Search Results (89)

This study proposes a non-semantic multimodal approach to predict segment access frequency (SAF) in lecture archives. Such archives, widely used as supplementary resources in modern education, often consist of long, unedited recordings that are difficult to navigate and review efficiently. The predicted SAF, an indicator of student viewing behavior, serves as a practical proxy for student engagement. The increasing volume of recorded material renders manual editing and annotation impractical, making the automatic identification of high-SAF segments crucial for improving accessibility and supporting targeted content review. The approach focuses on lecture archives from a real-world blended learning context, characterized by resource constraints such as no specialized hardware and limited student numbers. The model integrates multimodal features from instructor’s actions (via OpenPose and optical flow), audio spectrograms, and slide page progression—a selection of features that makes the approach applicable regardless of lecture language. The model was evaluated on 665 labeled one-minute segments from one such course. Experiments show that the best-performing model achieves a Pearson correlation of 0.5143 in 7-fold cross-validation and 61.05% average accuracy in a downstream three-class classification task. These results demonstrate the system’s capacity to enhance lecture archives by automatically identifying key segments, which aids students in efficient, targeted review and provides instructors with valuable data for pedagogical feedback. Full article

Lifelong learning, particularly in adult education, has gained considerable attention due to rapid lifestyle changes, including pandemic-induced lockdowns. This research targets adult learners returning to higher education after gap years, emphasizing their preference for technology with clear, practical benefits. However, many still need help operating digital media. This research aims to identify best practices for sustainably providing digital scientific materials to students by examining respondents’ tendencies in viewing journal article pages and scientific posters, with a focus on layout designs that include both textual and schematic elements. The research questions focus on (1) identifying the characteristics of Areas of Interest (AoI) that effectively attract learners’ attention and (2) determining the preferred characteristics for each learner group. Around 110 respondents were selected during the experiments using web tracking technology. Utilizing this web-based eye-tracking tool, we propose eight activities to detect learners’ perceptions of text-based learning object materials. The fact that first language significantly shapes learners’ attention was confirmed by time-leap analysis and AoI distances showing they focus more on familiar elements. While adult learners exhibit deeper engagement with scientific content and sustained concentration during reading, their unique preferences toward digital learning materials result in varied focus patterns, particularly in initial interest and time spent on tasks. Thus, it is recommended that lecturers deliver digital content for adult learners in a textual format or by placing the important parts of posters in the center. Full article

Background: Dementia is a syndrome with a high global prevalence that includes a number of progressive diseases of the brain affecting various cognitive domains such as memory and thinking and the performance of daily activities. It manifests as symptoms which often include significant mood and behaviour changes that are highly varied. Changed moods and behaviours due to dementia may reflect distress and may be stressful for both the person living with dementia and their informal and formal carers. To provide dementia care support specific to mood and behaviour changes, the Behaviours in Dementia Toolkit website (BiDT) was developed using human-centred design principles. The BiDT houses a user-friendly, digital library of over 300 free, practical, and evidence-informed resources to help all care partners better understand and compassionately respond to behaviours in dementia so they can support people with dementia to live well. Objective: (1) To characterize the users that visited the BiDT; and (2) to understand the platform’s early impact on these users. Methods: A multi-method, descriptive study was conducted in the early post-website launch period. Outcomes and measures examined included the following: (1) reach: unique visitors, region, unique visits, return visits, bounce rate; (2) engagement: engaged users, engaged sessions, session duration, pages viewed, engagement rate per webpage, search terms, resources accessed; (3) knowledge change; (4) behaviour change; and (5) website impact: relevance, feasibility, intention to use, improving access and use of dementia guidance, recommend to others. Data was collected using Google Analytics and an electronic survey of website users. Results: From 4 February to 31 March 2024, there were 76,890 unique visitors to the BiDT from 109 countries. Of 76,890 unique visitors to the BiDT during this period, 16,626 were engaged users as defined by Google Analytics (22%) from 80 countries. The highest number of unique engaged users were from Canada (n = 8124) with an engagement rate of 38%. From 5 March 2024 to 31 March 2024, 100 electronic surveys were completed by website users and included in the analysis. Website users indicated that the BiDT validated or increased their dementia care knowledge, beliefs, and activities (82%) and they reported that the website validated their current care approaches or increased their ability to provide care (78%). Further, 77% of respondents indicated that they intend to continue using the BiDT and 81.6% said that they would recommend it to others to review and adopt. Conclusions: The BiDT is a promising tool for sharing practical and evidence-informed information resources to support people experiencing dementia-related mood and behaviour changes. Early evaluation of the website has demonstrated significant reach and engagement with users in Canada and internationally. Survey data also demonstrated high ratings of website relevance, feasibility, intention to use, knowledge change, practice support, and its contribution to dementia guidance. Full article

