exhaustion, consisted of keeping the dominant arm flexed to 90 degrees while holding a dumbbell loaded to 80% of 1RM with a supine grip in three randomized conditions: standard, with self-selected music, and with verbal encouragement. The untrained subjects showed an increase in task duration of 15.26% (p < 0.003) with music and 15.85% (p < 0.002) with verbal encouragement compared to the condition without external stimuli. There were no significant differences in the myoelectric manifestations of fatigue between the dif-ferent conditions. Regarding the muscle excitation metrics, although the mean amplitude, peak value and area under the curve remained unchanged across conditions, a significant reduction in the trend coefficient, indicating motor unit recruitment over time, was observed with both music (BB: -10.39%, p < 0.001; BR: -9.40%, p < 0.001) and verbal encouragement (BB: -7.61%, p < 0.001; BR: -6.51%, p < 0.001) compared to the standard condition. For the trained participants, no significant differences were observed between conditions in terms of task duration and outcome measures related to muscle excitation and myoelectric manifestations of fatigue, suggesting the possible presence of a ceiling effect on motivation. These results highlight the significant role of external motivational stimuli, such as music and verbal encouragement, in improving task performance in untrained subjects, probably through more ef-fective and efficient recruitment of motor units.

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of an 8-week cognitive-motor training program on postural control and knee proprioception under single and dual-task conditions. Design: Randomized clinical trial. Methods: 20 healthy and physically active older adults (73.255.98 years) volunteered to participate and were randomly assigned into an experimental and a control group (EG and CG). Postural control was measured with the Romberg test, with open (RBOE), closed eyes (RBCE) and under unipodal dominant side (RUDL) conditions. Proprioception was assessed by measuring participants’ ability to reposition their dominant knee at 45º. Finally, performance on the cognitive task was measured through a subscale of the Barcelona Test called “categorical evocation in associations.” The EG and the CG completed 8-week training programme with two sessions the 30 minutes per week of postural control and proprioception exercises. The EG additionally included music in each session. Results: The results showed significant differences in both group at the postural control tests (RBOE and RBCE) and proprioceptive test post intervention. Conclusion: The 8-week training program had a positive impact on the post-intervention results for motor control and proprioception, but not on the results of the cognitive task. There were no significant differences between the groups that carried out sessions with or without music.

Background/Objectives: Population aging is rapidly increasing, and the importance of preventive medicine has been stressed. Health checkup, diet, and exercise are of paramount importance. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a personalized dual-task intervention that combined exercise with cognitive tasks in improving physical and cognitive functions among independently living elderly individuals. Methods: Participants were aged &gt;65 years who were mostly independent in their activities of daily living, divided into 2 groups. The group receiving the 20-min robot-assisted session was compared to the group receiving traditional functional restoration training. This randomized trial assessed the impact of this intervention on the 30-s chair stand test score and Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Japanese version score of the participants. Results: Both scores significantly improved in the intervention group, indicating enhanced lower-limb function and cognitive capabilities. Conclusions: These findings suggest that integrating cognitive tasks with physical exercise can be a potent strategy to improve overall well-being in the elderly, offering valuable insights for designing comprehensive preventive health programs tailored to this demographic.

The golden ratio, also known as Phi (ϕ ≈ 1.618034), attracted the interest of mathematicians, artists, and intellectuals for many centuries, probably from when it was discovered in human anthropometry. Even in recent times, researchers found the presence of golden ratio in Renaissance paintings and aesthetic preferences. The reasons behind the fascination with the golden ratio remain unclear, but it has been suggested that stimuli containing this proportion are often perceived as beautiful. However, evidence is conflicting, and the literature struggles to establish the existence of individual preferences for golden ratio. To gain new insights into the nature of these preferences, one hundred participants completed an implicit association task, with either golden ratio or random stimuli presented with positive or negative words. Participants initially categorized the stimuli based on their assigned categories. Then, we assessed their explicit preferences by asking to rate the stimuli in terms of pleasantness and by completing a line bisection task and the Ultimate Game. The results revealed the typical effects observed in implicit association tasks, with improved response times and accuracy when golden ratio stimuli were associated with positive word categories. In contrast, explicit ratings yielded mixed results. We discuss our findings in relation to previous studies that have explored this issue, highlighting the ongoing debate surrounding preferences for the golden ratio.

