Strengthening Active Aging through Older People’s Association and Economic Activity of the Older People in Nepal

Aging is a natural lifelong process ending in death. Many older people are living in poverty. Older people are generally considered dependent on others as they grow older. The purpose of this article is to explore the entrepreneurship activities of Nepalese older adults. Data for this study were collected from the project Help Age International (HAI) implemented in Nepal. Qualitative data observations and interviews were used to collect data. The findings of this study show the formation of the Older People’s Association (OPA) has supported many older people to participate outside the home in various social activities. Moreover, regular deposits through OPAs offer little help. OPAs support older people in their need of financial support to implement minor entrepreneurship. Older people who received support were pleased and were actively involved in their activities and also regularly deposited money in them. Subsequently, older people’s participation in social activities has increased and also helped to lower elderly abuse, loneliness, and depression. Local governments should promote such activities which will help with healthy aging.

Mechanical and magnetocaloric adjustable properties of Fe3O4/PET deformed nanoparticle film

The flexibility of nanoparticle films is a topic of rapidly growing interest in both scientific and engineering researches due to their numerous potential applications in a broad range of wearable electronics and biomedical devices.This article presents the elucidation of the properties of nanoparticle films.Here,a flexible film is fabricated based on polyethylene terephthalate(PET)and magnetic iron oxide at the nanoscale using layer-by-layer technology.The 2D thin flexible film material can be bent at different angles from 0°to 360°.With an increase in elastic deformation angles,the magnetocaloric effect of the film gradually increases in the alternating magnetic field.The test results from a vibrating sample magnetometer and a low-frequency impedance analyzer demonstrate that the film has a good magnetic response and anisotropy.The magnetocaloric effect and magnetic induction effect are controlled by deformation,providing a new idea for the application of elastic films.It combines the flexibility of the nanoparticle PET substrate and,in the future,it may be used for skin adhesion for administration and magnetic stimulation control.

Alcohol and illicit drugs:prevalence of alcohol and illicit drug use and their predictors in young people from Argentina,Bulgaria,Chile and Romania

Background:Alcohol and illicit drugs(AID)continue to be a major global health concern.Although preventable,AID is linked to millions of deaths annually worldwide.The situation is particularly grave for young people,with AID being a major direct risk factor for disability-adjusted youth life-years lost and death.It further contributes to assaults,road crashes,accidental poisoning,and suicide,leading to long-term issues and public health concerns.Objective:This study aimed at disclosing current AID prevalence data for Argentinian,Bulgarian,Chilean and Romanian youth.It shed light on the predictors of AID in young people from those countries.Method:The study used an online survey to gather data from people aged 18 to 25(n=1,297).The survey was underpinned by the theory of planned behaviour(TPB).Predictors were investigated separately for drinking alcohol and using illicit drugs.Results:Our data revealed that across the four target countries,49%to 90%of the participants drank alcohol,and 8%to 35%used illicit drugs in the past three months.Between 20%and 91%of them intended to drink,and between 8%and 31%intended to use illicit drugs in the following three months.Our TPB model predicted statistically significant(P<0.001)amounts of variance in drinking alcohol(between 61%and 72%)and using illicit drugs(between 20.3%and 74.4%).Intention was consistent in significantly predicting both behaviours.Evidence around the predictive validity of self-efficacy,age and gender was mixed across the investigated countries.Conclusion:This research provided an update on the scarce AID epidemiological data.It also supplied evidence about what theoretically-informed measures might be useful targets of interventions in the case of Argentina,Bulgaria,Chile and Romania.This new knowledge of understanding substance abuse determinants and prevalence may help researchers and practitioners better meet young people's health prevention needs.