Data on pedestrian infrastructure is essential for improving the mobility environment and for planning efficiency. Although governmental agencies are responsible for capturing data on pedestrian infrastructure mostly by field audits, most have not completed such audits. In recent years, virtual auditing based on street view imagery (SVI), specifically through geo-crowdsourcing platforms, offers a more inclusive approach to pedestrian movement planning, but concerns about the quality and reliability of opensource geospatial data pose barriers to use by governments. Limited research has compared opensource data in relation to traditional government approaches. In this study, we compare pedestrian infrastructure data from an opensource virtual sidewalk audit platform (Project Sidewalk) with government data. We focus on neighborhoods with diverse walkability and income levels in the city of Seattle, Washington and in DuPage County, Illinois. Our analysis shows that Project Sidewalk data can be a reliable alternative to government data for most pedestrian infrastructure features. The agreement for different features ranges from 75% for pedestrian signals to complete agreement (100%) for missing sidewalks. However, variations in measuring the severity of barriers challenges dataset comparisons. Full article

This study aims to explore the distribution of visual attention on sustainability graphics when viewing an eco-friendly product and the recall of sustainability information afterward. Twenty-five students majoring in environmental studies and twenty-five students from non-environmental majors participated in the study. They were further divided into a higher group and a lower group based on their sustainability level. Participants viewed diagrams of an eco-trash boat design with sustainability graphics and a 15-page design description. Their eye-movement data and verbal reports on the recall of sustainability information were collected. Higher sustainability group had higher fixation count in sustainability graphics. Non-environmental majors had a shorter time to first fixation to sustainability graphics, and there was an interaction effect. Environmental students detected graphics faster in the lower group, but the opposite occurred in the higher group. Higher-sustainability non-environmental students were quicker, while the reverse was true for environmental students. In terms of recalling sustainability graphics, the higher group scored higher, while environmental majors scored higher in recalling sustainability features. In the recall coding, the most frequently mentioned terms were "green," "plant," "vivid," and "eco." The study offers new insights into sustainable development and provides design recommendations for eco-product designers. Full article

Background: The aim of this study is to understand what children with a disability like and dislike about participating in a gymnastics program, and to understand the views of the adults supporting the program. Methods: Children with a mild intellectual disability (aged 5–12) from a primary school providing special education participated in one of four gymnastics programs (1 h/week for 5 weeks) at a gymnastics centre. The program included ~25–50 children per group, with ~20 adults providing support, including gymnastics coaches, teachers, and adult students on placement. To evaluate the program, children (11–12-year-olds; n = 51) were invited to complete a written two-page reflection, and the adults were invited to participate in one of three focus groups. Results: 150 children attended one of four programs. Twenty-six 11–12-year-olds participated in the evaluation (n = 26/51, 51%), and, from the written responses, the themes of ‘individual preference’ and ‘resilience’ emerged. It was found that 96% (n = 25/26) reported they would like to do more gymnastics, 88% (n = 23/26) reported positive feelings during gymnastics, and 65% (n = 17/26) expressed concerns such as feeling tired or hot. Twenty-three adults participated in a focus group. Key themes included the positive impact the program delivery had on the children’s participation; and the positive impact on coaches, students, and teacher’s disability attitudes and knowledge. Conclusions: This gymnastics program was well-liked by children with a disability. To optimise participation, promoting individual choice and control may be of benefit. Full article