Ovarian cysts are linked to hormone imbalances and altered gene expressions, but the connection between cysts and ion channel expression is understudied. This study explored the role of TWIK-related acid-sensitive K+ (TASK) channels in bovine ovarian cyst formation. The ovarian follicles were split into small (5 to 10 mm in diameter) and large (> 25 mm in diameter) groups. Among the measured K+, Na+, and Cl- concentrations in follicular fluid (FF) obtained from small-sized follicles (SF) and large-sized follicles (LF), the K+ concentration was significantly lower in LFFF. Quantitative PCR, western blot, and immunocytochemistry data revealed that TASK-3 expression levels significantly decreased by approximately 50% in both LF and granulosa cells obtained from LF (LFGCs) compared to the corresponding controls. The TASK-3 protein was localized to the plasma membrane of GCs. The diameter of LFGCs was larger than that of SFGC. The cell swelling response to exposure to a hypotonic solution (200 mOsm/L) was highly reduced in TASK-3-overexpressing cells compared to vector-transfected cells. TASK-3-knockdown cells showed arrested growth. Senescence markers were detected in LFGCs and TASK-3-knockdown cells. These findings suggest that reduced TASK-3 expression in LF is associated with the inhibition of GC growth, leading to senescence and cyst formation.

Age-related changes in behavior and sensory perception have been observed in a wide variety of animal species. In ants and other eusocial insects, workers often progress through an ordered sequence of olfactory-driven behavioral tasks. Notably, these behaviors are plastic, and workers adapt and rapidly switch tasks in response to changing environmental conditions. In the Florida carpenter ant, smaller minors typically perform most of the work needed to maintain the colony while the larger majors are specialized for nest defense and rarely engage in these routine tasks. Here, we investigate the effects of age and task group on olfactory responses to a series of odorant blends in minor and major worker castes. Consistent with their respective roles within the colony, we observed significant age-associated shifts in the olfactory responses of minors as they transitioned between behavioral states, whereas the responses of majors remained consistently low regardless of age. Furthermore, we identified a unitary compound, 3-methylindole, which elicited significantly higher responses and behavioral aversion in minor nurses than in similarly aged foragers suggesting that this compound may play an important role in brood care. Taken together, our results suggest that age- and task-associated shifts in olfactory physiology may play a critical role in the social organization of ant colonies.

How language mediates emotional perception and experience is poorly understood. The present event-related potential (ERP) study examined the explicit and implicit processing of emotional speech to differentiate the relative influences of communication channel, emotion category and task type in the prosodic salience effect. Thirty participants (15 women) were presented with spoken words denoting happiness, sadness and neutrality in either the prosodic or semantic channel. They were asked to judge the emotional content (explicit task) and speakers’ gender (implicit task) of the stimuli. Results indicated that emotional prosody (relative to semantics) triggered larger N100 and P200 amplitudes with greater delta, theta and alpha inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) values in the corresponding early time windows, and continued to produce larger LPC amplitudes and faster responses during late stages of higher-order cognitive processing. The relative salience of prosodic and semantics was modulated by emotion and task, though such modulatory effects varied across different processing stages. The prosodic salience effect was reduced for sadness processing and in the implicit task during early auditory processing and decision-making but reduced for happiness processing in the explicit task during conscious emotion processing. Additionally, across-trial synchronization of delta, theta and alpha bands predicted the ERP components with higher ITPC values significantly associated with stronger N100, P200 and LPC enhancement. These findings reveal the neurocognitive dynamics of emotional speech processing with prosodic salience tied to stage-dependent emotion- and task-specific effects, which can reveal insights to research reconciling language and emotion processing from cross-linguistic/cultural and clinical perspectives.

Background: Simulations have historically aided training programs by providing a realistic and holistic replication of professional scenarios and procedures. Simulations have developed over the past 40 years to include varying fidelities and modalities of simulation. Learning in a simulation-centered environment has benefits, ranging from improved patient care to specific skills acquisition while catering to students’ numerous and varied learning approaches. Simulation is a multifaceted field that benefits all parties, the teachers, the learners, and the patients. The application of simulation to medical education and its amalgamation with other modes and substitutes allows for a more integrated learning and testing curriculum that advances the current trajectory of medical education. Such developments, however, are limited to resource rich areas, leaving behind low-middle income countries to use traditional, less evolved methodologies and practices. This review aimed to explore different aspects of simulation and focus specifically on low-cost task trainers and their accessibility. Method: The purpose of the study was to assess the accessibility of low-cost task trainers in terms of cost-effectiveness, distribution, validation, and frequency within specific specialties. To do so, 84 PubMed publications have been screened, and 39 filtered research studies have collected the necessary data. After analyzing the papers, we classified the following information – process, specialization, validation (y/n), costs, development location, and year of publication. Results: After carefully analyzing the accumulated data from the selected 39 publications, we found that most studies (i.e., 6 out of 39) were published in 2020. Emergency Medicine was the most common specialty for which low-cost trainers were developed (9 out of 39 procedural simulators); Otolaryngology followed this with 8 out of 39 trainers and general surgery with 7/39 of the task-trainers. The price ranges fluctuated and fell within the price bracket of USD 0 to USD 400 collectively. Our review also uncovered the concentration of development of such innovations solely in high income countries (HICs). Conclusion: Simulation is an invaluable tool applicable to a diverse range of phases of medical education. Future conjunction of simulation with low-cost substitutes along with increased encouragement and enthusiasm towards developing cost effective simulation-based learning environments (SBLEs) with the reserves and requirements of these areas in mind may prove to be a reliable option for low and middle resource settings