Practice of Barrier Measures against COVID-19 Among Diabetic People Followed at Departmental University Hospital Center Ouémé-Plateau, Benin, in 2021

Introduction: COVID-19 is a pandemic disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-COV2 appeared in China in 2019. The aim of the study was to evaluate the practice of barrier measures against COVID-19 and to identify associated factors among diabetics followed at Departmental University Hospital Center Ouémé-Plateau, Benin, in 2021. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted from June to August 2021, including diabetics aged 18 and over, hospitalized or received for medical visits in the department of medicine at the target hospital. Data were collected during an interview with each participant thanks to a questionnaire. “Good practice” was defined as regular practice of at least two of three barrier measures: hand washing, physical distancing and mask-wearing. Results: A total of 110 diabetics were included with a female predominance (55.5%) and a mean age of 57 ± 11.3 years. Among them, 89.1% washed their hands, 41.8% respected physical distancing and 12.7% wore a mask. The proportion of good practice was 47.3%. Only 5 practiced the three barrier measures. Only age group was associated with good practice. Conclusion: The study showed a low proportion of good practice of barrier measures against COVID-19 among diabetic people surveyed. It is important to continue the action for COVID-19 prevention among diabetic people in the targeted hospital and in other hospitals in Benin.

The breaking of spin symmetry in the single-particle resonances in deformed nuclei

The exploration of spin symmetry (SS) in nuclear physics has been instrumental in identifying atomic nucleus structures.In this study,we solve the Dirac equation from the relativistic mean field (RMF) in complex momentum representation.We investigated SS and its breaking in single-particle resonant states within deformed nuclei,with a focus on the illustrative nucleus168Er.This was the initial discovery of a resonant spin doublet in a deformed nucleus,with the expectation of the SS approaching the continuum threshold.With increasing single-particle energy,the splitting of the resonant spin doublets widened significantly.This escalating splitting implies diminishing adherence to the SS,indicating a departure from the expected behavior as the energy levels increase.We also analyzed the width of the resonant states,showing that lower orbital angular momentum resonances possess shorter decay times and that SS is preserved within broad resonant doublets,as opposed to narrow resonant doublets.Comparing the radial density of the upper components for the bound-state and resonant-state doublets,it becomes evident that while SS is well-preserved in the bound states,it deteriorates in the resonant states.The impact of nuclear deformation (β_(2)) on SS was examined,demonstrating that an increase in β_(2) resulted in higher energy and width splitting in the resonant spin doublets,which is attributed to increased component mixing.Furthermore,the sensitivity of spin doublets to various potential parameters such as surface diffuseness (a),radius (R),and depth (Σ0) is discussed,emphasizing the role of these parameters in SS.This study provides valuable insights into the behavior of spin doublets in deformed nuclei and their interplay with the nuclear structure,thereby advancing our understanding of SS in the resonance state.

Assessing Barriers to Mental Healthcare Interventions for Deaf People in Ghana

While mental health issues are increasingly gaining attention in Ghana, little is known about the situation among deaf people. This study assessed the mental health care needs of deaf people in Ghana. A descriptive design, consisting of interviews and focus group discussions, was used to collect data from 97 participants. Findings indicated that participants had limited knowledge on mental health issues. Mental health stigma, inaccessible mental health information and exclusion from mental health programmes were the major barriers hindering access to mental health care services. This study bridges the knowledge gap and provides evidence for the implementation of deaf-friendly services.

Understanding Behavioral Manifestations of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in People with Intellectual Disabilities—A Qualitative Study

Background: There is limited knowledge about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). This paper describes the manifestation of compulsive behaviors associated with OCD at the behavioral level in people with ID in institutionalized settings. The aim was to gain nuanced insight into appropriate understanding and classification in this specific context, and derive implications for research and practice. Methods: Individual cases of people with ID (n = 7) were studied to assess compulsive symptoms through two days of on-site observation of the person with ID within the institution, guided group discussions (n = 28), and semi-structured interviews with key informants and caregivers of the person with ID (n = 20). Caregiver ratings of the compulsive behavior checklist were compiled. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: All forms of OCD were present. Characteristics of compulsive behaviors in people with ID at the behavioral level included less complex and more obvious compulsive acts, immediate responses, signs of tension, motor restlessness, facial expression changes, repetition, need for predictability, time-consuming behaviors, and aggressive reactions when these acts were interrupted. Some of the compulsive behaviors corresponded to the ICD-11 OCD code 6B20, and others to compulsions as a psychological symptom (MB23.4). Conclusions: OCD may manifest atypically at the behavioral level in people with ID, posing significant challenges for accurate classification due to symptom ambiguity. Follow-up differential diagnostic studies are needed to more accurately identify and differentiate OCD symptoms in people with ID. Further, disorder-specific guidelines for recognizing OCD in people with ID are needed for institutionalized settings without psychiatric-psychotherapeutic expertise.

