This study introduces a cybernetic control and architectural framework for a robotic fish avatar operated by a human. The behavior of the robot fish is influenced by the electromyographic (EMG) signals of the human operator, triggered by stimuli from the surrounding objects and scenery. An deep artificial neural network (ANN) with perceptrons classifies EMG signals, discerning the type of muscular stimuli generated. The research unveils a fuzzy-based oscillation patterns generator (OPG) designed to emulate functions akin to a neural central pattern generator, producing coordinated fish undulations. The OPG generates swimming behavior as an oscillation function, decoupled into coordinated step signals, right and left, for a dual electromagnetic oscillator in the fish propulsion system. Furthermore, the research presents an underactuated biorobotic mechanism of the subcarangiform type, comprising a two-solenoid electromagnetic oscillator, an antagonistic musculoskeletal elastic system of tendons, and a multi-link caudal spine composed of helical springs. The biomechanics dynamic model and control for swimming, as well as the ballasting system for submersion and buoyancy, are deduced. Experimental results encompass EMG pattern recognition, OPG, and coordinated fish locomotion, with additional topics illustrated through numerical simulations.

This paper proposes the application of force-projecting bilateral control to a master-follower teleoperation system with a pneumatic manipulator on the follower side, and evaluates its effectiveness. The proposed method directly projects the operating force on the master side to the driving force on the follower side, eliminating the need for both position control and external force detection on the follower side, thereby solving the problem of low rigidity and response delay of pneumatic manipulators and providing highly stable sensor-less force presentation against variable environments. In this study, dynamic response analyses of a 1-DOF master-follower system were performed by numerical simulation using a linear system model, followed by experimental verification by implementing an actual system with an external force estimator. The results showed that the proposed force-projecting bilateral control has significantly higher positioning rigidity and better force control stability than the conventional force-reflecting bilateral control. A theoretical consideration was also given using equivalent transformation of force transfer functions to provide evidence for the high stability.

Taiwan’s Chi Mei Medical Center has a vision of becoming a sustainable organization. They found they violated the sustainable development goal (SDG) 13 (“Climate Action”) since its workflows consume excessive tangible resources and waste much operation time. To fulfill the vision, the Chi Mei Medical Center first introduced electronic invoicing. Implementing this electronic invoicing included adopting cloud E-invoice data and creating a software robot for auditing them. This study presents this software robot and its contributions. The software robot replaces an internal auditor to log into Taiwan’s E-invoice platform, download cloud E-invoice data, and detect the inconsistency between these cloud and on-premise data. Internal auditors of the Chi Mei Medical Center only needed to confirm the detection results. They welcome this software robot since it significantly reduces their work burdens. They approved more software robots for assisting other workflows. Besides, the Chi Mei Medical Center earned profits after eliminating paper invoices. This elimination helped release less carbon. This study concludes that chasing a sustainable organization is unnecessarily equivalent to the requirement of more costs. A software robot represents the last puzzle for constructing a paperless workflow since it can resolve the resistance of existing workers to a new workflow.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has demonstrated considerable potential in solving challenges across various domains, notably in autonomous driving. Nevertheless, implementing RL in autonomous driving comes with its own set of difficulties, such as the overestimation phenomenon, extensive learning time, and sparse reward problems. Although solutions like Hindsight Experience Replay (HER) have been proposed to alleviate these issues, the direct utilization of RL in autonomous vehicles remains constrained due to the intricate fusion of information and the possibility of system failures during the learning process. In this paper, we present a novel RL-based autonomous driving system technology that combines Obstacle Dependent Gaussian (ODG) RL, Soft Actor-Critic (SAC), and meta-learning algorithms. Our approach addresses key issues in RL, including the overestimation phenomenon and sparse reward problems, by incorporating prior knowledge derived from the ODG algorithm. We evaluated our proposed algorithm on official F1 circuits, using high-fidelity racing simulations with complex dynamics. The results demonstrate exceptional performance, with our method achieving up to 89% faster learning speed compared to existing algorithms in these environments.

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic, triggered by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in over 160 million infections and 3.5 million fatalities worldwide. Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 presence in the highly vascularized penile tissue and the established correlation between COVID-19 and subsequent erectile dysfunction (ED) has emerged. Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) is a popular procedure for prostate cancer because of its reliability and swift recovery rate. However, the ED prevalence post-surgery is believed to be comparable to open surgery, and postoperative ED significantly affects the patient's quality of life. Our study aimed to explore the effect of COVID-19 on ED recovery in patients undergoing bilateral nerve preservation during RARP. Materials and Methods We conducted a retrospective study on 85 patients who underwent bilateral nerve-sparing RARP (nsRARP) at our institution between December 2017 and May 2021. Chart reviews and the International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) questionnaire facilitated the analysis. Our objective was to contrast ED recovery after surgery between SARS-CoV-2–infected and non-infected patients using preoperative IIEF-5 scores and scores at 6, 12, and 24 months post-surgery. We defined successful ED recovery as an IIEF-5 score of 17 or higher and successful sexual intercourse. We also compared ED recovery rates between the two groups, regardless of the timing of COVID-19 diagnosis. IBM's SPSS version 18.0 assisted in the statistical analysis, with Fisher's exact test and chi-square test used for comparing categorical variables. Independent t-tests determined mean differences between baseline and postoperative IIEF-5 scores. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results From December 2017 to May 2021, our institution executed 213 RARP cases, with 185 of these involving nerve preservation. Among these patients, 133 had an IIEF-5 score of 17 or higher during preoperative EF assessment. We included 85 patients with consistent IIEF-5 records before surgery and at 6, 12, and 24 months post-surgery in this study. Of these, 44 and 41 patients comprised the COVID-19–positive and COVID-19–negative groups, respectively. The COVID-19–positive group had a higher proportion of diabetes mellitus (DM) patients (24 (54.55%) vs. 7 (17.07%), p<0.001). There was no significant difference in preoperative IIEF-5 scores or scores up to 6 months after surgery between the two groups. However, the IIEF-5 scores of the COVID-19–positive group were statistically lower after 12 and 24 months post-surgery. Additionally, the COVID-19–negative group showed a more considerable score increase between 6 and 12 months post-surgery, and the EF recovery rate was lower in the COVID-19–positive group starting from the 12th month after surgery. Within the COVID-19–positive group, no statistically significant difference in IIEF-5 scores was found between single infection and multiple reinfection groups. Conclusions Principal component analysis revealed the impact of COVID-19 on ED recovery in patients who underwent nsRARP. The most substantial changes in IIEF-5 scores occurred between 6 and 12 months. From 12 months onwards, the COVID-19–positive group had significantly lower scores, and fewer patients had IIEF-5 scores above 17. However, the number of COVID-19 diagnoses did not significantly affect the IIEF-5 scores.

The paper presents the conceptualization and realization of a novel platform for additive manu-facturing, an industrial robot arm-based system for additive manufacturing applications. Tradi-tional 3D printers, especially those employing fused deposition modelling (FDM) processes, are restricted to depositing material in a single toolpath plane (e.g. x-y plane). The focus of this study was to explore the feasibility of integrating commercial off the shelf (COTS) additive manufac-turing technologies with a six degree of freedom industrial robot arm to yield a 3D additive manufacturing system with the capability to perform free-form six degree of freedom fused deposition modelling. The present paper presents the development of a platform from stage 0, i.e. materials to its use, and finally a printed product with the developed extruder.

Anthropomorphism is a natural tendency in humans, but it is also influenced by many characteristics of the observer (the human) and the observed entity (here, the animal species). This study asked participants to complete an online questionnaire about three videos showing epimeletic behaviours in three animal species. In the videos, an individual (a sparrow, an elephant and a macaque, respectively) displayed behaviours towards an inanimate conspecific that suddenly regained consciousness at the end of the footage. A fourth video showed a robot dog being kicked by an engineer to demonstrate its stability. Each video was followed by a series of questions designed to evaluate the degree of anthropomorphism of participants, from mentaphobia (no attribution of intentions and beliefs, whatever the animal species) to full anthropomorphism (full attribution of intentions and beliefs by animals, to the same extent as in humans) and to measure how far the participants had correctly assessed each situation in terms of biological reality (current scientific knowledge of each species). There is a negative correlation (about 61%) between the mental states attributed to animals by humans to animals and the real capability of animals. The heterogeneity of responses proved that humans display different forms of anthropomorphism, from rejecting all emotional or intentional states in animals to considering animals to show the same intentions as humans. However, the scores participants attributed to animals differed according to the species shown in the video and to human sociodemographic characteristics. Understanding the potential usefulness of these factors can lead to better relationships with animals and encourage a positive view of human-robot interactions. Indeed, reflective or critical anthropomorphism can increase our humanity.

The paper presents the possibility of using KINECT v2 module to control an industrial robot by means of gestures and voice commands. It describes elements of creating software for off-line and on-line robot control. The application for KINECT module was developed in C# language in Visual Studio environment, while the industrial robot control program was developed in RAPID language in RobotStudio environment. The development of a two-threaded application in RAPID language allowed to separate two independent tasks for the IRB120 robot. The main task of the robot is performed in thread no. 1 (responsible for movement). Simultaneously working thread no. 2 ensures continuous communication with the KINECT system and provides information about the gesture and voice commands in real time without any interference in thread no. 1. The applied solution allows the robot to work in industrial conditions without negative impact of communication task on the time of robot’s work cycles. Thanks to the development of a digital twin of the real robot station, tests of proper application functioning in off-line mode (without using a real robot) were conducted. Obtained results were verified online (on the real test station). Tests of correctness of gesture recognition were carried out, the robot recognized all programmed gestures. Another test carried out was the recognition and execution of voice commands. A difference in the time of task completion between the actual and virtual station was noticed - the average difference was 0.67 s. The last test carried out was to examine the impact of interference on the recognition of voice commands. With a 10dB difference between the command and noise, the recognition of voice commands was equal to 91.43%. The developed computer programs have a modular structure, which enables easy adaptation to process requirements.

In this study, we asked participants to answer an online questionnaire about videos showing animal epimeletic behaviours: an individual (a sparrow, an elephant and a macaque) displayed behaviours towards an inanimate conspecific who suddenly got back to conscious at the end of the footage. A fourth video showed a dog-robot kicked by an engineer to demonstrate its stability. After each video, questions were asked to score the degree of anthropomorphism of participants, from mentophobia (no attribution whatever the species) to full anthropomorphism and to measure how close participants are to biological reality (actual scientific knowledge). A first important result is that there is a negative correlation (about 61%) between the anthropomorphism score (AS) and the biological reality one (BRS) showing a wrong statement. The heterogeneity of responses proved that all levels of anthropomorphism are covered from mentaphobia to full anthropomorphism. However, the scores participants attributed to animals differ according to the species shown in the video and to human characteristics. Understanding how one can play with these factors can conduct to better relationships with animals as encourage human-robot interactions. Finally, such reflective anthropomorphism can lead to an increase of human empathy and sociality, finally increasing our humanity.

This study presents a path planning method for a mobile robot to be effectively operated through a multi-objective decision-making problem. Specifically, the proposed Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) determines an optimal position as a sub-goal within the multi-objective boundary. The key features of the proposed FAHP are evaluating the candidates according to the fuzzified relative importance among objectives to select an optimal solution. In order to incorporate FAHP into path planning, an AHP framework is defined, which includes the highest level (goal), middle level (objectives), and the lowest level (alternatives). The distance to the target, robot’s rotation, and safety against collision between obstacles are considered as objective functions. Comparative results obtained from the artificial potential field and AHP/FAHP simulations show that FAHP is much preferable for the mobile robot’s path planning than typical AHP.

In this paper, a method is developed for presenting a novel virtual torque sensor based on precise model and position measurements avoids the need of traditional strain gauges and amplifiers. More specifically, the harmonic drive compliance model and the Gaussian process regression (GPR) technique are used together to achieve virtual torque sensor measurement. While the harmonic drive compliance model provides the analytic part, the Gaussian process regression method is used to reconstruct the unmolded part based on motor-side and link-side joint angles as well as motor current. After an automatic offline calibration, the method allows for a lean online implementation. The virtual torque sensor measurement is compared with measurements of a commercial torque sensor, and the results have attested the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper aims to argue the fundamental significance of education in addressing notable gaps in the constitutive, performance, and evaluation criteria for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and endeavours to showcase the complementarity between education, human security, sustainable human development, and the pursuit of CSR as an ideal normative paradigm. An abstractive approach to studying CSR engages with corporate philanthropy, which has not been helpful outside traditional CSR paradigms without looking at key dynamics that can robustly underpin successful CSR. It relies on the systematic analysis of written data sources to theoretically explore the central significance, and complementarity between human security, education, and human dignity and how they can orchestrate a holistic CSR paradigm. In 1994, the UNDP in formulating the human security doctrine recognised the syncretic correlation between human security, education, and sustainable human development as fundamental elements that should underpin CSR. This paper contends that these are necessary intrinsic components of human dignity as the central factor that justifies a multi-dimensional and proactive approach to CSR. Despite the criticisms against human security, this paper identifies it as an important concept that could instrumentally orchestrate a model of CSR that uniformly mainstreams sustainable human development and human dignity that leverages education which has routinely and traditionally been seen as a constitutive component of CSR. It reveals how a holistic path to CSR can reinvigorate the central pillars of human security and human dignity using education as a springboard and makes a compelling case for supporting explicit references to education in company law with appropriate human security informed constitutive, performance, and evaluation criteria which are absent in existing legally orchestrated CSR.