Despite the popularity of Zumba in several countries, research is scarce about its impact on older adults. Meanwhile, the integration of cognitive tasks with physical exercises, known as dual-tasking, is an evolving strategy to facilitate activities for older people. This study investigated the perceptions of older adults regarding Zumba and the potential of implementing it in a dual-task program. We conducted a qualitative-descriptive research involving 44 Filipino older adults from August to November 2020. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data. Four themes were identified: moving towards match or mismatch; balancing benefits with burdens; dual-tasking as innovative yet potentially challenging; and overcoming barriers with enablers. While Zumba is an inclusive and beneficial activity, individual and contextual limitations could hinder its suitability for older people. Dual-tasking in Zumba was also recognized as an innovative approach, although challenges should be addressed to promote its utility. Several strategies could support the design of these programs in communities. This is the first study to explore older adults’ perceptions towards Zumba and its potential utilization as a dual-tasking program. Findings could guide the implementation of appropriate Zumba and dual-tasking activities that seek to integrate cognitive and physical training for older adults.

Multi-task Gaussian processes (MTGPs) are a powerful approach for modeling structured dependencies among multiple tasks. Researchers on MTGPs have contributed to enhance this approach in various ways. Current MTGP methods, however, cannot model nonlinear task correlations in a general way. In this paper we address this problem. We focus on spectral mixture (SM) based kernels and propose an enhancement of this type of kernels, called multi-task generalized convolution spectral mixture (MT-GCSM) kernel. The MT-GCSM kernel can model nonlinear task correlations and mixtures dependency, including time and phase delay, not only between different tasks but also within a task at the spectral mixture level. Each task in MT-GCSM has its own generalized convolution spectral mixture kernel (GCSM) with a different number of convolution structures and all spectral mixtures from different tasks are dependent. Furthermore, the proposed kernel uses inner and outer full cross convolution between base spectral mixtures, so that the base spectral mixtures in the tasks are not necessarily aligned. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real-life datasets illustrate the difference between MT-GCSM and other kernels as well as the practical effectiveness of MT-GCSM.

Horses’ ability to adapt to new environments and to acquire new information plays an important role in handling and training. Social learning in particular would be very adaptive for horses as it enables them to flexibly adapt to new environments. In the context of horse handling, social learning from humans has been rarely investigated but could help to facilitate management practices. We assessed the impact of human demonstration on spatial problem-solving abilities in horses using a detour task. In this task, a bucket with a food reward was placed behind a double-detour barrier and horses (n = 16) received a human demonstration or no demonstration. Horses were allocated to two test groups of 8 horses each, which experienced the two treatments in a counterbalanced order. We found that horses did not solve the detour task faster with human demonstration. However, both test groups improved rapidly over trials. Our results suggest that horses prefer to use individual rather than social information when being confronted with a spatial problem-solving task.

In this study, the biodegradation properties of leather treated with various finishing chemicals were evaluated in order to enhance the sustainability of leather processing. We applied advanced analytical techniques including FT-IR, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Leather samples treated with different polymers, resins, bio-based materials, and traditional finishing agents were subjected to a composting process under controlled conditions to measure their biodegradability. The findings revealed that bio-based polyurethane finishes and acrylic wax exhibited biodegradability, while traditional chemical finishes like isocyanate and nitrocellulose lacquer showed moderate biodegradation levels. The results indicated significant differences in the biodegradation rates and the impact on plant germination and growth. Some materials, such as black pigment, nitrocellulose lacquer and wax, were beneficial for plant growth, while others, such as polyurethane materials, had adverse effects. These results support the use of eco-friendly finishes to reduce the environmental footprint of leather production. Overall, this study underscores the importance of selecting sustainable finishing chemicals to promote eco-friendly leather manufacturing practices.