Maha H. Jamal, Rawan S. AlRashdi, Duaa M. Bakhshwin
et al.
Objective:
To evaluate the effects of a piceatannol-loaded self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (PIC-SNEDDS) on wound healing in diabetic rats and its mechanisms of wound healing action.
Methods:
Diabetes was induced in rats using streptozotocin, after which full-thickness excisional wounds were created. Piceatannol was administered topically either as a raw hydrogel or formulated into a PIC-SNEDDS, which was prepared using an optimized oil-surfactant mixture and incorporated into a hydrogel for application. Wound healing activity was assessed through measurements of wound contraction, oxidative stress biomarkers, and collagen content, along with histological and immunohistochemical evaluation of inflammatory, angiogenic, and remodeling markers.
Results:
PIC-SNEDDS markedly enhanced diabetic wound healing by promoting epithelial regeneration, granulation tissue formation, epidermal proliferation, and keratinization. The formulation also reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory markers (interleukin-6, nuclear factor-kappa B, and tumor necrosis factor-α) while increasing α-smooth muscle actin, transforming growth factor-β1, vascular endothelial growth factor-A, and hydroxyproline levels. Additionally, it improved antioxidant status by lowering malondialdehyde levels and boosting superoxide dismutase and catalase activity, along with upregulation of COL1A1 mRNA expression.
Conclusions:
PIC-SNEDDS promotes the healing of diabetic wounds and exhibits anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, pro-collagen, and angiogenic properties.
As part of his work on special Lagrangian (sLag) submanifolds with isolated conical singularities, Joyce proved a criterion for the existence of sLag smoothings, along a small variation of complex structure, for the union of two connected, compact, embedded sLags, with the same phase, intersecting transversely. Here we construct infinitely many examples of pairs of non-compact, embedded sLags, of the same phase and with arbitrary dimension, intersecting only at infinity in a non-transverse way, which satisfy Joyce's criterion: along a small variation of complex structure, a sLag smoothing of their union exists on the stable locus where a slope inequality for periods of the holomorphic volume form holds. At least under a natural symmetry assumption, this slope inequality is also necessary for the existence of such smoothing. Our approach uses the Leung-Yau-Zaslow transform and the analysis of deformed Hermitian Yang-Mills connections with Calabi ansatz, due to Jacob and Sheu. In the unstable case, we prove that if a family of Lagrangian smoothings evolving under the natural Calabi-symmetric version of the mean curvature flow (due to Chan and Jacob) admits a limit, then this must be the union of the original sLags. As an application we show that in our examples, in dimension two, the condition for the existence of the sLag smoothing is in fact equivalent to the stability of the corresponding object in the Fukaya-Seidel category, with respect to a known Bridgeland stability condition imported from algebraic geometry, and in the unstable case the limit of the Calabi-symmetric mean curvature flow in our result coincides with the Harder-Narasimhan decomposition, consistently with a general conjecture of Joyce. A similar (although weaker) result also holds in dimension three.
Дмитро АНРДЄЄВ, Олексій ЛИГУН, Андрій ДРОЗД
et al.
Critical infrastructures are fundamental to the seamless operation of modern societies, encompassing sectors such as energy, healthcare, transportation, and communications. Ensuring their reliability, performance, continuous operation, safety, maintenance, and protection is a national priority for countries worldwide.
The digital twins play a crucial role in critical infrastructure, as they enhance security, resilience, reliability, maintenance, continuity, and operational efficiency across all sectors. Among the benefits offered by digital twins are intelligent and autonomous decision-making, process optimization, improved traceability, interactive visualization, and real-time monitoring, analysis, and prediction. Furthermore, the study revealed that digital twins have the capability to bridge the gap between physical and virtual environments, can be used in combination with other technologies, and can be integrated into various contexts and industries.
The use of digital twins was explored as the foundation for developing a modern monitoring system for critical infrastructure facilities enables multi-level assessment of asset conditions in real time, ensuring precise threat detection, anomaly identification, and timely decision-making. Integration with artificial intelligence and big data technologies allows not only the collection and analysis of large volumes of information but also the creation of adaptive behavioral models for systems in emergency situations.