This paper presents a multi-year research study conducted at the University of Toledo, aimed at improving human-machine teaming (HMT) methods and technologies. With the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) into 21st-century machines, collaboration between humans and machines has become highly complicated for real-time applications. The penetration of intelligent and synthetic assistants (IA/SA) in virtually every field has opened a path for the new area of HMT. When it comes to crucial tasks such as patient treatment and care, defense, and industrial production, the use of non-standardized HMT technologies may pose a risk to human lives as well as up to billions of taxpayer dollars. A thorough literature survey revealed that there are not many established standards or benchmarks for HMT. In this paper, we aim to address the lack of HMT design and development standards. We propose a method to design an HMT based on a generalized architecture. This design includes the development of an intelligent collaborative system and human team. Followed by processes and metrics to test and validate the proposed model, we present a novel human-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation method using two controlled HMT scenarios; first, emergency care provider (ECP) training, and second, patient treatment by an experienced medic. Both scenarios include humans processing visual data and performing actions that represent real-world applications while responding to a Voice-Based Synthetic Assistant (VBSA) as a collaborator that keeps track of actions. As part of these HMT simulation studies, the impact of each parameter related to machines, humans, and HMT (such as errors made by humans and by the VBSA) is presented from the perspective of performance, rules, roles, and operation limitations. In addition, based on the analysis of results from two case studies, we presented guidelines for designing future HMT. Our conclusions indicate that the proposed HIL can be used to perform standardization studies in the pursuit of developing techniques for benchmarking HMT that can be used in critical situations.

Carukia barnesi (Cb), Malo kingi (Mk) and Chironex fleckeri (Cf) are dangerous Australian box jellyfish species that provoke distinct and not well understood envenomation syndromes. Specifically, Cb and Mk are small, rare and able to induce a systemic syndrome of generalised muscle pain and catecholamine excess termed “Irukandji syndrome”; Cf has been widely regarded as one of the most venomous organisms in the animal kingdom causing severe sting site pain combined with potentially lethal cardiotoxicity. Building on past studies of major chirodropid and carybdeid species venoms, this study compared the utility of various cubozoan specific antibody reagents to better define the relationships between venom proteins from both exemplar Irukandji species (Cb and Mk) and the archetype C. fleckeri box jellyfish. With the aid of commercial ovine derived Cf-specific antivenom, mouse antibodies reactive to Cb and Mk and rabbit antibodies specific to two Cf toxins (CfTX-1 and 2), as well as human sera, the cross-reactivity of jellyfish species-specific polyclonal antibodies against these three cubozoan venoms was investigated. Immunoblot assays revealed distinc levels of immune recognition across the three species, indicating that Mk specific reagents may bind both Irukandji and Cf venoms. Irukandji venom appears to be antigenic with the exception of a few proteins in the range of 43/46 kDa maybe homologous to CfTX-1 and 2. The implications of such antibody binding for future antivenom development require further investigation.

Background: Artificial intelligence can help improve the quality of healthcare by analyzing vast amounts of data and providing more effective and personalized treatment plans. Researchers are working on developing AI-powered solutions that can help improve the outcomes of patients. Objective: To explore the potential of AI in improving healthcare outcomes and patient experience. Results: The study suggests that AI can improve healthcare efficiency and patient outcomes but cannot fully replace human healthcare professionals. AI can assist healthcare professionals in their work, leading to better resource utilization and improved patient care. However, there is still a need for human healthcare professionals to oversee AI systems and provide empathy and personalized care to patients. Conclusion: While there is immense potential for AI in healthcare, it is not yet feasible to replace human healthcare workers. Instead, it should be viewed as a tool that can help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of human healthcare.

This research explores the role of transparency and traceability in the agricultural food supply chain. By utilizing blockchain's decentralized and secure features, stakeholders can improve information sharing from farm to consumer, transparency and traceability issues. Real-world examples illustrate blockchain's successful application in agriculture, boosting transparency, efficiency, and trust and create immutable records, enhance visibility, and provide reliable data, while combating fraud and promoting sustainability. It also examines blockchain's impact on food safety through IoT and smart contracts, highlighting successful implementations in supply chain management, the research underscores blockchain's potential to build consumer trust in food safety, quality, and origin.

The genus Aeromonas is widely distributed in aquatic environments. It is frequent as a fish pathogen, but has also been described associated to human infections. Most human cases are caused by A. caviae, A. veronii biovar sobria, and A. hydrophila, though A. dhakensis is becoming increasingly important. Transmission happens primarily by ingestion or contact with aquatic collections, or by consumption of contaminated food, especially of aquatic origin. Increasing resistance has been described in Aeromonas to penicillins, including their combinations with classical b-lactamase inhibitors, cephalosporins and carbapenems. Among the b-lactam antibiotics, only the 4th generation cephalosporins remain almost uniformly active. In addition, the simultaneous presence of resistance genes to 3rd generation cephalosporins and carbapenems in the same isolates is increasing. Recently, the presence of mobile genes linked to colistin resistance has also been described, in some cases with resistance percentages higher than 30%. Most likely, this evolution of colistin resistance is linked to its use in aquaculture, and, together with the evolution of b-lactam resistance, may be turning this genus into a reservoir of resistance genes that may affect other species much more frequently linked to human infections, such as Enterobacterales.

The vibrant landscape of Malaysia serves as a dynamic backdrop for the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and social science, reshaping knowledge and inquiry amidst tradition and modernity. With Malaysia leading a technological renaissance driven by digital transformation and innovation, the ethical implications of AI-driven decision-making in public policy and governance emerge as pressing research problems. Addressing concerns such as algorithmic bias and discrimination requires interdisciplinary collaboration to ensure transparency, accountability, and fairness. Exploring questions regarding the distribution of welfare benefits and strategies for enhancing transparency and accountability in urban planning underscores the need for contextually relevant frameworks and stakeholder engagement. Through comprehensive research objectives, including investigating algorithmic biases and analyzing their social implications, scholars aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between AI technology, social dynamics, and public policy. As Malaysia navigates the challenges and opportunities presented by AI deployment, prioritizing interdisciplinary collaborations, longitudinal studies, and capacity-building efforts will be essential for shaping a future that upholds principles of social justice and collective well-being.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) can potentially compromise both unassisted conception and success rates with assisted reproductive technology (ART). We aimed to evaluate the rates of HPV vaccination among women presenting for fertility care. This was a prospective study analyzing a self-reported intake form completed by all new patients presenting to a fertility clinic. The primary outcome was HPV vaccination status. Among the 523 new patients included in this study 172 (32.9%) were fully vaccinated, 237 (45.3%) were unvaccinated, and 95 (18.2%) patients didn’t respond. There was a significant age difference between fully vaccinated patients (33.1 years) compared to unvaccinated patients (37.4 years) p&lt;0.001 and a significant difference in gravidity between fully vaccinated patients (average 0.65) and unvaccinated patients (average 1.11) p=0.0005. No significant association was found between HPV vaccination status and history of abnormal Pap smears or relationship status (single vs. married). Less than half of patients presenting to our fertility center were vaccinated against HPV, despite being eligible to receive the vaccine. Younger patients with lower gravidity were more likely to be vaccinated against HPV than older patients with higher gravidity. Reproductive Endocrinologists have the opportunity to recommend HPV vaccination for eligible patients presenting for fertility care.

Early marriage is a phenomenon that has an impact on various aspects of life which then affects human development. This study aims to conduct a literature review on the implications of early marriage on human development. The method used in this study is the SLR (Systematic Literature Review) method. Data collection was carried out by documenting all literature that met the research inclusion requirements. The literature obtained as many as 25 articles from the Google Scholer database with the help of Harzing's Publish or Perish application. From this literature study, it was found that the phenomenon of early marriage has implications for the human development index based on health indicators and life expectancy, education, and welfare. Another finding is that women are the most disadvantaged from the impact of early marriage. Things that can be done to deal with the phenomenon and impact of early marriage include formal and non-formal education, strengthening access to health and education services, creating empowerment programs, and strengthening regulations and legal protection.

Prostate cancer contributes to cancer-related deaths globally, and the etiology of this disease is not yet fully understood. While Human Papillomavirus (HPV) has been associated with several types of cancer, including cervical, anal, and oropharyngeal cancer, studies investigating the relationship between HPV and prostate cancer have shown mixed results. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the causative association between HPV and prostate cancer using Bradford Hill's criteria. A comprehensive search of PubMed was conducted, and 60 out of 482 studies were included in the review. The included studies were evaluated based on nine Bradford Hill criteria, and information on the identification and transmission of the virus and potential oncogenic mechanisms was also extracted. The strength of association criterion was not met, and other criteria, such as consistency and coherence, were not fulfilled. However, biological plausibility was supported, and potential oncogenic mechanisms were identified. While some studies have reported the presence of HPV in prostate cancer tissues, the overall quality of evidence remains low, and the association between HPV and prostate cancer is weak. Nevertheless, the prostate is a potential reservoir for the transmission of HPV, and the HPV E6 and E7 oncoproteins and inflammation are likely to be involved in any oncogenic mechanisms. Further studies with a higher level of evidence are needed to establish a definitive link between HPV and prostate cancer.

Human bocavirus (HBoV) is an emerging virus that has been detected worldwide that could be associated with cases of acute gastroenteritis (AGE). However, its contribution to AGE has not been elucidated. This study aimed to describe the frequency, clinical features, and HBoV genotypes circulation in children up to 5 years with or without AGE symptoms in Acre, Northern Brazil. A total of 480 stool samples were collected between January and December 2012. Fecal samples were used for extraction, nested PCR amplification, and sequencing for genotyping. Statistical analysis was applied to verify the association between epidemiological and clinical characteristics. Overall HBoV-positivity was 10% (48/480), being HBoV-positivity rates of 8.4% (19/226) and 11.4% (29/254) recorded among diarrheic and non-diarrheic children, respectively. The most affected age group was between 7 and 24 months (50%). HBoV infection was more frequent in children living in urban areas (85.4%), using water from the public network (56.2%), and living with adequate sewage facilities (50%). Co-infection with other enteric viruses was 16.7% (8/48) and the most prevalent coinfection was RVA+ HBoV (50%, 4/8). HBoV‐1 was the most frequent species detected, responsible for 43.8% (21/48) of cases, followed by HBoV-3 (29.2%, 14/48) and HBoV-2 (25%, 12/48). In the present study, HBoV infections are not associated with AGE, as most HBoV cases belonged to the non-diarrheal group without AGE symptoms. Future studies are warranted to determine the role of HBoV in causing acute diarrhea disease.

With the advent of Neural Machine Translation, the more the achievement of human-machine parity is claimed at WMT, the more we come to ask ourselves if their evaluation environment can be trusted. In this paper, we argue that the low quality of the source test set of the news track at WMT may lead to an overrated human parity claim. First of all, we report nine types of so-called technical contaminants in the data set, originated from an absence of meticulous inspection after web-crawling. Our empirical findings show that when they are corrected, about 5% of the segments that have previously achieved a human parity claim turn out to be statistically invalid. Such a tendency gets evident when the contaminated sentences are solely concerned. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first attempt to question the “source” side of the test set as a potential cause of the overclaim of human parity. We cast evidence for such phenomenon that according to sentence-level TER scores, those trivial errors change a good part of system translations. We conclude that to overlook it would be a mistake, especially when it comes to an NMT evaluation.