Towards complex scenes: A deep learning-based camouflaged people detection method for snapshot multispectral images

Camouflaged people are extremely expert in actively concealing themselves by effectively utilizing cover and the surrounding environment. Despite advancements in optical detection capabilities through imaging systems, including spectral, polarization, and infrared technologies, there is still a lack of effective real-time method for accurately detecting small-size and high-efficient camouflaged people in complex real-world scenes. Here, this study proposes a snapshot multispectral image-based camouflaged detection model, multispectral YOLO(MS-YOLO), which utilizes the SPD-Conv and Sim AM modules to effectively represent targets and suppress background interference by exploiting the spatial-spectral target information. Besides, the study constructs the first real-shot multispectral camouflaged people dataset(MSCPD), which encompasses diverse scenes, target scales, and attitudes. To minimize information redundancy, MS-YOLO selects an optimal subset of 12 bands with strong feature representation and minimal inter-band correlation as input. Through experiments on the MSCPD, MS-YOLO achieves a mean Average Precision of 94.31% and real-time detection at 65 frames per second, which confirms the effectiveness and efficiency of our method in detecting camouflaged people in various typical desert and forest scenes. Our approach offers valuable support to improve the perception capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles in detecting enemy forces and rescuing personnel in battlefield.

αDecay in extreme laser fields within a deformed Gamow-like model

In this study, the effect of extreme laser fields on the α decay process of ground-state even–even nuclei was investigated.Using the deformed Gamow-like model, we found that state-of-the-art lasers can cause a slight change in the α decay penetration probability of most nuclei. In addition, we studied the correlation between the rate of change of the α decay penetration probability and angle between the directions of the laser electric field and α particle emission for different nuclei. Based on this correlation, the average effect of extreme laser fields on the half-life of many nuclei with arbitrary α particle emission angles was calculated. The calculations show that the laser suppression and promotion effects on the α decay penetration probability of the nuclei population with completely random α particle-emission directions are not completely canceled.The remainder led to a change in the average penetration probability of the nuclei. Furthermore, the possibility of achieving a higher average rate of change by altering the spatial shape of the laser is explored. We conclude that circularly polarized lasers may be helpful in future experiments to achieve a more significant average rate of change of the α decay half-life of the nuclei population.

Associations of PNPLA3 and LEP genetic polymorphisms with metabolic-associated fatty liver disease in Thai people living with human immunodeficiency virus

BACKGROUND The prevalence of metabolic-associated fatty liver disease(MAFLD)is a growing public health issue in people living with human immunodeficiency virus(PLWH).However,the pathophysiology of MAFLD is still unknown,and the role of genetic variables is only now becoming evident.AIM To evaluate the associations of gene-polymorphism-related MAFLD in PLWH.METHODS The study employed transient elastography with a controlled attenuation parameter≥248 dB/m to identify MAFLD in patients from a Super Tertiary Hospital in central Thailand.Candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs)were genotyped using TaqMan®MGB probe 5'nuclease assays for seven MAFLD-related genes.Statistical analyses included SNP frequency analysis,Fisher's Exact and Chi-square tests,odds ratio calculations,and multivariable logistic regression.RESULTS The G-allele carriers of PNPLA3(rs738409)exhibited a two-fold rise in MAFLD,increasing by 2.5 times in MAFLD with human immunodeficiency virus infection.The clinical features and genetic patterns imply that LEP rs7799039 A-allele carriers had a nine times(P=0.001)more significant chance of developing aberrant triglyceride among PLWH.CONCLUSION The current study shows an association between PNPLA3 rs738409 and LEP rs7799039 with MAFLD in PLWH.