Special attention was given to the method of optimizing critical IT infrastructure using digital twins, which combines virtual modeling, predictive algorithms, and automated management. The proposed approach enhances the reliability of digital systems, minimizes downtime, optimizes maintenance costs, and strengthens cybersecurity. This system is especially relevant in the context of growing risks and increasing demands for the stability of strategically important infrastructure assets.
The application of digital twins for monitoring and optimizing critical infrastructure demonstrates considerable potential for improving its resilience, safety, and operational efficiency. The approaches discussed in the study confirm the relevance of implementing digital models as tools for timely risk identification, failure prediction, and informed decision-making. By integrating such technologies, organizations can reduce operational costs, minimize downtime, and improve the overall stability of infrastructure operations. Therefore, digital twins represent a vital step toward the digital transformation and modernization of mission-critical systems across various sectors.
Ritam Ghosh, Nibraas Khan, Miroslava Migovich
et al.
BackgroundApathy is common among older adults residing in long-term care (LTC) and impairs quality of life for both older adults and care providers. Few pharmacological remedies exist, and nonpharmacologic approaches that engage those with apathy require extensive personnel time. Thus, technological approaches have been encouraged, including virtual reality (VR) and socially assistive robots (SAR). Despite a growing interest in their use, input from older adults and staff is often absent in their design. Involving older adults in the development of interactive health technologies is necessary to enhance the functionality, usability, and likelihood of promoting the intended health outcomes.
ObjectiveWe aimed to design and evaluate SAR and nonimmersive VR (SAR-VR) activities for pairs of older adults that would encourage human-to-human interaction, an essential activity to mitigate apathy.
MethodsWe implemented a multistep, user-centered design. A humanoid and dog SAR were used in combination with nonimmersive VR activities for pairs of older adults. An interdisciplinary team of engineers, nurses, and physicians collaborated with older adults and staff to create 4 activity prototypes, 3 with the humanoid robot and 1 with the dog robot. A total of 14 older adults at 2 sites participated in the design and evaluation of the different components of the system throughout all stages. Site 1 participants were instrumental in the development, and Site 2 participants validated the prototype activities. Data were collected at each session via observations, interviews, and a 6-item questionnaire that rated their degree of comfort and confidence in (1) using the wands, (2) interacting with the robot, and (3) interacting with the nonimmersive VR environment using a 5-point Likert response. Additionally, 5 staff from Site 2 were recruited to evaluate the ease of setting up and running the system at 2 different sessions. After each session, the system setup and interface were refined based on their feedback.
ResultsA total of 4 of 6 older adults (mean age 85, SD 9.3 years; 2 male) at Site 1 completed field testing development, and 8 residents (mean age 80, SD 4.7 years; 2 male) at Site 2 completed field testing validation. Participant comfort and confidence increased significantly over successive iterations of the system across most categories (Site 1: Wilcoxon signed rank test P=.03; Site 2: Wilcoxon signed rank test P<.001). Additionally, 5 LTC staff members successfully set up the system with minimal cueing from the researchers, demonstrating the usability of the system for caregivers. Iterative design changes incorporated hardware, software, and activity domains.
ConclusionsThese initial results demonstrate that LTC older adults and staff are capable and critical to the development and implementation of SAR-VR activities. Future studies are needed to evaluate the feasibility of implementation and effectiveness in reducing apathy.
Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT05178992; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05178992
Irene A. Kretchy, Deborah Atobrah, David A. Adumbire
et al.