Is human capital heterogeneity a decisive factor for Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa? Based on the Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI） data of Chinese enterprises in 37 African countries from 2007 to 2017, this paper using the FGLS model, is the empirical analysis of the mechanism and effect of the human capital heterogeneity of host countries on OFDI location selection. The human capital heterogeneity can be divided into four dimensions: scale, quality, cost and structure, which can be measured by health level, education level, wage level, child dependency ratio and old-age dependency ratio. The results show that: (1) the host country's human capital scale and child dependency ratio structure have a significant positive impact on decision-making for OFDI; (2) the cost of human capital and the structure of old-age dependency ratio are negatively correlated with the inflow of OFDI; (3) different from the existing conclusions, the quality of human capital will inhibit the inflow of OFDI in the sample period; (4) the extended test shows that the quality of human capital has a significant positive impact on OFDI decision-making. The results of robustness test are reliable. Finally, according to the conclusion of this paper, policy recommendations are put forward.

Human milk (HM) is the gold standard for feeding infants but has been associated with slower growth in preterm infants compared with preterm formula. This systematic review and meta-analysis summarises the post-1990 literature to examine the effect of HM feeding on growth during the neonatal admission of preterm infants with birth weight ≤1500g and/or born ≤28 weeks’ gestation. Medline, PubMed, CINAHL and Scopus were searched, and comparisons grouped as: exclusive human milk (EHM) vs exclusive preterm formula (EPTF), any HM vs EPTF and higher vs lower doses of HM. We selected studies that used fortified HM and compared that with a PTF; studies comparing unfortified HM and term formula were excluded. Experimental and observational studies were pooled separately. The GRADE system was used to evaluate risk of bias and certainty of evidence. Forty-four studies were included with 37 (n =9,963 infants) included in the meta-analyses. In general, due to poor quality studies, evidence of the effect of any HM feeds or higher versus lower doses of HM was inconclusive. There was a possible effect that lower doses of HM compared with higher doses of HM improved weight gain during the hospital admission, and separately, a possible effect of increased head circumference growth in infants fed EPTF vs any HM. The clinical significance of this is unclear. There was insufficient evidence to determine the effects of an exclusive HM diet on any outcomes.

Human factors are the things that go wrong in the interactions between a team of people and a system of technology. This is part of a broader transdisciplinary field called engineering psychology, which as the name suggests, draws from both engineering and psychology. Many, if not most, catastrophic accidents involve a socio-technical interaction, i.e. are not solely due to technology failure. Hence, there is a need to consider human factors in the development or deployment of any technical system. This article is about the human factors involved in an aviation accident in New Zealand between a Yak and a cherry picker. The types of human error are identified, and the barrier bowtie method is used to represent them. The analysis gives different insights into the accident compared to the formal accident report, and better represents the human error characteristics.

OBJECTIVES: Most of human papilomavirus (HPV) infections are “cleared” by the immune system, however, in cases of immune system suppression infections could lead to development of malignancies. The aim of this study was to find out the frequency of HR-HPV infection in early period after renal transplantation in Latvian recipients receiving immunosuppressive therapy and to follow the progression of the infection up to one year. METHODS: 43 female renal recipients (median age of 48 IQR= 39-58) and 79 practically healthy female individuals (median age of 48 IQR= 42-57) as a control group were enrolled in this investigation. For the detection of HPV infection patients' samples (blood and vaginal swabs) where collected two weeks after transplantation with following collection of six months and one year. Different polymerase chain reactions for HR-HPV genomic sequences detection and commercial ELISA kit for detection of anti-HPV IgG antibodies were used. RESULTS: In this study we show that frequency rate of HR-HPV infection has increased by the one year after transplantation from early stage of immumosuppressive therapy (from 24% to 36%). Also increase of HR-HPV load was detected over the time, showing the highest median viral load at sixth month after transplantation. CONCLUSIONS: From the obtained data follows that it is very important to carefully monitor patients receiving immunosuppression therapy on progression of HR-HPV. In the case of this viral infection presence, immunosuppressive therapy must be attentively adjusted to avoid the HR-HPV infection rapid progression with the subsequent development of CIN or cervical cancer.

Selection is a fundamental interaction element in Virtual Reality (VR) and 3D user interfaces (UIs). Raycasting, one of the most common object selection techniques, has been known to have difficulties in selecting small or distant objects. Meanwhile, recent advancements in computer vision technology have enabled seamless vision-based hand tracking in consumer VR headsets, enhancing accessibility to freehand mid-air interaction and highlighting the need for further research in this area. This study proposed a new technique called TouchView which utilizes a virtual panel with a modern adaptation of the Through-the-lens metaphor to improve freehand selection for VR UI. TouchView enables faster and less demanding target selection by allowing direct touch interaction with the magnified object proxies reflected on the panel view. Repeated-measures ANOVA on the results of a follow-up user experiment on multitarget selection with 23 participants showed that TouchView outperformed the current market-dominating freehand raycasting technique, Hybrid Ray in terms of task performance, perceived workload, and preference. The user behavior was also analyzed to understand the underlying reasons for these improvements. The proposed technique can be used in VR UI applications to enhance the selection of distant objects, especially for cases with frequent view shifts.

Using the potent tools of information geometry (IG), the current research analyses the information geometrics of the five-dimensional HTBFC Manifold. By enabling a unique revolutionary analysis for the performance of Human-Trust Based Feedback Control (HTBFC), the integration of information geometry into HTBFC facilitates the relativistic analysis of the five-dimensional HTBFC manifold. Both the two- and three-dimensional manifold subcases are investigated. This work provides a ground-breaking approach to IG unification of Human- Machine Interactions (HMIs). Some potential applications of HTBFC to robotics are presented.Conclusions are provided, along with some emerging open problems and recommendations for future research.

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is the gold standard approach for detecting a variety of pathogens either via probe-based or SYBR green detection chemistry. Generally, probe-based detection is more specific than SYBR green chemistry. This report describes work done in using a FAM probe targeting a specific segment of the human KRAS gene for detecting presence and relative abundance of the gene in human gastric CloTest samples. Results indicate ineffective detection of the human KRAS gene in samples that are shown to harbor the gene through a similar qPCR assay using SYBR green detection chemistry. Such observations point to inability of the designed FAM probe to bind to target segment of the human KRAS gene that suggests a region of rapid genomic evolution that require close surveillance in the public health community. Given its rapid genomic evolution, this probe region may be an important region in the human KRAS gene playing critical functional roles in either molecular recognition or other structural functions. Overall, human KRAS gene may be undergoing rapid genomic evolution, and qPCR probes targeting specific segment of the gene may be rendered ineffective in short time clinically, thereby, making SYBR green qPCR assay a more reliable choice.

Flexible surgical robots are emerging as advanced tools for minimally invasive surgeries, offering greater versatility compared to traditional rigid robots. Unlike commercial endoscopes, the overtube should remain fixed to maintain stability, ensure a clear field of view, and allow surgical tools to perform tasks efficiently. While constant curvature bending of the overtube is sufficient for some lesions, certain lesions require the overtube to bend into specific shapes to achieve appropriate positioning. Various methods for creating different bending shapes have been proposed in previous research, typically involving connecting multiple segments. However, this approach complicates control and reduces both space and cost efficiency. This study proposed a conceptual method for adding a shaping tendon to control the bending shape and mathematically analyzed the effect of this shaping tendon, inserted along an arbitrary path in addition to the main driving tendons for constant curvature bending, on the bending shape of the hyper-redundant manipulator with rolling joints. The overall system was modeled and analyzed from an energy perspective, and the validity of the proposed mathematical modeling was verified through comparison with results obtained from physical experiments. In addition, it was identified that the design parameter determining the tendon path is significant element in defining bending shape of the overtube.

This paper proposes a multifunctional soft robotic gripper for a Dobot robot to handle sensitive products. The gripper is based on pneumatic network (PneuNet) bending actuators. In this work, two different models of PneuNet actuators have been studied, designed, simulated, experimentally tested, and validated using two different techniques (3D printing and molding) and three different materials: FilaFlex (3D printed), Elastosil M4601 and Dragonskin Fast 10 silicones (with molds). A new soft gripper design for the Dobot robot is presented, and a new design/production approach with molds is proposed to obtain the gripper's PneuNet multifunctional actuators. It also describes a new control approach that is used to control the PneuNet actuators and gripper function, using compressed air generated by a small compressor/air pump, a pressure sensor, a mini valve, etc., and executing on a low-cost controller board – Arduino UNO. This paper presents the main simulation and experimental results of this research work.

Endoscopy has made a significant and noteworthy contribution to the field of medical science and technology. Nevertheless, its potential remains constrained due to the limited availability of rigid or flexible endoscopes. This paper introduces a novel hydraulic actuator based on electrorheological fluid (ERF) as a pivotal advancement in bridging the existing gap within the realm of endoscopy. Following a comprehensive introduction that briefly outlines the electrorheological effect, the subsequent section is dedicated to the elucidation of the actuator’s development process. Challenges arise, particularly in terms of miniaturization and the realization of a hydraulically sealed system with integrated valve electrodes. An internal electrorheological valve system consisting of four valves that are controlled using a pulse-width modulated high voltage was suitable for position control of the antagonistic hydraulic actuators. High-precision stereolithography (SLA) printing has proven practical for manufacturing the actuator components. For functional testing, a test bench was set up in which the actuator follows a setpoint through a PI control loop. The control deviation ranged from 0.6 to 1 degree, with a response time between 6 and 8 seconds. The experiments have demonstrated that, through the use of ERF and integrated valve electrodes, a miniaturized functional actuator can be constructed.

Some traditional robots are based on offline programming reciprocal motion, and with the continuous upgrading of vision technology, more and more tasks are replaced by machine vision. For the current problem of insufficient accuracy of robot target localization based on binocular vision, and an improved random sampling consistency algorithm is proposed to complete parallel robot target localization and grasping under the guidance For the current problem of insufficient accuracy of robot target localization based on binocular vision, an improved random sampling consistency algorithm is proposed to complete parallel robot target localization and grasping under the guidance of multi Firstly, the RANSAC algorithm is improved based on the SURF algorithm; then the parallax gradient method is applied to iterate the matched point pairs several times to further optimize the data; then the 3D reconstruction is completed by the program technique; finally the obtained data is finally the obtained data is input into the robot arm and the camera internal and external parameters are obtained by the calibration method so that the robot can accurately locate and The experiments show that the improved algorithm has advantages in recognition accuracy and grasping success rate under multi- The experiments show that the improved algorithm has advantages in recognition accuracy and grasping success rate under multi-vision system.

Obesity represents a worldwide epidemic disorder, increasing the overall morbidity and mortality rate. In this study we investigated the impact of obesity on peri-operative and long-term functional outcomes of Robotic assisted simple prostatectomy (RASP). Baseline flowmetry parameters and validated questionnaires’ scores were prospectively recorded. Follow-up assessments included Flowmetry and validated questionnaires. Composite outcomes (Trifecta) was defined as combination of: post-operative Q-max>15 ml/sec, IPSS score<8 and absence of complications. Pentafecta included also post-operative ejaculation persistence (MSHQ score>0) and the Erectile function maintenance (∆IEEF<6). Data were stratified by BMI (<30 or ≥30). 81 patients underwent RASP in our Institution. Baseline demographics and clinical features, questionnaires score and baseline flowmetry results were comparable between obese and non-obese cohorts. At follow-up, obese patients reported lower subjective improvement in IPSS (p=0.02) and OABQ scores (p<0.001) and higher incidence of stress incontinence requiring Duloxetin (p<0.001). Flowmetry outcomes, were also worse in this cohort (p=0.02 and p=0.03, respectively). At comprehensive outcomes assessment, obese patients had comparable Trifecta (67% vs 54%, p=0.39) and pentafecta achievement rate (p=0.76). Our prelimirary results proved that obesity is associated with worse functional outcomes (storage LUTS and incontinence rate) after RASP, but doesn’t affect trifecta and pentafecta achievement rate.

By constructing a static map, the library robot can navigate and access documents autonomously, which greatly improves efficiency; however, for libraries where shelves can be moved, map changes do not allow for direct navigation, and also sensors such as radar and camera are relatively expensive, so we propose a low-cost navigation algorithm based on real-time ranging data and map matrices, and designed a mobile archive access robot. In order to obtain real-time distance data, nine near/long range sensors were mounted on the chassis and a composite digital filtering algorithm was designed based on different moving area characteristics; then the access task matrix and map matrix were designed based on the archive access task and the location characteristics of the archive shelf placement, the robot can rely on the range data to update the map matrix during the moving process, complete its own positioning, and use the task matrix The robot can use the task matrix to complete autonomous navigation and access to multiple files. Experiments show that the filtered positioning accuracy can reach 1cm, while the robot can move to the target shelf autonomously, which is more practical and less costly.