In recent years, graph-based learning methods have gained significant traction in point-of-interest (POI) recommendation systems due to their strong generalization capabilities. These approaches commonly transform user check-in records into graph-structured data and leverage graph neural networks (GNNs) to model the representations of both POIs and users. Despite their effectiveness, GNNs face inherent limitations in message passing, which can impede the deep extraction of meaningful representations from the graph structure. To mitigate this challenge, we introduce a novel framework, Multi-view Contextual Graphs via Convolutional Neural Networks for Point-of-Interest Recommendation (MCGRec). The MCGRec framework consists of three primary components. Firstly, it employs a personalized PageRank (PPR) sampling technique based on super nodes to transform the graph-structured data into a grid-like feature matrix. This step is crucial as it prepares the data for subsequent processing by convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which are adept at extracting spatial features from grid-like structures. Secondly, a CNN is utilized to extract the representations of POIs from the constructed feature matrix. The usage of CNNs enables the capture of local patterns and hierarchical features within the data, which are essential for accurate POI representation. Lastly, MCGRec incorporates a novel approach for estimating user preferences that integrates both geographical and temporal factors, thereby providing a more comprehensive model of users’ behaviors. To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed method, we conduct extensive experiments on real-world datasets. Our results demonstrate that MCGRec outperforms state-of-the-art POI recommendation methods, showcasing its superiority in terms of recommendation accuracy. Full article

Vaccines decrease morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, their benefits depend on public response. During COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy and refusal were rampant, threatening public health. A thorough understanding of opponents’ arguments is required to address the diffusion of unreliable information on social media and prevent vaccine hesitancy from developing into vaccine refusal. The focus on the opponents’ viewpoints and their justifications makes the study unique. Accordingly, textual content analysis of reader comments on three health-related Israeli Facebook pages was conducted. Data collection encompassed the Israeli COVID-19 vaccination period from October 2020 to May 2022. The comments were analyzed according to the health beliefs model (HBM). We found that vaccine opponents were characterized by low perceptions of the severity of the disease combined with high perceptions of the damages of the vaccine; low perceived benefits of vaccine compliance; vaccine hesitancy and fear along with public distrust as barriers to change; and call for action to resist the vaccine and spread related anti-establishment views on the web. Hesitancy was found to develop into public distrust in the state systems and escalate into conspiracy beliefs and anti-vaccination activism. These results are important and instructive that early detection is necessary to prevent future vaccine resistance. Full article

This article will investigate a certain similarity between Origen’s response to Celsus’ True Logos and the criticisms against Longinus’ interpretation of the early pages of Plato’s Timaeus made in Proclus’ Commentary by a certain Origenes, usually held to be a pagan though without compelling evidence. Origen begins by assuming that ‘Celsus’ was an Epicurean of that name, even though it has long been obvious that ‘Celsus’ has adopted a Platonist point of view and that Origen’s answers often rely on Plato’s authority; in Proclus, Origenes regularly regards Longinus’ explanations as turning Plato into a hedonist by having him aim at the reader’s pleasure, and at one point Longinus even made reference to Epicurus. The paper uses recent work on the presence in Porphyry and Lucian of alternative names, whether inside philosophic schools or as a nom de plume, to argue that Origen could not be sure of his opponent’s identity, but that as he wrote he came to suspect that ‘Celsus’ was in fact his younger contemporary Longinus, the initial teacher of Porphyry himself. Hence the allusions to his ‘philological’ tendencies. If this is correct, then there is additional reason to identify Origen with Origenes. Full article

In order to provide insights into how various page views are influenced by public engagement with weather information and to shed light on the patterns of warning issuance across different seasons and regions, this study analyzes the multi-dimensional characteristics of city weather forecast page views and the spatiotemporal characteristics of early warning information in China, from 1 March 2020 to 31 August 2023. This is achieved by utilizing the daily page views of city weather forecasts and meteorological warning data, comparing the public’s attention to weather during holidays versus regular days, assessing the public’s attention to weather under different meteorological warning levels, and performing statistical analysis of the spatiotemporal scale of meteorological disasters. Our analysis shows that compared to weekends and holidays, the public pays more attention to the weather on weekdays, and the difference between weekdays and national statutory holidays is more significant. Due to the widespread impact of heat waves, typhoons, severe convective weather, and geological disasters caused by heavy rainfall, public awareness and participation in flood season weather forecasting have significantly increased. Under red alerts, flash floods, typhoons, and geological risks are the primary concerns. Orange alerts predominantly feature flash floods, rainstorms, typhoons, snowstorms, and cold waves, while sandstorms attract the most attention during yellow alerts. Droughts, however, receive relatively less attention regardless of the warning level. Seasonal patterns in the issuance of meteorological warnings reveal a peak in summer, particularly with typhoons and rainstorms being the main concerns in July, followed by high temperatures and additional typhoon warnings in August. Heavy sea surface wind warnings exhibit a strong seasonal trend, with the majority issued during the winter months. Regionally, southern China experiences the highest frequency of severe convection weather warnings, with provinces such as Jiangxi, Guangxi, and Hunan being the most affected. Full article