Abstract Background Malaria infection in pregnancy is a critical determinant of maternal and neonatal health outcomes in endemic regions. Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) using sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine has been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), but its uptake remains low because of factors such as gender norms and expectations. However, interventions to optimize IPTp uptake, especially in malaria-endemic regions, have resulted in a decline in malaria during pregnancy, maternal and neonatal mortality, low birth weight, and placental parasitaemia. This scoping review aimed to synthesize evidence on IPTp uptake, particularly emphasizing gender-related strategies. Methods The modified version of Arksey and O'Malley's framework and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) were adopted for this review. Documents were retrieved from the following electronic databases and search engines: scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL Complete (EBSCO), PubMed, WHO, Global Index Medicus, and Google Scholar. The titles and abstracts of the publications were independently screened via Rayyan review management software, and the data were organized using the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance (RE-AIM) framework and gender analysis matrix. Results A total of 32 studies met the inclusion criteria. The most reported criterion was the effectiveness of the interventions, which demonstrated an increase in IPTp uptake after the intervention. The gender analysis framework revealed that involving both men and women in decision-making processes, empowering women, and promoting shared roles could improve the success of IPTp interventions. Conclusions Interventions to increase IPTp uptake should be targeted at empowering women through education, increasing financial independence, and making decisions about their health.
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine, Infectious and parasitic diseases
This paper investigates the specific scenario of high-intensity confrontations between humans and robots, to understand how robots can defuse the conflict. It focuses on the effectiveness of using five different affective expression modalities as main drivers for defusing the conflict. The aim is to discover any strengths or weaknesses in using each modality to mitigate the hostility that people feel towards a poorly performing robot. The defusing of the situation is accomplished by making the robot better at acknowledging the conflict and by letting it express remorse. To facilitate the tests, we used a custom affective robot in a simulated conflict situation with 105 test participants. The results show that all tested expression modalities can successfully be used to defuse the situation and convey an acknowledgment of the confrontation. The ratings were remarkably similar, but the movement modality was different (ANON p$<$.05) than the other modalities. The test participants also had similar affective interpretations on how impacted the robot was of the confrontation across all expression modalities. This indicates that defusing a high-intensity interaction may not demand special attention to the expression abilities of the robot, but rather require attention to the abilities of being socially aware of the situation and reacting in accordance with it.
Nawshin Mannan Proma, Gricel Vázquez, Sepeedeh Shahbeigi
et al.
As industrial autonomous ground vehicles are increasingly deployed in safety-critical environments, ensuring their safe operation under diverse conditions is paramount. This paper presents a novel approach for their safety verification based on systematic situation extraction, probabilistic modelling and verification. We build upon the concept of a situation coverage grid, which exhaustively enumerates environmental configurations relevant to the vehicle's operation. This grid is augmented with quantitative probabilistic data collected from situation-based system testing, capturing probabilistic transitions between situations. We then generate a probabilistic model that encodes the dynamics of both normal and unsafe system behaviour. Safety properties extracted from hazard analysis and formalised in temporal logic are verified through probabilistic model checking against this model. The results demonstrate that our approach effectively identifies high-risk situations, provides quantitative safety guarantees, and supports compliance with regulatory standards, thereby contributing to the robust deployment of autonomous systems.
Over more than three decades, the Situation Calculus has established itself as an elegant, powerful, and concise formalism for specifying dynamical domains as well as for reasoning about the effects of actions of those domains both in the world and in the mental state of the modelled agents. Moreover, it has also been established that the preconditions of a given action and its effects may be determined entirely by the current situation alone, or they may be determined by past situations as well. When past situations are involved in determining action preconditions and effects, resulting theories are non-Markovian. Assuming a specification of actions that produce obligations, we consider using non-Markovian control in the Situation Calculus to specify different notions of obligations found in the literature. These notions have been specified using Event Calculus; but, as far as we know, they have never been specified using the Situation Calculus. The specifications in this paper yield intuitive properties that ensure the correctness of the whole endeavour.
Closing the research-to-practice gap in special education requires high-quality training that enables educators to generalize evidence-based practices (EBPs) across students, settings, and situations. In this systematic review, we identified 52 studies published in 50 articles that measured generalization of teacher, pre-service teacher, or paraeducator fidelity of practices for students with disabilities. Most studies used a combination of didactic instruction, roleplay, modeling, and performance feedback to train practitioners to implement educational practices. Consistent with previous reviews, most studies (77%) did not report using any specific approach to promote generalization of practitioner implementation. Results showed that although this approach did sometimes lead to generalization, results were mixed. In other studies, researchers programmed for generalization using strategies such as mediating generalization, training educators to generalize, or sequential modification through performance feedback. We offer suggestions for how researchers can design studies to measure generalized effects, and how educators can leverage strategies for generalization.