The upper extremities limitation represents one of the essential functional impairments in patients with cervical spinal cord injury. Electromechanics assisted devices and robots are increasingly used in neurorehabilitation to help functional improvement in patients with neurological diseases. This review aimed to systematically report the evidence-based, state-of-art on clinical applications and robotic-assisted arm training (RAT) in motor and functional recovery in subjects affected by cervical spinal cord injury. The present study has been carried out within the framework of the Italian Consensus Conference on "Rehabilitation assisted by robotic and electromechanical devices for persons with disability of neurological origin" (CICERONE). PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) databases were systematically searched from inception to September 2021. The 10-item PEDro scale assessed the study quality for the RCT and the AMSTAR-2 for the systematic review. Two different authors rated the studies included in this review. If consensus was not achieved after discussion, a third reviewer was interrogated. The 5-item Oxford CEBM scale was used to rate the level of evidence. A total of 11 studies were included. The selected studies were: two systematic reviews, two RCTs, one parallel-group controlled trial, one longitudinal intervention study and five case series. One RCT was scored as a high-quality study, while the systematic review was of low quality. RAT was reported as feasible and safe. Initial positive effects of RAT were found for arm function and quality of movement in addition to conventional therapy. The high clinical heterogeneity of treatment programs and the variety of robot devices could severely affect the generalizability of the study results; therefore, future studies are warranted to standardize the type of intervention and evaluate the role of robotic-assisted training in subjects affected by cervical spinal cord injury.

This paper presents a system developed for the assistance with a collaborative robot in hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS). The system includes a sensing glove with piezoresistive sensors which capture continuously the flexion degree of the surgeon's fingers. These data are analyzed using an algorithm that detects and recognize the selected movements. This information is sent as commands to the collaborative robot throughout the surgical operation. The bending patterns, speed and execution times of the movements are modelled in a pre-phase in which it will extract all the necessary information for later detection during the motion execution. The results obtained with 10 different volunteers show a high degree of accuracy and a low false discovery rate.

Life on Earth evolved to accommodate the biochemical and biophysical boundary conditions of the planet millions of years ago. The former includes nutrients, water, and ability to synthesize other needed chemicals. The latter include the 1 g gravity of the planet, radiation, and the geomagnetic field (GMF)of the planet. How complex life forms have accommodated the GMF is not known in detail considering that Homo sapiens evolved a neuro system and a cardiovascular system that develops electromagnetic fields as part of their functioning. In addition, many proteins and physiologic processes utilize Fe ions, an ion that exhibits magnetic properties. Thus, complex organisms such as current humans generate magnetic fields, contain significant quantities of the Fe ion, and also respond to exogenous-supplied static and electromagnetic fields. Whether humans can store information in self-generated magnetic fields remains to be determined. Given the current body of literature, it remains somewhat unclear how Homo sapiens use exogenous magnetic fields to regulate function, and what can happen if the boundary condition of the GMF of Earth is no longer exerting an effect. Proposed deep space flights to destinations such as Mars will provide some insights as space flight could not have been anticipated by evolution. The results of such space flight “experiments” will provide new insights in the role of magnetic fields on human functioning. The outcomes may also have implications for those on Earth as magnetic field influences may play a role in developmental conditions such as autism and senescence-associated conditions such as dementia when integration of the biological and biophysical aspects of humans of humans are required for effective functioning. This review will discuss the involvement of magnetic fields on various normal and disturbed processes in humans while on Earth and then further discuss potential outcomes when the GMF is no longer available to impact host systems. Thus, the GMF of the Earth has been present throughout evolution but details of its role in human functions still remain to be elucidated.

Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) hold many potential research and clinical benefits due to their ability to differentiate into nearly every cell type in the body. They are often used as model systems for early stages of ontogenesis to better understand key developmental pathways, and for drug screening. However, in order to fully realise the potential of PSCs and their translational applications, a deeper understanding of developmental pathways, especially in humans, is required. Several signalling molecules play important roles during development and are required for proper differentiation of PSCs. The concentration and timing of signal activation is important, with perturbations resulting in improper development and/or pathology. Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) is one such key signalling molecule involved in the specification and differentiation of various cell types and tissues in the human body including tooth and otic development. In this review, we describe the role of BMP signalling and its regulation, the consequences of BMP dysregulation in disease and differentiation, and how PSCs can be used to investigate the effects of BMP modulation during development, mainly focusing on otic development. Finally, we emphasise the unique role of BMP4 in otic specification and how refined knowledge in controlling its regulation could lead to the generation of more robust and reproducible human PSC-derived otic organoids for research and translational applications.

Fortified human milk is the first choice for preterm infants. Although individualized fortification is recommended, the optimal method for this population remains uncertain. We conducted a comparative study assessing the growth effects of adjusted (AF) and targeted fortification (TF) in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants. This single-center, randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted at a tertiary neonatal unit in Spain. Eligible participants were premature infants with a birthweight <1000g exclusively fed with human milk. A total of 38 patients were enrolled, 15 of them randomised to AF group and 23 to TF group. AF was based on BUN concentration and TF on human milk analysis. The primary outcome was weight gain velocity (g/kg/day).No significant differences were found in weight gain velocity at 28 days, at 36 weeks of postmenstrual age, at discharge nor during intervention. Protein intake was significantly higher in AF group (5.02 g/kg/day vs 4.48 g/kg/day, p= 0.001). No differences were found in lipids, carbohydrates and energy intake; neither in weight z score change between the different time points; nor in length and head circumference growth. Both AF and TF are comparable methods of fortification and provide appropriate growth rate in ELBW infants.

The task of human action recognition (HAR) based on skeleton data is a challenging yet crucial technique owing to its wide-ranging applications in numerous domains, including patient monitoring, security surveillance, and observation of human-machine interactions. While numerous algorithms have been proposed in an attempt to distinguish between a myriad of activities, most practical applications necessitate highly accurate detection of specific activity types. This study proposes a novel and highly accurate spatiotemporal graph autoencoder network for HAR based on skeleton data. Furthermore, an extensive investigation was conducted employing diverse modalities. To this end, a spatiotemporal graph autoencoder was constructed to automatically learn both spatial and temporal patterns from human skeleton datasets. The powerful graph convolutional network, designated as GA-GCN, developed in this study, notably outperforms the majority of existing state-of-the-art methods when evaluated on two common datasets, namely NTU RGB+D and NTU RGB+D 120. On the first dataset, the proposed approach achieved accuracies of 92.3\% and 96.8\% for the cross-subject and cross-view evaluations, respectively. On the more challenging NTU RGB+D 120 dataset, GA-GCN attained accuracies of 88.8\% and 90.4\% for the cross-subject and cross-set evaluations, respectively.

Artificial intelligence’s rapid advancement has enabled various applications, including intelligent video surveillance systems, assisted living, and human-computer interaction. These applications often require one core task: video-based human action recognition. Research in human video-based human action recognition is vast and ongoing, making it difficult to assess the full scope of available methods and current trends. This survey provides an in-depth exploration of the vision-based human action recognition field, comprehensively offering the available techniques and their evolution, highlighting the cutting-edge ideas driving its development. We also analyze the most used keywords in research papers over the past years to identify trends and predict possible future directions. Hence, this concise survey helps researchers understand the breadth of existing approaches, evaluate current research trends, and stay up-to-date on potential developments.

The neuroglial extracellular matrix (ECM) provides critical support and physiological cues for the proper growth, differentiation, and function of neuronal cells in the brain. However, in most in vitro settings that study neural physiology, cells are grown as monolayers on stiff surfaces that maximize adhesion and proliferation, and therefore lack the physiological cues that ECM in native neuronal tissues provides. Macromolecular crowding (MMC) is a biophysical phenomenon based on the principle of excluded volume that can be harnessed to induce native ECM deposition by cells in culture. Here, we show that MMC using two species of Ficoll with vitamin C supplementation significantly boosts deposition of relevant brain ECM by cultured human astrocytes. Dopaminergic neurons co-cultured on this astrocyte-ECM bed prepared under MMC treatment showed longer and denser neuronal extensions, a higher number of pre ad post synaptic contacts, and increased physiological activity as evidenced by higher frequency calcium oscillation, compared to standard co-culture conditions. When the pharmacological activity of various compounds was tested on MMC-treated co-cultures, their responses were enhanced, and for apomorphine, a D2-receptor agonist, it was inverted in comparison to control cell culture conditions, thus emulating responses observed in in vivo settings. These results indicate that macromolecular crowding can harness the ECM-building potential of human astrocytes in vitro forming an ultra-flat 3D microenvironment that makes neural cultures more physiological and pharmacological relevant.

We assessed how close human perceptions of landscape modification matched a multivariate index based on remotely sensed data of the same locations. Using a Human Footprint (HF) map of the continental U.S. (scaled 0-100), we created three series of aerial images, each with ten images distributed evenly across the 10 deciles of HF score. Using a web-based survey, 290 members of the global public ranked the images in one series based on their perception of the degree of human modification. Respondents also reported age, sex, and country. The degree of correspondence between rankings by respondents and by HF score was high, an average of 1.29 units of difference out of a maximum possible of 5.0. Differences among respondents were not explained by age, sex, or general geographic location. These results suggest that human perception of relative landscape modification conforms closely with the relative ranking made by a multivariate, analytical index.

A contribution of Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), and certain types of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) to the overall pathogenesis of upper airways cancers seems a priori reasonably conceivable. The existing evidence mostly relates them to nasopharyngeal squamous and undifferentiated carcinomas; indications emerge about their involvement in other upper airways cancers too. Markers of EBV, HCMV, HPV16, HPV18, (and Mycoplasma pneumoniae as a negative control) were searched in a series of 68 samples of neoplastic tissues from 57 patients diagnosed with different upper airways cancers. The results provide clues in favor of an actual role of EBV, HCMV, and HPV18, in the web of causation of upper airways squamous and undifferentiated carcinomas, possibly of upper airways adenocarcinomas too.

Odor Source Localization (OSL) technology allows autonomous agents like mobile robots to find an unknown odor source in a given environment. An effective navigation algorithm that guides the robot to approach the odor source is the key to successfully locating the odor source. Compared to traditional olfaction-only OSL method, our proposed method integrates vision and olfaction sensor modalities to localize odor sources even if olfaction sensing is disrupted by turbulent airflow or vision sensing is impaired by environmental complexities. The model leverages the zero-shot multi-modal reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs), negating the requirement of manual knowledge encoding or custom-trained supervised learning models. A key feature of the proposed algorithm is the `High-level Reasoning’ module, which encodes the olfaction and vision sensor data into a multi-modal prompt and instructs the LLM to employ a hierarchical reasoning process to select an appropriate high-level navigation behavior. Subsequently, the `Low-level Action’ module translates the selected high-level navigation behavior into low-level action commands that can be executed by the mobile robot. To validate our method, we implemented the proposed algorithm on a mobile robot in a complex, real-world search environment that presents challenges to both olfaction and vision-sensing modalities. We compared the performance of our proposed algorithm to single sensory modality-based olfaction-only and vision-only navigation algorithms, and a supervised learning-based vision and olfaction fusion navigation algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that multi-sensory navigation algorithms are statistically superior to single sensory navigation algorithms. The proposed algorithm outperformed the other algorithms in both laminar and turbulent airflow environments. The code for this work can be found at: https://github.com/SunzidHassan/24_Vision-Olfaction-LLM.

Currently, many health workers have died of being infected by dangerous infectious diseases. One solution is to prevent the spread of transmissions by minimizing contact between patients and staff or others using a mobile robot for delivering logistics services. We propose an approach by applies a navigation system using a position driver and obstacle avoidance using a fuzzy controller and particle swarm optimization for path planning in an unknown environment for a holonomic mobile robot. A Fuzzy Controller was used for obstacle avoidance so that the mobile robot could avoid obstacles using existing proximity sensors as the perception of the robot. In the path planning section, Particle Swarm Optimization is used to find intermediate points that must be reached by the mobile robot to reach their target. First, we performed simulation under the condition that the simulation resolution was similar to that of real conditions. It was found that the Trigonometric Function Adaptive PSO (TFAPSO) was better for finding the optimal solution based on the safest, shortest path, and lowest time. Finally, the holonomic mobile robot is tested directly in an unknown environment with the trajectory path generated by TFAPSO in real condition.

Cyber-physical testing has been applied for a decade in hydrodynamic laboratories to assess the dynamic performance of floating wind turbines (FWT). Rotor loads, computed by a numerical simulator fed with measurements, are applied in real time on the physical floater by using actuators. The present paper proposes a set of short and targeted benchmark tests that aim at quantifying the performance of actuators used in cyber-physical testing of FWT. They aim at ensuring good load tracking over all frequencies of interest, and satisfactory disturbance rejection for large motions. These benchmark tests are exemplified on two radically different 15MW FWT models tested at SINTEF Ocean.