Efficient People Detection with Infrared Images

This work focuses on the problem of monitoring the coastline, which in Portugal’s case means monitoring 3007 kilometers, including 1793 maritime borders with the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west. The human burden on the coast becomes a problem, both because erosion makes the cliffs unstable and because pollution increases, making the fragile dune ecosystem difficult to preserve. It is becoming necessary to increase the control of access to beaches, even if it is not a popular measure for internal and external tourism. The methodology described can also be used to monitor maritime borders. The use of images acquired in the infrared range guarantees active surveillance both day and night, the main objective being to mimic the infrared cameras already installed in some critical areas along the coastline. Using a series of infrared photographs taken at low angles with a modified camera and appropriate filter, a recent deep learning algorithm with the right training can simultaneously detect and count whole people at close range and people almost completely submerged in the water, including partially visible targets, achieving a performance with F1 score of 0.945, with 97% of targets correctly identified. This implementation is possible with ordinary laptop computers and could contribute to more frequent and more extensive coverage in beach/border surveillance, using infrared cameras at regular intervals. It can be partially automated to send alerts to the authorities and/or the nearest lifeguards, thus increasing monitoring without relying on human resources.

Narrative Empathy and Patriotism--An Analysis of the Chinese“Main-Melody”Film My People,My Country

Narrative empathy is a relatively new theory and it can guide researchers in the studies of main-melody films so as to promote the communication of the core values of the society.The rhetorical mechanism of narrative empathy can be illustrated from five rhetorical elements,including rhetor,rhetorical goal,rhetorical situation,rhetorical strategy and audience.The theory of narrative empathy can be applied to the case study of the film My People,My Country.In the production of this film,the directors are the rhetors.The rhetors uphold the tenet of closeness,choose the right rhetorical situation as the 70th birthday of the People’s Republic of China,and use appropriate rhetorical strategies in order to realize the rhetorical goals of evoking empathy and inspiring patriotic feelings in the audience’s minds.An exploration and application of narrative empathy can be conducive to the empathic communication of Chinese main-melody films in order to achieve better communication effect.

Hepatitis C virus eradication in people living with human immunodeficiency virus:Where are we now?

Hepatitis C virus(HCV)/human immunodeficiency virus(HIV)co-infection still involves 2.3 million patients worldwide of the estimated 37.7 million living with HIV,according to World Health Organization.People living with HIV(PLWH)are six times greater affected by HCV,compared to HIV negative ones;the greater prevalence is encountered among people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men:the risk of HCV transmission through sexual contact in this setting can be increased by HIV infection.These patients experience a high rate of chronic hepatitis,which if left untreated progresses to end-stage liver disease and hepato-cellular carcinoma(HCC)HIV infection increases the risk of mother to child vertical transmission of HCV.No vaccination against both infections is still available.There is an interplay between HIV and HCV infections.Treatment of HCV is nowadays based on direct acting antivirals(DAAs),HCV treatment plays a key role in limiting the progression of liver disease and reducing the risk of HCC development in mono-and coinfected individuals,especially when used at an early stage of fibrosis,reducing liver disease mortality and morbidity.Since the sustained virological response at week 12 rates were observed in PLWH after HCV eradication,the AASLD has revised its simplified HCV treatment algorithm to also include individuals living with HIV.HCV eradication can determine dyslipidemia,since HCV promotes changes in serum lipid profiles and may influence lipid metabolism.In addition to these apparent detrimental effects on the lipid profile,the efficacy of DAA in HCV/HIV patients needs to be considered in light of its effects on glucose metabolism mediated by improvements in liver function.The aim of the present editorial is to describe the advancement in HCV treatment among PLWH.