Situation recognition refers to the ability of an agent to identify and understand various situations or contexts based on available information and sensory inputs. It involves the cognitive process of interpreting data from the environment to determine what is happening, what factors are involved, and what actions caused those situations. This interpretation of situations is formulated as a semantic role labeling problem in computer vision-based situation recognition. Situations depicted in images and videos hold pivotal information, essential for various applications like image and video captioning, multimedia retrieval, autonomous systems and event monitoring. However, existing methods often struggle with ambiguity and lack of context in generating meaningful and accurate predictions. Leveraging multimodal models such as CLIP, we propose ClipSitu, which sidesteps the need for full fine-tuning and achieves state-of-the-art results in situation recognition and localization tasks. ClipSitu harnesses CLIP-based image, verb, and role embeddings to predict nouns fulfilling all the roles associated with a verb, providing a comprehensive understanding of depicted scenarios. Through a cross-attention Transformer, ClipSitu XTF enhances the connection between semantic role queries and visual token representations, leading to superior performance in situation recognition. We also propose a verb-wise role prediction model with near-perfect accuracy to create an end-to-end framework for producing situational summaries for out-of-domain images. We show that situational summaries empower our ClipSitu models to produce structured descriptions with reduced ambiguity compared to generic captions. Finally, we extend ClipSitu to video situation recognition to showcase its versatility and produce comparable performance to state-of-the-art methods.
Nicolás Riera-López, Francisco Aranda-Aguilar, Montse Gorchs-Molist
et al.
Abstract Introduction Stroke is the most common time-dependent pathology that pre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) are confronted with. Prioritisation of ambulance dispatch, initial actions and early pre-notification have a major impact on mortality and disability. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to disruptions in the operation of EMS due to the implementation of self-protection measures and increased demand for care. It is crucial to evaluate what has happened to draw the necessary conclusions and propose changes to improve the system’s strength for the future. The study aims to compare prehospital time and neuroprotective care metrics for acute stroke patients during the first wave of COVID-19 and the same periods in the years before and after. Methods Analytical, observational, multicentre study conducted in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia, and Madrid in the pre-COVID-19 (2019), “first wave” of COVID-19 (2020) and post-COVID-19 (2021) periods. Consecutive non-randomized sampling. Descriptive statistical analysis and hypothesis testing to compare the three time periods, with two by two post-hoc comparisons, and multivariate analysis. Results A total of 1,709 patients were analysed. During 2020 there was a significant increase in attendance time of 1.8 min compared to 2019, which was not recovered in 2021. The time of symptom onset was recorded in 82.8% of cases, and 83.3% of patients were referred to specialized stroke centres. Neuroprotective measures (airway, blood glucose, temperature, and blood pressure) were performed in 43.6% of patients. Conclusion During the first wave of COVID-19, the on-scene times of pre-hospital emergency teams increased while keeping the same levels of neuroprotection measures as in the previous and subsequent years. It shows the resilience of EMS under challenging circumstances such as those experienced during the pandemic.
Special situations and conditions, Medical emergencies. Critical care. Intensive care. First aid
Jodie G. Dakic, Jean Hay-Smith, Kuan-Yin Lin
et al.