Это исследование сосредоточено на разработке системы искусственного зрения для гибкого дельта-робота-манипулятора и ее интеграции с межмашинной связью для оптимизации взаимодействия устройств в реальном времени. Эта интеграция направлена ​​на увеличение скорости роботизированной системы и улучшение ее общей производительности. Предлагаемое сочетание системы искусственного зрения с межмашинной связью позволяет обнаруживать и распознавать цели с высокой точностью в режиме реального времени в ограниченном пространстве, предназначенном для позиционирования, дальнейшей локализации и выполнения производственных процессов, таких как сборка или сортировка деталей. . В данном исследовании RGB-изображения используются в качестве входных данных для алгоритма MASK-R-CNN, а результаты обрабатываются в соответствии с особенностями прототипа дельта-манипулятора робота. Данные, полученные от MASK-R-CNN, адаптированы для использования в системе управления дельта-роботом с учетом ее уникальных характеристик и требований к позиционированию. Технология M2M позволяет манипулятору робота быстро реагировать на изменения, например, на перемещение объектов или изменение их положения, что имеет решающее значение для задач сортировки и упаковки. Система была протестирована в условиях, близких к реальным, чтобы оценить ее производительность и надежность.

Being hospitalized is a threatening and stressful experience for many children. From a psychological point of view, children may experience increased feelings of anxiety and fear that can negatively interfere with behavioral, cognitive, and emotional outcomes. To limit these impacts on children's well-being and mental health, interventions that could contribute to protecting the emotional domain of hospitalized children are welcomed. The present research reported a single-setting case study intervention to evaluate the impact of educational play-based activity with a CoderBot robot in a pediatric short-term recovery ward (N=61). The methodology included multiple sources of data (i.e., children, parents, nurses), observations on the field, and a sequential (quantitative-qualitative) mixed-method approach to data analysis. Results supported the idea that robot-based activities were associated with increased participant well-being (particularly positive emotions). The conclusions of this pilot study discuss the strengths, limitations, and further developments of using robots with hospitalized children.

Due to the limitations on the capabilities of current robots regarding task learning and performance, imitation is an efficient social learning approach that endows a robot with the ability to transmit and reproduce human postures, actions, behaviors, etc., as a human does. Stable whole-body imitation and task-oriented teleoperation via imitation are challenging issues. In this paper, a novel comprehensive and unrestricted real-time whole-body imitation system for humanoid robots is designed and developed. To map human motions to a robot, an analytical method called geometrical analysis based on link vectors and virtual joints (GA-LVVJ) is proposed. In addition, a real-time locomotion method is employed to realize a natural mode of operation. To achieve safe mode switching, a filter strategy is proposed. Then, two quantitative vector-set-based methods of similarity evaluation focusing on the whole body and local links, called the Whole-Body-Focused (WBF) method and the Local-Link-Focused (LLF) method, respectively, are proposed and compared. Two experiments conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods and system are reported. Specifically, the first experiment validates the good stability and similarity features of our system, and the second experiment verifies the effectiveness with which complicated tasks can be executed. At last, an imitation learning mechanism in which the joint angles of demonstrators are mapped by GA-LVVJ is presented and developed to extend the proposed system.

The process of managing people in an organised way to assist a company in achieving its goals is known as human resources management. an increase in workplace stress, which is detrimental to an employee's health and well-being as well as the performance of the organisation. Certain guiding concepts and precepts are evergreen and can support the development of human resources while ensuring the wellbeing of the individual and the company. In this study, we examine how the methods and practices of yoga might benefit public organisations by lowering employee stress levels and boosting their altruism and greedlessness.

The pervasive use of plastic for milk packaging has raised significant health concerns, despite its advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness, convenience, and durability. The potential correlation between cancer and plastic packaging is one of these concerns. This mini-review examines the health implications of plastic materials used in milk packaging, with a particular emphasis on their carcinogenic hazards. This work endeavors to summarize the current state of knowledge regarding the influence of plastic components on human health and underscore the importance of ongoing research in this field by utilizing insights from a comprehensive review article. Harmful chemicals have been observed to leach into milk from plastics used in milk packaging, including high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), particularly under conditions of protracted storage and heat. Bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates, and styrene are among the most prevalent leachates. These chemicals have been associated with a variety of health issues, such as an elevated risk of cancer, and are recognized for their endocrine-disrupting properties. BPA and phthalates, in particular, have the potential to disrupt hormone function, which may result in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and other hormone-related malignancies.This review emphasizes the significance of comprehending the precise components of plastics utilized in milk packaging and their potential health consequences. It advocates for more rigorous research to completely elucidate the long-term health impacts of these materials by emphasizing the current state of knowledge and regulatory initiatives. Additionally, it underscores the necessity of innovative packaging technologies to guarantee consumer protection and mitigate the risk of exposure to carcinogenic substances.

This study is dedicated to the economic valuation of human capital in the regions where the Indigenous peoples of Kamchatka reside. The entire Kamchatksky Krai is considered an Indigenous people's ancestral territory. However, in this study, only municipalities whose population is more than one-third Indigenous were chosen for the assessment. This includes six municipal districts and one urban district (Aleytsky, Bystrinsky, Karaginsky, Olyutorsky, Penzhinsky, Tigilsky municipal districts and Palana urban district). The study employs statistical analysis and integrated, situational approaches: the investment approach was deemed the most appropriate tool for the economic assessment of human capital in Indigenous territories. The document analysis was based on a content analysis of open-access government documents and included legal acts, resolutions, orders, and other documents issued by federal, regional, and local authorities and pertaining to the economic activities of Kamchatka Indigenous peoples. Based on proposed calculation algorithm the assessed combined monetized value of human capital for the Kamchatka territories with large Indigenous populations at 38.8 billion rubles (approximately 520 million U.S. dollars) in 2021. It was observed that the growth of human capital in the Indigenous areas of Kamchatka between the years 2017 and 2021. The mean regional value of human capital per capita increased by more than twofold over this period. The accurate and precise assessment of human capital in the Kamchatka Indigenous homelands is provides baseline information necessary for the decision-making about economic development and sustainable development policies, and the approach proposed in this paper can be utilized by the Indigenous communities worldwide.

Abstract: Obesity and overweight also increasingly affect women of childbearing age and pregnant women. In maternal obesity, the activation of metabolic, inflammatory, and oxidative stress pathways is proven, which appears to be a key step in placental and uterus function pathological changes. Several recent studies have evidenced that aquaporins (AQPs) are critical players in adipose tissue biology and are involved in the onset of obesity. Our studies aimed to investigate the changes in placental volume and vascularization and measure the AQP5 expression and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in the placenta and uterus tissues in obese and normal-weight mothers. We also aim to measure the AQP5 plasma concentration. We found AQP5 dominance in the uterus and plasma at 34 weeks of normal pregnancy. The placental volume increased, and the vascularization decreased in obese mothers compared to the control. The AQP5 expression increased in the uterus of the obese group and did not change in the placenta. The TAC decreased in the plasma of overweight mothers. We hypothesize that increased AQP5 expression prolongs the length of pregnancy and inhibits the onset of contractions. Based on our findings, we can develop diagnostic tests and provide new targets for tocolytic drug development.

Wetlands play a crucial role not only in providing ecological services but also in enriching the cultural and spiritual life of human society. Despite this, their cultural values have often been overlooked. The formal recognition of cultural values began with the Ramsar Convention in the 1970s, which acknowledged wetlands as resources of great economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational value. The wetlands of Majuli are of profound cultural and socio-cultural importance, particularly in terms of religious and spiritual significance, as well as recreational value. This study examines the cultural services provided by the wetland ecosystem of Majuli, focusing on its significance in the local human-environment nexus. Utilizing a qualitative approach with quantitative aspects, data was collected from primary sources through observation, interviews, and group discussions, along with secondary sources such as books, journals, and web portals.

Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, is one of the most widely used over-the-counter analgesics and antipyretics globally. While generally considered safe when used as directed, excessive or prolonged use of paracetamol can lead to adverse effects on various organ systems within the human body. This comprehensive review explores the physiological mechanisms underlying paracetamol toxicity, its effects on different organs, risk factors for overdose, diagnostic methods, and potential management strategies.

Shrews (Soricidae) are common small wild mammals with a significant overlap in their habitats with humans and domestic animals. Currently, viruses from 24 families have been identified in shrews, including Adenoviridae, Arenaviridae, Arteriviridae, Astroviridae, Bornaviridae, Caliciviridae, Circoviridae, Coronaviridae, Filoviridae, Flaviviridae, Hantaviridae, Hepadnaviridae, Hepeviridae, Nairoviridae, Orthoherpesviridae, Paramyxoviridae, Parvoviridae, Phenuiviridae, Picornaviridae, Polyomaviridae, Poxviridae, Rhabdoviridae, Sedoreoviridae, and Spinareoviridae, which pose potential threats to humans and domestic animals. This review compiled fundamental information about shrews and provided a comprehensive summary of the viruses that have been detected in shrews, with the aim to facilitating a deeper understanding of shrews and the diversity and risks of their viruses for researchers and the general public.

Abattoir workers are liable to zoonotic infections from animals and animal products, pri-marily to diseases with asymptomatic and chronic clinical manifestations in animals such as brucellosis. No published reports exist on the seroprevalence of brucellosis in abattoir workers in South Africa. Therefore, this cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the occurrence and risk factors for Brucella exposure in abattoir workers in Gauteng Province. A total of 103 abattoir workers and managers from six abattoirs, where brucellosis-positive slaughtered cattle and sheep were previously detected, were interviewed, and tested with serological assays using the Rose Bengal test (RBT), BrucellaCapt, and IgG-ELISA. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered to consenting respondents to obtain infor-mation on risk factors for brucellosis. Of the 103 respondents tested, the distribution of fe-male and male workers was 16 (15.5%) and 87 (84.5%), respectively. The seroprevalence for exposure to brucellosis was 21/103 (20.4%, 95%CI: 13.1-29.5) using a combination of RBT, BrucellaCapt, or IgG-ELISA. For test-specific results, seroprevalences by RBT, BrucellaCapt, and IgG-ELISA were 13/103 (12.6%, 95%CI: 6.9-20.6), 9/103 (8.74%, 95%CI: 4.1-15.9) and 18/103 (17.5%, 95%CI: 10.7-26.2), respectively. Low-throughput abattoirs were identified as associated risk as 29.3% of workers were seropositive compared to 12.7% of workers in high-throughput abattoirs, which highlights that direct contact at abattoirs poses higher risk to workers than indirect and direct contact outside abattoirs. This study confirmed the occurrence of Brucella spp. antibodies among abattoir workers in South Africa, possibly due to occupational exposure to Brucella spp. and highlight the occupational hazard to workers. Furthermore, findings underscore that abattoir facilities can serve as points for active and passive surveillance for indicators of diseases of public health importance. We recommend periodic implementation of brucellosis testing of abattoir workers country-wide to establish baseline data for informing appropriate preventive practices and reduce the potential burden of infection rate among these high-risk workers.

Human longevity is an important but difficult goal due to the extreme complication of human body. If people could repeatedly transfer their consciousness from old bodies to new ones, their lifespan might be prolonged extremely. However, there are several difficulties which prevent the achievement of such a technique. In this paper, we propose an approach that can transfer human consciousness indirectly, and avoid or significantly relieve those difficulties. The strategy of our approach is to integrate the consciousnesses of two bodies (old and new) into a unique consciousness. By doing so, the consciousness is extended to the new body. After that, the consciousness shrinks and remains in the new body when the old body dies. This may also apply to integrating more than two bodies of human, or animal, or even across different species. After investigating thousands of literatures, we find quite strong evidence (related discoveries and technologies) that can support the proposed approach and its advantages. Beside prolonging human lifespan, the approach could also have other meaningful applications.

Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a common mitochondrial genetic disease, causing irreversible blindness in young individuals. Current treatments are inadequate, and there is no definitive cure. This study evaluates the effectiveness of delivering wildtype human NADH ubiquinone oxidoreductase subunit 4 (hND4) gene using mito-targeted AAV(MTSAAV) to rescue LHOH mice. We observed declining pattern electroretinograms amplitudes as mice aged across all groups (P&lt; 0.001), with significant differences among groups (P = 0.023, Control vs. LHON, P = 0.008; Control vs. Rescue, P = 0.228). Inner retinal thickness and intraocular pressure do not change significantly with age or groups. Compared to LHON mice, those rescued with wildtype hND4 exhibit improved retinal visual acuity (0.29± 0.1 cy/deg vs.0.15 ± 0.1 cy/deg) and increased functional hyperemia response (effect of flicker, P&lt;0.001, effect of Group, P=0.004; Interaction Flicker x Group, P&lt;0.001). Postmortem analysis shows a marked reduction in retinal ganglion cell density in the LHON group compared to the other groups (Effect of Group, P&lt;0.001, Control vs. LHON, P&lt;0.001, Control vs. Rescue, P=0.106). These results suggest that MTSAAV-delivered wildtype hND4 gene rescues, at least in part, visual impairment in an LHON mouse model and has the therapeutic potential to treat this disease.

Background. In the central-eastern region of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia more than two decades ago, a mountain area was identified where the population displays exceptional longevity, especially among men (the longevity Blue Zone, LBZ). This community was thoroughly investigated seeking to understand the underlying factors of this phenomenon. In the present study, 11 genetic markers previously associated with longevity in several long-lived populations were analyzed. Methods. APOE (rs429358 and rs7412), APOE promoter (rs449647, rs769446, and rs405509), ACE1 (rs1799752), IL6 ‒174G/C (rs1800795), TNFα ‒308G/A (rs1800629), FOXO3A (rs2802292), KLOTHO (rs9536314) and G6PD (c.563C→T) were investigated. PCR-based genotyping was performed following genomic DNA extraction from 150 nonagenarians living in the LBZ and 150 controls from a nearby area. Results. No significant deviation of the frequency of the analyzed markers was detected between the two groups except a weak association with the –174G&gt;C gene variant of the IL-6 gene (p=0.040), a major modulator of the inflammatory response. Conclusions. The findings of this study do not support a significant association of known genetic variants on survival in the population of the Sardinian LBZ. Other genetic or epigenetic traits might play a role not yet identified.

Convolution, recurrent and attention-based deep learning techniques have produced the most recent state-of-the-art results in multiple sensor-based human activity recognition (HAR) datasets. However, these techniques have high computing costs, restricting their use in low-powered devices. Different methods have been employed to increase the efficiency of these techniques; however, this often results in worse performance. Recently, pure MLP architectures have demonstrated competitive performance in vision-based tasks with lower computation costs than other deep-learning techniques. The MLP-Mixer is a pioneering pure MLP architecture that produces competitive results with state-of-the-art models in computer vision tasks. This paper shows the viability of the MLP-Mixer in sensor-based HAR. Furthermore, experiments are performed to gain insight into the Mixer modules essential for HAR, and a visual analysis of the Mixer’s weights is provided, validating the Mixer’s learning capabilities. As a result, the Mixer achieves an F1 score of 97%, 84.2%, 91.2% and 90% on the PAMAP2, Daphnet Gait, Opportunity Gestures and Opportunity Locomotion datasets, respectively, outperforming state-of-the-art models in all datasets except Opportunity Gestures.

Aortic dissection is a clinicopathological entity caused by rupture of the intima leading to a high mortality if not treated. Over time, diagnostic and investigative methods, antihypertensive therapy, and early referrals have resulted in improving outcomes according to registry data. Some data has also emerged from recent studies suggesting a link between Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection and aortic dissection. Furthermore, the use of microRNAs have also become increasingly widespread in the literature. These have been noted to play a role in aortic dissections with elevated levels noted in studies as early as 2017. This review aims to provide a broad and holistic overview of the role of miRNAs, while studying the role of HCMV infection in the context of aortic dissections. The role of long non-coding RNAs, circular RNAs and microRNAs are explored to identify changes in expression during aortic dissections. The use of such biomarkers may one day be translated into clinical practice to allow early detection and prognostication of outcomes and drive preventative and therapeutic options in the future.

The Necessity of Human resources beyond perception of human understanding towards the Evaluation of video quality or Data screening methodology is conducted based on human perception level since it is concerned with how visual content is perceived by a observer based on observations with his/ her perception on a particular video sequence. Therefore, we considered that the subject has to grade the encoded video sequences under certain test environment conditions based on ITU-Recommendations. Since Human perception is considered as the true judgment and precise measurement of visual content, data screening has became quite essential and quite comfortable to general public due to introduction of User Experience(UX) concept by User Experience community. The translations of A recurrent neural network is based on certain principles, for instance we considered natural language processing which is certainly adaptable towards understanding sequential data and use patterns to predict the consistency within observers. In our research, we adapted principles based on Recurrent Neural Networks while assuming consistency within observers for predicting video quality within data screening environment towards subjective experiments. Moreover,this research work explores the trade offs between Human perception on visual content and consistency of observations within individual observer.

Objective: This study aimed to validate the use of liquid phenol-based chemical peeling therapy for cervico-vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN and VaIN), with the goal of circumventing obstetric complications associated with surgical treatment. Methods: A total of 483 eligible women diagnosed with CIN and/or VaIN participated in this study. Participants underwent phenol-based chemical peeling therapy every 4 weeks until disease clearance. Disease clearance was determined by negative Pap tests for four consecutive weeks. HPV genotyping was conducted at the onset of the study and after disease clearance in select cases. Results: Among the 476 participants (excluding those with cancer), the number of treatment sessions until CIN/VaIN clearance ranged from 2 to 49 (median = 7 sessions). Forty-five participants (9.4%) underwent surgical treatments. Seven participants (1.5%) experienced recurrence, presenting with CIN2/VaIN2 or worse lesions; of these, three underwent LEEP, while four repeated the chemical peeling therapy. No obstetrical complications were noted among the 98 pregnancies following this therapy. The findings suggest that phenol-based therapy is safe and effective for CIN, although it requires numerous and lengthy treatments. Factors associated with resistance to this therapy include immune suppression, high-grade lesions, multiple HPV type infection, and direct or passive smoking.

Fruits, vegetables, and spices are natural sources of bioactive phytochemicals such as polyphenols, carotenoids, flavonoids, curcuminoids, terpenoids, and capsaicinoids, possessing multiple health benefits and relatively low toxicity. These compounds found in the diet play a central role in organism development and fitness. Given the complexity of the whole-body response to dietary changes, invertebrate model organisms can serve as valuable tools to examine the interplay between genes, signaling pathways, and metabolism. Drosophila melanogaster, an invertebrate model with its extensively studied genome, has more than 70% gene homology to humans and has been used as a model system in biological studies for a long time. The notable advantages of Drosophila as a model system, such as their low maintenance cost, high reproductive rate, short generation time and lifespan, and the high similarity of metabolic pathways between Drosophila and mammals, have encouraged the use of Drosophila in the context of screening and evaluating the impact of phytochemicals present in the diet. In this chapter, we summarize and review the benefits of Drosophila as a model system for use in the study of phytochemical ingestion and describe the previously reported effects of phytochemical consumption in Drosophila.

The high incidence of psychopathologies recorded in today's human society, correlated with the high percentages of biodiversity loss, point to the need for an interdisciplinary approach of the scientific fields under study – Neurosciences and Biodiversity Conservation. Thus, our approach here pre-sents, in a synergistic manner, the significant correlation between mental health and the increased values of biodiversity in the ecosystems located in the immediate vicinity, especially those located in the middle of cities. Our approach aims to emphasize the importance of biodiversity conservation in the context of preserving mental health and general well-being. There are a series of recent ex-perimental demonstrations that outline the influence of natural elements on the human psyche and implicitly the effects of nature in the prevention and reduction of stress, anxiety and depression. And beyond the cognitive barriers of humanity in relating to the surrounding biodiversity must lie the desire to know the values of biodiversity and the absolute importance of its conservation. The sustainable relationship between man and living nature, seen as a complex of biodiversity, is dealt with by a branch of science called Human Ecology. Therefore, this study emphasizes the crucial need to know and respect the connection between man and nature, based, since time immemorial, on biophilia. And with the regression of ignorance and the correlated approach of several scientific fields, some at the intersection of humanities and natural sciences, one can observe the progress of preserving the dynamic balance within the ecosystems and implicitly the preservation of mental health and human well-being.

The study was carried out to evaluate the microbiological quality of raw milk produced in Supare-Akoko of Ondo State, Nigeria. Two study areas (Supare and Akungba Villages) both in the Akoko South-West L.G.A. of Ondo State, in Nigeria's South-West geopolitical zone, were selected for the study. The study area served as the raw milk collection points. Raw milk samples were collected with the aid sterile container into the milking bucket and then transported to the laboratory of the Adekunle Ajasin University's department of microbiology in Akungba-Akoko, Ondo state, Nigeria, for further analysis. Several tests such as test for serial dilution, P_H measurement, gram staining, and biochemical analysis, to identify and evaluate the microbe species in the raw milk selected for the study.The findings showed that numerous microbe species, including Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Alcaligens, Actinomycetes, Enterobacteria, Licheniformis, Listeria, and Streptococcus species, were present in all of the raw milk samples. Therefore, the study recommended that there should be adequate awareness & education on handling of milk in the most hygienic way possible, as well as the establishment of bulk milk tanks and milk processing plants in key locations that could enable appropriate test and production of quality milk before the product is being made available to the general public for consumption.

The study was geared toward isolating, characterizing and identifying bacterial pathogen in sachet water in addition to determines the bacterial count of the sachet water sold in Obi Local Government Area. Twelve sachet water samples from different companies were analyzed using standard microbiological methods. The microorganism found are Escherichia Coli, Staphylococcus aures, Salmonella spp, with Staphlococuss aureus showing the highest incidence (50%), observed by Escherichia coli (29.17%) and Salmonella spp with the lowest occurrence (20.8%). The presence of these microbes in drinking water possesses a threat to life. The findings consequently suggest that some of the sachet water sold in obi L.G. A are not healthy for human intake and are risky to health. Hence there's need for strict concern and routine monitoring by regulatory agencies to make sure that appropriate treatment is applied inside the manufacturing of exceptional and safe sachet drinking water. This study is aimed to analyze the bacteriological quality of some selected sachet water in Obi Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria.

The commonly accepted definition of sustainability considers the availability of relevant resources to make an activity feasible and durable while also recognizing users' support as essential part of the social side of sustainability. IoT represents a disruption in the general scenario of computing for both users and professionals, The real expansion and integration of applications based on IoT depend on our capacity of exploring the necessary skills and professional profiles that are essential for implementation of IoT projects, but also on the perception of relevant aspects for users, e.g., on privacy, legal, IPR and security issues. Our participation in several EU-funded projects with focus in this area has enabled the collection of information on both sides of IoT sustainability through surveys but also collecting data from a variety of sources. Thanks to these varied and complementary sources of information, this article will explore the user and professional aspects for sustainability of Internet of Things in practice.

Scientific theories on the functioning and dysfunction of the human brain require a good understanding of both its development — before and after birth, and through maturation to adulthood — and its evolution from the ancestral primate brain. Adopting a complex-systems approach, here we propose that the apparent uniqueness of humans’ cognitive capacities might best be understood as emerging from multiple nested “virtuous cycles.” In particular, we propose that the intimate link that exists between oxygen metabolic loops, cortical expansion, and ultimately cognitive and social demands is a key driver of genetic developmental programs for the human brain. Overall, our proposed evolutionary model makes explicit mechanistic links between metabolism, molecular and cellular brain heterogeneity, and behaviour that may in time provide a clearer understanding of brain developmental trajectories and their disorders.

According to several evidence, forest environmental seems able to provide beneficial effects on functional and psychological parameters, related to cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory functions as well depression and anxiety. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a one-day forest walking in Selva di Castelfidardo (AN, Italy) on 37 participants aged 21-68, most of them living in either urban or suburban areas of large cities. We observed a statistically significant effect on sympathovagal balance by the means of heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body temperature, skin temperature, skin conductance, HRV parameters (AVNN, SDNN, rMSSD, pNN50, LF, HF, LF/HF ratio), oxygen oximetry, PEF, FEV1. A significant difference was also detected on the Perceived Stress Scale responses (19.27 pre vs 13.81 post-immersion, p=<0,05; -28,3% variation). Our data contribute to increase the body of literature about the effect of forest walking, adding data on an Italian area qualified for forest bathing.