Demographic changes have led to an increase in older people in prisons. Whereas the rehabilitative process of younger offenders is geared towards their reintegration into the labour market, successful ageing should be a policy aim for older prisoners. This study explores how older incarcerated persons view their ageing. A qualitative study using a written survey with only the single question What does ageing in prison mean to you? was conducted in Bavaria, Germany. A total of 64 prisoners (61 male, 3 female) supplied answers varying in length from a few words to several pages. The thematic analysis revealed that together with health concerns, social relations and everyday activities, the uncertainty of the future was a central focus point for the older adults in prison. The authors propose that a positive vision of the future needs to be included in any model of successful ageing. If successful ageing is used as an aim for older prisoners, more attention needs to be paid to support interventions during and after the release process. Full article

Interferon alpha-2b (IFN-$\alpha$2b) is an essential cytokine widely used in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C and hairy cell leukemia, and serum albumin is the most abundant plasma protein with numerous physiological functions. Effective single-step aqueous biphasic system (ABS) extraction for the simultaneous purification of IFN-$\alpha$2b and BSA (serum albumin protein) was developed in this work. Effects of the ionic liquid (IL)-based ABS functionalization, fluorinated ILs (FILs; [C${}_2$C${}_1$Im][C${}_4$F${}_9$SO${}_3$] and [N${}_{1112\left(\mathrm{OH}\right)}$][C${}_4$F${}_9$SO${}_3$]) vs. mere fluoro-containing IL ([C${}_4$C${}_1$Im][CF${}_3$SO${}_3$]), in combination with sucrose or [N${}_{1112\left(\mathrm{OH}\right)}$][H${}_2$PO${}_4$] (well-known globular protein stabilizers), or high-charge-density salt K${}_3$PO${}_4$ were investigated. The effects of phase pH, phase water content (%wt), phase composition (%wt), and phase volume ratio were investigated. The phase pH was found to have a significant effect on IFN-$\alpha$2b and BSA partition. Experimental results show that simultaneous single-step purification was achieved with a high yield (extraction efficiency up to 100%) for both proteins and a purification factor of IFN-$\alpha$2b high in the enriched IFN-$\alpha$2b phase (up to 23.22) and low in the BSA-enriched phase (down to 0.00). SDS-PAGE analysis confirmed the purity of both recovered proteins. The stability and structure of IFN-$\alpha$2b and BSA were preserved or even improved (FIL-rich phase) during the purification step, as evaluated by CD spectroscopy and DSC. Binding studies of IFN-$\alpha$2b and BSA with the ABS phase-forming components were assessed by MST, showing the strong interaction between FILs aggregates and both proteins. In view of their biocompatibility, customizable properties, and selectivity, FIL-based ABSs are suggested as an improved purification step that could facilitate the development of biologics. Full article

In the introduction to her influential work on Asian American cultural studies and feminist materialist critique, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics, Lisa Lowe shatters the contradictions manifested in Asian immigration, wherein Asians’ entry into the United States marked them either as marginalized from “within” the national political sphere or as linguistically, culturally, and racially “outside” of the national polity For Asian immigrants, the debate of being simultaneously needed and excluded is no more evidenced historically than using Chinese labor during the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century. Their migratory relocation was hardly met with ease and public enthusiasm, however. Evoking anxiety in their Anglo counterparts, the Chinese were characterized as foreign noncitizens: barbaric, alien, and dangerous, the quintessential “yellow peril” threatening to displace white European immigrants such as the Irish. The irrational fear of the “Oriental” from the Far East led to a succession of immigration exclusion laws passed by Congress that denied the Chinese from entering the U.S. and their rights to naturalization in 1882. Passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act suspended the entry of Chinese laborers into the U.S. based on their nationality for ten years. This paper argues that the possibility of agency for Chinese workers existed throughout the exclusionary period. Specifically, this site of agency resides with Chinese women and is expressed through a literary mode. For instance, Lin Yutang’s Chinatown Family (1948) captures this moment of immigrant agency in the post-exclusion era. Lin, a pioneering Chinese writer and inventor who wrote texts such as My Country and My People (1935), The Importance of Living (1937), and Moment in Peking (1939), often utilized his narratives to bridge the clash between the East and West. Identifying what I see as the inadequacy of probing one of the earliest Chinese American texts from a rigid literary mode, I move to reconsider the novel as a legal counternarrative to the three exclusionary laws: the Page Law of 1875, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the Cable Act of 1922. To direct my critical reorientation of Lin’s novel away from, though not necessarily against, literary castings of this early immigrant tale, I take the narrative as a strategic literary re-imagination that structures itself around these three legislative pieces to critique restrictive practices enacted upon the Chinese. The novel showcases how Chinese immigrants maneuvered and manipulated the legal system in their favor during assimilation. In this context, critical reappraisal is needed in scrutinizing how the Exclusion Act generated a wave of domestic-based diasporic relocation of Chinese workers from California to New York. Due to acute anti-Chinese sentiments on the West Coast, resetting Chinese workers in the northeast in search of a new Gold Mountain led to a unique phenomenon. This dispersal elevated Chinese women as valuable social capitals who transformed metropoles like New York City and redefined their views as nationalist subjects of the “about-to-be” in industrial capitalist modernity. Through a legal framework, then, Lin’s portrayal of the Fong clan suggests the emergence of a gendered Sino-immigrant agency, one that enabled the Chinese woman/mother to situate herself as the locus of the traditional patriarchal Chinese entrepreneurial family and the forefront of the northeast industrial capitalist scene. Full article