Abstract Background Women participate in sport at lower rates than men, and face unique challenges to participation. One in three women across all sports experience pelvic floor (PF) symptoms such as urinary incontinence during training/competition. There is a dearth of qualitative literature on women’s experiences of playing sport/exercising with PF symptoms. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of symptomatic women within sports/exercise settings and the impact of PF symptoms on sports/exercise participation using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Results Twenty-three women (age 26–61 years) who had experienced a breadth of PF symptom type, severity and bother during sport/exercise participated in one–one interviews. Women played a variety of sports and levels of participation. Qualitative content analysis was applied leading to identification of four main themes: (1) I can’t exercise the way I would like to (2) it affects my emotional and social well-being, (3) where I exercise affects my experience and (4) there is so much planning to be able to exercise. Women reported extensive impact on their ability to participate in their preferred type, intensity and frequency of exercise. Women experienced judgement from others, anger, fear of symptoms becoming known and isolation from teams/group exercise settings as a consequence of symptoms. Meticulous and restrictive coping strategies were needed to limit symptom provocation during exercise, including limiting fluid intake and careful consideration of clothing/containment options. Conclusion Experiencing PF symptoms during sport/exercise caused considerable limitation to participation. Generation of negative emotions and pain-staking coping strategies to avoid symptoms, limited the social and mental health benefits typically associated with sport/exercise in symptomatic women. The culture of the sporting environment influenced whether women continued or ceased exercising. In order to promote women’s participation in sport, co-designed strategies for (1) screening and management of PF symptoms and (2) promotion of a supportive and inclusive culture within sports/exercise settings are needed.
Sungbok Shin, Andrea Batch, Peter W. S. Butcher
et al.
The advent of low cost, accessible, and high performance augmented reality (AR) has shed light on a situated form of analytics where in-situ visualizations embedded in the real world can facilitate sensemaking based on the user's physical location. In this work, we identify prior literature in this emerging field with a focus on situated analytics. After collecting 47 relevant situated analytics systems, we classify them using a taxonomy of three dimensions: situating triggers, view situatedness, and data depiction. We then identify four archetypical patterns in our classification using an ensemble cluster analysis. We also assess the level which these systems support the sensemaking process. Finally, we discuss insights and design guidelines that we learned from our analysis.
Fitzroy J. Henry, Beverly Lawrence, Melissa Nelson
Objective. To assess the ability of low-income families to obtain a standard basket of healthy foods before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods. The costs of 191 food items were averaged from supermarkets, municipal markets, wholesalers, and community food outlets in high- and low-income areas in three Caribbean countries. The analysis compared foods not only by selecting high- and low-ranked commodities but by the proportions of those foods, by food group, that will be required to meet a low-cost, nutritionally balanced diet of 2 400 kcal.
Results. The main finding was that low-income households will need between 22% and 47% of their earnings to obtain a healthy diet. Despite higher food prices in Saint Kitts and Nevis, low-income households there will need a smaller proportion of their income to obtain a similar basket of foods than in Jamaica or Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Conclusions. While the COVID-19 pandemic has added economic stressors to low-income households the basic vulnerability of the poor to obtain a healthy diet remains. Despite country variations, the findings point to the need for an increase in the minimum wage, particularly in Jamaica. It is essential to embed policies that ensure reduced economic and social vulnerability at the household level.
Dheeraj Rajagopal, Aman Madaan, Niket Tandon
et al.
Recently, models have been shown to predict the effects of unexpected situations, e.g., would cloudy skies help or hinder plant growth? Given a context, the goal of such situational reasoning is to elicit the consequences of a new situation (st) that arises in that context. We propose a method to iteratively build a graph of relevant consequences explicitly in a structured situational graph (st-graph) using natural language queries over a finetuned language model (M). Across multiple domains, CURIE generates st-graphs that humans find relevant and meaningful in eliciting the consequences of a new situation. We show that st-graphs generated by CURIE improve a situational reasoning end task (WIQA-QA) by 3 points on accuracy by simply augmenting their input with our generated situational graphs, especially for a hard subset that requires background knowledge and multi-hop reasoning.