Glyphosate (G)-based herbicidal formulations, such as the most commonly used one, Roundup (R), are major pesticides used worldwide on food and feed. Pregnant women may thus be frequently exposed to R compounds. These are composed of G, which is declared as the active principle, and other products contained in formulations, named formulants, which have been declared as inerts and diluents by the manufacturers. These formulants have, in fact, been demonstrated to be much more toxic than G, in particular to placental and embryonic human cells. In this work, we thus compared the effect of G and R, using placental perfusion ex vivo. R, but not G alone, was demonstrated to alter the placental permeability of a known small model molecule, antipyrine. Similar results were observed for the fetal venous flow rate. The transfer of G alone increases with time, but is significantly decreased in presence of its formulants. The perfusion of R provokes a destruction of fetal vessels, as demonstrated by immunohistochemistry. Formulants obviously alter the fetal-placental circulation and placental integrity according to time of exposure. Therefore, G does not appear to be the main toxic agent of R. Formulants, although undeclared, include polyoxyethanolamines, PAHs, or heavy metals, and may be responsible for this toxicity. These compounds are also present in other pesticides. The progressive blood flow reduction due to the toxic compounds of formulations may diminish the nutrient supply to the fetus, alter the development, and may enhance the poisoning effects. Although these are preliminary results, they could at least partially explain some adverse pregnancy outcomes in mothers exposed to pesticides or other environmental pollutants. The debate on glyphosate alone is proven insufficient for the understanding of the toxicity.

The article discusses the issues related to the safety of transport of dangerous goods by road. Research on accidents in transport unambiguously points to the human factor, which is most responsible for causing the accident. Determining the causes of driver unreliability in the hu-man-vehicle-environment system requires thorough research. Unfortunately, in this case, experimental research with human involvement is limited in scope. This leaves modeling and simulation of the behavior of the human factor, i.e., the driver transporting dangerous goods. The human being, due to its complexity, is a challenging element to parameterize. The literature presents various attempts to model human actions. In their work, the authors used heuristic methods, specifically fuzzy set techniques, to build a human factor model. In these models, human actions were specified using a verbal or linguistic description. The specificity of fuzzy sets allows to "naturally" limit the "precision" in describing human behavior. The model was built based on the author's questionnaire and expert research, based on which individual features were selected. Then, the traits were assigned appropriate states. The output parameter of the model is λL - the intensity of human error. The obtained values of the intensity of the accident caused by the driver's error were implemented into the author's method of risk assessment. They constituted one of the factors determining the probability of an accident in the transport of dangerous goods, which allowed to determine the optimal route of transport of these goods characterized by the lowest risk of an undesirable event on the route. The article presents the model's assumptions, structure, and features included in the model, which have the most significant influence on shaping the intensity of human error. The results of the simulation studies showed a diversified effect of the analyzed characteristics on the driver's efficiency.

Background: Endogenous Peptide Inhibitor of CXCR4 (EPI-X4) is a natural antagonist of the CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4). EPI-X4 is a 16-mer peptide that is released from human serum albumin (HSA) by acidic aspartic proteases such as Cathepsin D and E. Since human serum albumin (HSA) is an important medicinal substance we asked whether different pharmaceutical HSA products contain EPI-X4 which could have been generated during manufacturing and whether HSA can serve as a substrate for cathepsins despite of the presence of stabilizers like caprylate. Methods: Eight pharmaceutical HSA preparations representing all currently used fractionation technologies were analyzed. The previously described specific EPI-X4 ELISA was used for quantification; in vitro EPI-X4 generation by acidification in the presence or absence of cathepsins was followed by quantification with ELISA. Results: None of the pharmaceutical HSA preparations tested contained EPI-X4. Acidification of HSA did not generate EPI-X4. Addition of cathepsins D and E to acidified HSA yielded high concentrations of EPI-X4 in all HSA preparations, indistinguishable between individual products. Conclusion: Medicinal HSA preparations per se do not contain EPI-X4, but will replenish its precursor which can be cleaved to EPI-X4 in vivo, environmental conditions permitting.

We aimed to assess awareness, knowledge, and attitudes of healthy pregnant women towards human papillomavirus (HPV), to estimate factors associated with a positive attitude towards HPV immunization and to assess the uptake of the vaccine among their children. A cross-sectional study was conducted at the University Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Belgrade, Serbia among pregnant women attending their regular gynecological check-ups at the 12th gestational week. Knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccine was assessed using a specifically designed 12-item and 5-item questionnaires. Out of total 265 included women, 79.3% had heard of HPV, and 37.5% knew that HPV vaccine exists. HPV vaccine knowledge score was associated with higher odds for a positive attitude towards vaccination of both female (OR = 4.10, 95% CI 1.50-11.29) and male (OR = 3.71, 95% CI 1.52-9.01) child. The number of children (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.04-1.67) and high vaccine knowledge score (OR = 1.64 95% CI 1.13-2.39) were independent predictors associated with willingness to vaccinate child against HPV. The gynecologist was the preferable point of reference for information seeking about the HPV vaccine. Despite relatively high HPV awareness and knowledge among pregnant women in Serbia, about one-third of them are HPV vaccine aware, and are willing to vaccinate their children against HPV.

Social distancing policies put in place during COVID-19 epidemic in addition to helping to limit the spread of the disease also contributed to improving urban air quality. Here we show a decrease in air pollutant concentration as a consequence of mobility reduction in São Paulo during the containment measure which began on 22^nd March 2020. When comparing to foregoing weeks to equivalent periods of 2019, the concentration of most air pollutants sharply decreased in the first days of mobility restriction, to then increase again after government officials downplayed the threat of the disease. This trend is also followed by a decrease in hospital admissions by SARS-influenza. Therefore, despite the great economic and social unrest caused by the pandemic, this unique situation shows that large-scale mobility reduction policy had a significant impact on air quality, benefiting, directly and indirectly, the public health system.

The effect of proteolytic enzymes including Cathepsin K, a cysteine cathepsin, in onset and progression of cancers in human has been research intensive. Cathepsin K involves in many aspects and stages of cancers including apoptosis, cell proliferation, cancer immunology, inflammatory cell recruitment to tumors and aiding in the process of mobilization of normal healthy cells from their tissue compartments assisting in metastasis and angiogenesis. The objective of this review is to collect together and summarize and analyze the biochemical and physiological pathways of how cathepsin K is involved in onset and progression of cancers with more emphasis on breast and prostate cancers and cathepsin K regulated mechanisms underlying metastasis of such cancers to bones. Information for the review was gathered through published literature from global databases such as Google Scholar, PUBMED and NCBI on different studies on physiological interactions between enzymatic activity of cathepsin K with cancers and metastasis to bones. Analysis of published studies reveal that immunohistochemical studies of breast cancer cells indicate that they overexpress cathepsin K resulting in induction of aberrant mechanisms of cell signaling in breast cancers, creating a higher tendency for their metastasis to bones. Immunohistochemical, immunoprecipitation and fluorgenic assays of several studies done on the association of the same enzymatic activity on prostate cancers shows elevated levels of cathepsin K. Lesions derived from prostate cancer cell masses were observed to undergo increased bone formation and resorption levels. Such resorption levels cause secretion of biological factors promoting tumor expansion. In addition, studies indicate that Cathepsin K was observed to be a key component promoting higher bone resorption levels in patients suffering from cancer. Authors suggest that, to completely understand the association of cathepsin K on cancerous cells and their mechanism in metastasis, distributary patterns of cathepsin K in healthy human tissues needs to be extensively studied initially. It is also suggested that metastasis of breast and prostate cancers to bone could be terminated and overcome by successful production of efficient and precise inhibitory therapeutics targeting the enzymatic activity of Cathepsin K with minimum unintended adverse health effects.

The emergence of novel coronavirus strain 2019 (COVID-19) linked with pneumonia poses a serious threat to public health worldwide. Firstly, the COVID-19 was reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019. Initially, the major proportion of virus-infected cases (i.e. about 99%) was reported in China and now it is being reported in other counties as well. Humans begin to be infected within their communities and transmittance of the viral epidemic increased rapidly due to lack of understanding of its transmission routes and precautionary measures. The existence of COVID-19 in China threatened the population greatly due to the high incidence of fatal respiratory infections. Current investigations speculated that this virus transferred into a human from viral-infected bats. However, the process of interspecies viral transmission is an important scientific question to be addressed. Due to the continuous increase in the patients infected with COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) has included this viral epidemic to the priority list of diseases. Therefore, accelerated research developments are required to control the spread of this outbreak, as it is declared as a public health emergency by WHO especially in the absence of efficacious drugs and vaccines. Our review encompasses the recent status of disease severity in China, a particular replication mechanism of COVID-19 and potential risks and precautionary measures required to avoid contact with this fatal viral infection.

Starting from the fact that the units of local self-government of the Republic of Serbia are not sufficiently oriented towards innovations related to human resources and the environment, the application of quantitative research tradition examines the positioning and understanding of certain procedures and decisions of human resources management regarding the functioning of the environmental protection system, on the one hand, and future strategies for changing the given system, on the other. A series of 105 face-to-face interviews were conducted during the whole of 2016 in 105 of the 191 municipalities in the Republic of Serbia. Examination of the attitudes of the local self-government was carried out using a specially designed closed electronic questionnaire. The results of the multivariate regressions show that the most important predictor of the possible improvement of the environment is the size of the municipality. The remaining variables (e.g., human resources policy, human resources service) did not have significant effects on the ability to improve the environment. In more than half of local self-governments, there was no clearly defined human resources strategy in the field of environmental protection, an environmental protection service, an Environmental Action Plan, as well as an employment plan for waste management in local governments, etc. The research has shown that top managers of local governments agree that the management of human resources in environmental protection represents a significant opportunity to improve the quality of the environment. The results of the research can be used to improve the organization of human resource competence in environmental protection and the quality of a working and sustainable environment in the area of local self-government.

The environment impacts human health in profound ways, yet few theories define the form of the relationship between human physiology and the environment. Under current epidemiological constructs of causation, it is assumed that two complex systems (environment and humans) can transfer information directly. This is the underlying structure of the relationship when studies examine, for example, air pollution and brain health. In marked contrast, we conjecture that complex systems cannot interact directly, but rather such interaction requires the formation of an “interface”. Further, we contend that this dynamic, process-based interface incorporates components from all the interacting systems but exhibits operational independence. This property has many consequences, the foremost being that characteristics of the interface cannot be fully resolved by only studying the systems involved in the interaction. The interface itself must be the subject of inquiry. Without refocusing our attention on biodynamic interfaces, we cannot discern how our environment impacts health.

Academic interest in social and human capital is growing significantly. Similarly, their relationship with sustainability is increasing, especially compared to sustainability’s relationship with natural capital and financial and economic capital. Bibliometric and visualization research on these relationships is nonetheless insufficient. This study analyzes the evolution of the literature on natural capital, financial and economic capital, and social and human capital related to sustainability. On the other hand, the study presents a bibliometric analysis on social capital and human capital (SHC) related to sustainability. The article studies 635 references collected from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database and utilizes visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer program to graphically map the material. The analysis involves co-occurrence of keywords, co-citation, and co-authorship. The results reveal not only the state of the art and the leading trends, but also the evolution regarding impact, main journals, documents, topics, authors, institutions, and countries. The study provides researchers and practitioners with a visual and schematic frame of the research on this topic.

Humans are exposed to the environmental pollutants 2, 4-dichlorophenol (2, 4-DCP) and 2, 5-dichlorophenol (2, 5-DCP) through air, use of water and consuming products. In this study, we evaluated the urinary concentrations of these compounds in Korean people from the age of 18 to 69 years by making use of the data from the Korean National Human Biomonitoring Survey that was completed in 2009. Of 1,865 representative Koreans, 63.4% and 97.9% were found to have concentrations of 2, 4-DCP and 2, 5-DCP > 0.05 μg/L (limit of detection) in their urine. The geometric mean urinary concentrations were 0.14 μg/L (confidence interval of 95% = 0.13–0.16) and 0.44 μg/L (confidence interval = 0.41–0.48), respectively. It was fond that the adjusted proportional changes in 2, 4-DCP concentrations were significantly associated with body mass index, whereas those of 2, 5-DCP concentrations were influenced by place of residence. From these findings, it is evident that most adults in Korea have levels of 2, 4-DCP and 2, 5-DCP that are detectable in their urine and burden of these compounds on their bodies varies depending on numerous demographic factors.

A growing area in neurosciences is focused on the modeling and analysis the complex system of connections in neural systems, i.e. the connectome. Here we focus on the representation of connectomes by using graph theory formalisms. The human brain connectomes are usually derived from neuroimages; the analyzed brains are co-registered in the image domain and brought to a common anatomical space. An atlas is then applied in order to define anatomically meaningful regions that will serve as the nodes of the network - this process is referred to as parcellation. Recently, it has been proposed to perform atlas-free random brain parcellation into nodes and align brains in the network space instead of the anatomical image space to define network nodes of individual brain networks. In the network domain, the question of comparison of the structure of networks arises. Such question is tackled by modeling the comparison of brain network as a network alignment (NA) problem. In this paper, we first defined the NA problem formally, then we applied three existing state of the art of multiple alignment algorithms (MNA) on diffusion MRI-derived brain networks and we compared the performances. The results confirm that MNA algorithms may be applied in cases of atlas-free parcellation for a fully network-driven comparison of connectomes.