Some dehydrated products must be rehydrated before consumption or further industry processing. Optimization of the rehydration process needs mathematical models of the process. Despite the widespread use of computers and their associated software, empirical equations are still widely used in view of their simplicity and ease of computation. The mathematical description of the kinetics of mass gain, volume increase, dry matter loss, and moisture content increase and changes of rehydration indices during the rehydration of dried red beets was investigated. The effects of drying air temperature (T_d), drying air velocity (v_d), characteristic dimension (L), and rehydration temperature (T_r) on model constants were also examined. Red beets cubes (10 mm) and slices (5 and 10 mm) were dried in natural convection (v_d = 0.01 m/s), forced convection (v_d = 2 m/s), and fluidization (v_d = 6 m/s) at T_d = 50, 60, and 70 °C. The rehydration was conducted in distilled water at T_r = 20, 45, and 70 °C. The kinetics of rehydrating dried red beets was modelled applying five empirical models: Peleg, Lewis (Newton), Henderson–Pabis, Page, and modified Page. Equations were developed to make the model constants dependent on T_d, v_d, L, and T_r. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) (feedforward multilayer perceptron) were adopted to condition the rehydration indices on T_d, v_d, L, and T_r. The following models can be recommended as the most acceptable: (1) the modified Page model for mass gain (RMSE = 0.0236–0.0897) and for volume increase (RMSE = 0.0213–0.0972), (2) the Peleg model for dry mass loss (RMSE = 0.0161–0.610), and (3) the Henderson–Pabis model for moisture content increase (RMSE = 0.0350–0.1062). The ANNs performed the rehydration indices in an acceptable way (RMSE = 0.0528–0.2285). Both the rehydration indices and model constants depended (but to a different degree) on the investigated drying and rehydration conditions. Full article

Introduction: Whole genome sequencing (WGS) holds significant promise for epidemiological inquiries, as it enables the identification and tracking of pathogenic origins and dissemination through comprehensive genome analysis. This method is widely preferred for investigating outbreaks and monitoring pathogen activity. However, the effective utilization of microbiome sequencing data remains a challenge for clinical and public health experts. Through the National Pathogen Resource Center, we have constructed a dynamic and interactive online analysis platform to facilitate the in-depth analysis and use of pathogen genomic data, by public health and associated professionals, to support infectious disease surveillance framework building and capacity warnings. Method: The platform was implemented using the Java programming language, and the front-end pages were developed using the VUE framework, following the MVC (Model–View–Controller) pattern to enable interactive service functionalities for front-end data collection and back-end data computation. Cloud computing services were employed to integrate biological information analysis tools for conducting fundamental analysis on sequencing data. Result: The platform achieved the goal of non-programming analysis, providing an interactive visual interface that allows users to visually obtain results by setting parameters in web pages. Moreover, the platform allows users to export results in various formats to further support their research. Discussion: We have established a dynamic and interactive online platform for bioinformatics analysis. By encapsulating the complex background experiments and analysis processes in a cloud-based service platform, the complex background experiments and analysis processes are presented to the end-user in a simple and interactive manner. It facilitates real-time data mining and analysis by allowing users to independently select parameters and generate analysis results at the click of a button, based on their needs, without the need for a programming foundation. Full article