Abstract City bus drivers are facing increasingly stressful work situations. In urban areas, bus drivers are competing for limited road space with various vehicles in mixed traffic conditions. This mixed traffic flow condition may not only cause traffic congestion problems but also increase the driving fatigue of a city bus driver. In addition, the average number of elderly passengers are increasing. Constrained by their physical conditions, elderly passengers usually take more time to get on or off a bus and require a city bus driver’s special attention or help. An increase in elderly passengers using city buses may increase the bus driver’s stress and/or fatigue levels. This study developed a structural equation model to investigate the causal relationships between a vector of stress factors and city bus drivers’ fatigue levels from a risk management perspective. The empirical study results based on a questionnaire survey indicated that mixed traffic flow conditions and the characteristics of elderly passengers are positively correlated with the levels of driving fatigue in city bus drivers. An increase in the number of motor scooters in a traffic stream and/or elderly passengers on a bus will lead to higher levels of mental fatigue for a city bus driver. This study discussed the effects of several stressors on a city bus driver’s fatigue and provided suggestions for changes in policies to ensure the fatigue mitigation of city bus drivers.
Nicolás Gómez-Álvarez, Francisco Moyano, Elías Huichaqueo
et al.
El objetivo de este estudio fue comparar los efectos de un calentamiento con aplicación de saltos cargados y sin carga sobre el tiempo en sprint de 20 metros, saltos horizontales y saltos verticales en jugadores juveniles de balonmano. La muestra estaba conformada por 13 jugadores de balonmano (16,2 ± 1,3 años) de San Carlos. Se realizó un estudio experimental con un diseño crossover aleatorizado. Se aplicaron 3 protocolos de calentamiento distintos, que implicaban correr más estiramientos dinámicos (CE); correr, estiramientos dinámicos y saltos (CES), y, finalmente, correr, estiramientos dinámicos y saltos cargados con el 8 % de su peso corporal (CESH). Para las evaluaciones pre- y poscalentamiento, se utilizó un test de salto contramovimiento (CMJ), salto horizontal (SH) y sprint de 20 metros cronometrado. Los resultados muestran diferencias significativas entre pre- y postest para los 3 grupos en el SH (diferencias para CES: 0,09 ± 0,12; CESH: 0,12 ± 0,16 y CE: 0,07 ± 0,16), mientras que solo CES y CESH mejoraron significativamente la altura en CMJ y tiempo en el sprint de 20 metros (diferencia para CMJ: 2,95 ± 0,56 y 3,50 ± 0,73; y sprint de 20 m: 0,29 ± 0,31 y 0,20 ± 0,26, respectivamente). En conclusión, un calentamiento que incluye distintos tipos de saltos es eficaz para mejorar SH, CMJ y velocidad en 20 metros. Es necesario realizar más investigación, para determinar beneficios específicos de saltos con halteras de manos que mejoren el rendimiento físico.
Jessica M. Perkins, Paul Krezanoski, Sae Takada
et al.
Abstract Background Mosquito net use is an essential part of malaria prevention. Although previous research has shown that many people sleep under a mosquito net in endemic areas, it is unknown whether people underestimate how common it is to sleep under a net every night. Furthermore, perceived social norms about whether most others sleep under a mosquito net every night may contribute to personally sleeping under a net, given decades of research showing that people often mimic others’ behaviours. Methods Population-based data were collected from 1669 adults across eight villages in one rural parish in southwestern Uganda. Individuals’ perception about whether most adults in their community sleep under a mosquito net every night was compared with whether daily mosquito net use was the actual norm in their community to identify the extent of norm misperception. The association between whether an individual perceived daily mosquito net use to be the norm and personal mosquito net use was assessed while adjusting for the ratio of nets:people in the household and other factors. Results Although the majority (65%) of participants reported sleeping under a mosquito net every night (and 75% did so among the 86% of people with at least one net), one-quarter of participants thought that most adults in their community did not sleep under a mosquito net every night. Another 8% were unsure how many nights per week most adults in their community sleep under a mosquito net. Participants who perceived that daily mosquito net use was the norm were 2.94 times more likely to report personally sleeping under a mosquito net every night (95% CI 2.09–4.14, p < 0.001) compared to participants who thought doing so was not normative, adjusting for other factors. Conclusions Results suggest an opportunity for anti-malarial interventions to reduce misperceptions about mosquito net use norms and emphasize the commonness of daily mosquito net use in malaria-endemic regions. If people correctly perceive most others to sleep under a net every night, then they may personally do so when possible and support others to do so too.
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine, Infectious and parasitic diseases