HPV vaccine induces a herd immunity effect in genital warts when a large number of the population is vaccinated. That aspect should be taken into account when devising new vaccine strategies, like vaccination at older ages or male vaccination. Therefore it is important to develop mathematical models with good predictive capacities. We devised a sexual contact network that was calibrated to simulate the Spanish epidemiology of different HPV genotypes. Through this model we simulated the scenario that occurred in Australia in 2007, where 12-13 year-old girls where vaccinated with a three-dose schedule of a vaccine containing genotypes 6 and 11, that protect against genital warts, and also a catch-up program in women up to 26 years of age. Vaccine coverage were 73 % in girls with three doses and with coverage rates decreasing with age until 52 % for 20-26 year-olds. A fast 59 % reduction in the genital warts diagnoses occurred in the model in the first years after the start of the program, similar to what was described in the literature.

When assessing potential mates is costly, there will be selection for copying others. Mate-choice copying, which is the increased chance of mating with another individual after observing them mating with someone else (i.e., individual-based copying), has been documented in several species, including humans. It is touted as an example of the influence of culture on animal and human mating, but alone it is unlikely to lead the cultural evolution of mating. Rather, it requires mate-choice copying with generalisation (i.e., trait-based copying), which is the effect of immediate observations on future mating. This sort of mate-choice copying has been documented in six species, including humans. Here, I extend an existing game-theory model of mate-choice copying to include generalization (Extension 1), a cost to immediate copying (Extension 2), and both previous extensions (Extension 3). The results show that Extensions 1 and 2 decrease the adaptive value of mate-choice copying when compared to the original model. Extension 3 suggests that adding generalisation to mate-choice copying with a cost to immediate copying is a more likely evolutionary trajectory than adding it to mate-choice copying without this cost These results have implications for illuminating the emergence of the cultural evolution of mating preferences.

The mosquito-borne zoonotic nematode parasites, Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens, primarily affect dogs. In recent years, their distribution has expanded due to various factors influencing vector-borne pathogens. This study aimed to investigate the comparative prevalence of infection in dogs and humans within a hyperenzootic region of Europe and to estimate the proportional relationship between infection prevalence in dogs and humans, in the concept of “One Health”. To this end, 604 blood samples from dogs and 625 serum samples from humans living in the Thrace region of northeastern Greece were collected. Dog samples were examined using Kott’s test for Dirofilaria spp. microfilariae and a commercial serological test for D. immitis antigen. Human sera were analysed by western blot for both parasites. The overall prevalence of infection in dogs was 177 (29.3%), with 173 (28.6%) testing positive for D. immitis and 7 (1.3%) for D. repens, including 6 (1%) cases of mixed infection. Specific IgG antibodies were detected in 42 (6.7%) human samples, with 24 (3.8%) positive for D. immitis and 18 (2.9%) for D. repens. The infection proportion in humans was 23.4% of the corresponding canine infection, indicating a high risk of human infection in this hyperenzootic region.

Scholars of the English Literature unanimously say that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis influenced each other writings. For the first time we have investigated this issue mathematically by using an original multi–dimensional analysis of linguistic parameters, based on surface deep–language variables and linguistic channels. To set our investigation in the framework of the English Liter-ature, we have considered some novels written by earlier authors, such as C. Dickens, G. Mac-Donald and others. The deep–language variables and the linguistic channels, discussed in the paper, are likely due to writers’ unconscious design and have revealed connections between texts far beyond writers’ awareness. In summary, the capacity of the extended short–term memory required to readers, the universal readability index of texts, the geometrical representation of texts and the fine tuning of linguistic channels within texts – all tools largely discussed in the paper – have revealed strong connections between The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien), The Chronicles of Narnia, The Space Trilogy (Lewis) and novels by MacDonald, therefore in agreement with what scholars of the English Literature say.

Globally, habitat fragmentation has increased the proximity between wildlife, humans, and emerging predators such as free-ranging dogs. In these fragmented landscapes, encounters between primates and dogs are escalating, with primates often falling victim to dog attacks while navigating patchy landscapes and fragmented forests. We aim to investigate how these primates deal with the simultaneous threats posed by humans and predators, specifically focusing on the adaptive strategies of Central Himalayan Langur (CHL) in the landscape of fear. To address this, we conducted a behavioral study on the CHL in an agro-forest landscape, studying them for a total of 3912 hours over two consecutive years. Our results indicate that, compared to their most common resting behavior, CHL allocate more time to feeding and locomotion, and less time to socializing in the presence of humans and predatory dogs. Additionally, they exhibit increased feeding and locomotion and reduced social behavior in agro-forest or open habitats. These behavioral patterns reflect adaptive responses to the landscape of fear, where the presence of predators significantly influences their behavior and resource utilization. This study suggests measures to promote coexistence between humans and wildlife through the integration of effective management strategies that incorporate both ecological and social dimensions of human-wildlife interactions.

The mathematical structure underlying a sentence is made of two independent processing units in series. The conditional probability density function of sentence length (measured in words) recordable in the extended short–term memory (E–STM) buffer made of CF cells is Gaussian. The number of sentences that authors of Italian and English Literatures have written is compared to that theoretically available to them. The multiplicity factor α describes this comparison. α&gt;1 is more likely than α&lt;1 and often α≫1, therefore the same sentence pattern is reused many times. These texts are easier to read. Very few novels show α&lt;1. In these cases, there are enough diverse sentence patters to convey meaning, but most of them are not used. Texts are more difficult to read, as measured by a universal readability index GU. A mismatch index IM synthetically describes the process. α, GU. and IM increase with year of publication. Future work will concern other literatures – including ancient ones as Greek and Latin – to confirm what, in our opinion, is general feature of human mind.

In On Revolution, Hannah Arendt makes the case that a constitution must account for the need of the human person to participate in the building of society, both as a primordial and continual action of founding. This paper draws on Arendt's insight on the relationship between privacy and the notion of property, both of which the constitution must protect, as it is dependent on those notions. Property in its fullest sense is the means by which a person interacts with others and establishes a society. Particularly important for this notion of engagement are the concepts of shame and the love of goodness. The actor emerges from the private sphere to interact with others on the strength of the secrecy and confidentiality of her intimate, private relationships. Property is therefore essential to human flourishing and happiness. Following this, the activity of constructing the public forum on the basis of the private is an important feature of Arendt's constitutionalism. Human action showers third-party esteem on the actor's family and friends, binding them to the constitutional structure and strengthening familial relationships and social cohesion.

There is a strong anticipated future for human pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes (hiPS-HEP), but so far their use has been limited due to insufficient functionality. We investigated the potential of hiPS-HEP as an in vitro model for metabolic diseases by combining transcriptomics with multiple functional assays. The transcriptomics analysis revealed that 86% of the genes were expressed at similar levels in hiPS-HEP as in human primary hepatocytes (hphep). Adult characteristics of the hiPS-HEP were confirmed by the presence of important hepatocyte features, e.g. Albumin secretion and expression of major drug metabolizing genes. Normal energy metabolism is crucial for modeling metabolic diseases, and both transcriptomics data and functional assays showed that hiPS-HEP were similar to hphep regarding uptake of glucose, LDL and fatty acids. Importantly, the inflammatory state of the hiPS-HEP was low under standard conditions, but in response to lipid accumulation and ER stress the inflammation marker TNFα was upregulated. Furthermore, hiPS-HEP could be co-cultured with primary hepatic stellate cells both in 2D and in 3D spheroids, paving the way for using these co-cultures for modeling NASH. Taken together, hiPS-HEP have the potential to serve as an in vitro model for metabolic diseases. Furthermore, differently expressed genes identified in this study can serve as targets for future improvements of the hiPS-HEP.

In the fast-changing world of software development, the protection of software products has emerged as an imperative requirement. This paper presents a new way to increase the maturity of development teams to reach the highest level of software security. Based on these, the framework uses the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy-AHP) to systematically evaluate and enhance the people maturity of software development projects. The essence of the fuzzy logic and AHP technique interaction is to handle the uncertainty and complexity of human factors and team dynamics in the evaluation framework. Using the decision-making model allows the project managers and stakeholders to determine the appropriate areas for improvement and develop the right strategies and actions to nurture a secure and mature development culture. The paper identifies 24 human success factors (HSFs) and human security vulnerabilities (HSVs) and 38 practices for addressing these HSFs and HSVs. Furthermore, we discuss the local and global ranks of each HSF and HSV practice and categorize the identified practices into 9 categories to determine the ranks and weight of each category. Based on collected data, FAHP prioritized these practices; the category “C4: Skill Development and Stakeholder Engagement” is ranked highest at rank-1 and possesses the most significant weight of 0.12435. Similarly, the highest global weight is 0.051506, and the global ranked (rank-1) HSF and HSV practice is “P15: Hands-On Practice and Stakeholder Communication”. Research evidence and case discussions show how the described framework assists in building secure software development (SSD) practices, which can be considered evidence of the application of team maturity to improve cybersecurity in organizations. Additional research directions include improving the framework, especially using highly developed learning techniques and applying the framework to other forms of development.

To meet the calls of the International Labor Organization and National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health, this paper discusses how to build Occupational, Health, Safety (OSH), and Well-Being competence by expanding education to non-traditional undergraduate disciplines. The authors provide (1) theoretical background on why this would benefit society as a whole, (2) learning theory strategies for teaching OHS and Well-being outside of traditional majors, (3) case studies of how this can occur in undergraduate classes and (4) opportunities and challenges for the future.

This paper argues that the neoliberal consensus about education finance has broken down due to growing economic inequality. First, I use a comparative historical analysis of political alliances to examine patterns of world trade and nations’ policies for economic and educational development since World War II. The United States emphasized STEM-collegiate preparation for all students, while most countries continued the dual emphasis on technical-tertiary and higher education. Educational policy in the US and Pacific region also shifted to reliance on markets and student loans resulting in worsening economic inequality in access. Nations with dual technical and academic pathways in secondary and postsecondary education systems expand college enrollment rates more rapidly than the US. They also experience class conflict between the working-middle class and the new technology elite. Next, I examine how education policy shifted from national planning aligned with public funding to market-based incentives for institutional development, further exposing gaps in opportunity within nations. Finally, recognizing the variations in systemic causes of inequality, I argue that governments, education agencies, and civic activists can best promote equity by organizing to address barriers to opportunity for groups left behind in the wake of withering neoliberal education policy.

Mumps is the second-most reported infectious disease in South Korea; however, due to the low pathogen confirmation rate in laboratory diagnoses, we proposed a method for reevaluating the high incidence rate via the laboratory verification of other viral diseases. In 2021, 63 cases of pharyngeal or cheek mucosal swabs of suspected mumps cases in Gwangju, South Korea, were assessed for causative pathogens using massive simultaneous pathogen testing (TaqManTM Array Cards). More than one respiratory virus was detected in 60 cases (95.2%), 44 (73.3%) of which were co-detected. Human rhinovirus was detected in 47 cases, followed by human herpesvirus (HHV)6 in 30; HHV4 (17), human bocavirus (17), HHV5 (10), and human parainfluenza virus 3 (6) were also detected. Our findings suggest the need for further investigations on the pathogenesis of diseases mimicking mumps, which are considered to aid with appropriate public health responses, treatment, and the prevention of infectious disease outbreaks.

Affective computing in general and human activity and intention analysis in particular, is a rapidly growing field of research. Head pose and emotion changes, present serious challenges when applied to player’s training and ludology experience in serious games or analysis of customer satisfaction regarding broadcast and web services or monitoring a driver’s attention. Given the increasing prominence and utility of depth sensors, it is now feasible to perform large-scale collection of three-dimensional (3D) data for subsequent analysis. Discriminative random regression forests was selected in order to rapidly and accurately estimate head pose changes in unconstrained environment. In order to complete the secondary process of recognising four universal dominant facial expressions (happiness, anger, sadness and surprise), emotion recognition via facial expressions (ERFE) was adopted. After that, a lightweight data exchange format (JavaScript Object Notation-JSON) is employed, in order to manipulate the data extracted from the two aforementioned settings. Motivated by the need of generating comprehensible visual representations from different sets of data, in this paper we introduce a system capable of monitoring human activity through head pose and emotion changes, utilising an affordable 3D sensing technology (Microsoft Kinect sensor).