The Value and Realization Strategy of Teacher Ethics Construction in Colleges and Universities under the Perspective of“Cultivating People by Virtue”

“Cultivating people by virtue”has become the foundation of China’s education,and is the top priority of college education.“Only the learned can become teachers,and only those who behave properly can become role models”.The construction of teachers’ethics in colleges and universities is the premise of realizing the fundamental task of moral education,the need of teachers,the key to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,and it is also the way to correct the bad atmosphere in colleges and universities.In the construction of teachers’ethics,teachers should understand their roles and improve their professional ethics,schools should improve the guarantee system of teachers’ethics construction,meanwhile,improve the status of teachers and create a social environment of respecting teachers and valuing teachers.

Historical review and reflections on the participation of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of epidemics in the People’s Republic of China (from 1950 until now)

Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, both the Communist Party and the government have placed great emphasis on the advancement of traditional Chinese medicine. Acupuncture and moxibustion have been actively involved in combating major epidemics such as malaria, schistosomiasis, and COVID-19. This article conducts a historical review of these three significant cases to elucidate how the acupuncture community has effectively utilized its unique advantages and characteristics through theoretical discussions, clinical practices, experimental research, as well as receiving administrative leadership and political support from the Communist Party of China and government. We provide an objective evaluation of their effectiveness while summarizing historical experiences to serve as a reference for future utilization of acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in epidemic relief efforts. Additionally, propose four suggestions: strengthening Party leadership and enhancing political support;timely summarization of experiences to establish programs and systems;deepening scientific research by integrating experimental findings with clinical practice;focusing on public awareness campaigns and education to solidify grassroots foundations.

基于Deform 3D的AZ31镁合金不对称挤压变形工艺模拟

通过Deform 3D软件模拟了AZ31镁合金不对称挤压变形工艺过程。结果表明,设置不同水平长度流动距离促使材料不对称地流入挤压通道,进而形成不对称剪切变形,出现应变及应力集中分布的不对称性,促使材料晶粒沿着剪切面偏转,获得细晶、弱织构的高性能镁合金坯料。

A robust deformed convolutional neural network(CNN)for image denoising

Due to strong learning ability,convolutional neural networks(CNNs)have been developed in image denoising.However,convolutional operations may change original distributions of noise in corrupted images,which may increase training difficulty in image denoising.Using relations of surrounding pixels can effectively resolve this problem.Inspired by that,we propose a robust deformed denoising CNN(RDDCNN)in this paper.The proposed RDDCNN contains three blocks:a deformable block(DB),an enhanced block(EB)and a residual block(RB).The DB can extract more representative noise features via a deformable learnable kernel and stacked convolutional architecture,according to relations of surrounding pixels.The EB can facilitate contextual interaction through a dilated convolution and a novel combination of convolutional layers,batch normalisation(BN)and ReLU,which can enhance the learning ability of the proposed RDDCNN.To address long-term dependency problem,the RB is used to enhance the memory ability of shallow layer on deep layers and construct a clean image.Besides,we implement a blind denoising model.Experimental results demonstrate that our denoising model outperforms popular denoising methods in terms of qualitative and quantitative analysis.Codes can be obtained at https://github.com/hellloxiaotian/RDDCNN.

The Psychosomatic Traits of“People with the Five Elements in Traditional Chinese Medicine”:A Qualitative Study

Objective To identify the representative attributes of the five elements of a person with a qualitative methodology and provide the basis for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of“people with the five elements in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM).”Methods Data collected from the literature review,two sessions of brainstorming of experts with related experience in“people with the five elements in TCM”from October 2020 to December 2020,and six rounds of in-depth interviews with 30 participants who had various attributes of the five elements from March 2021 to October 2021 were analyzed.Triangulation was used in this study,and theming and synthesizing were used to analyze the data.Results A total of 31 experts and 30 interviewees participated in this study.The median age of the experts and interviewees were 48.0 and 38.5 years,respectively;51.66%and 54.8%of experts and interviewees,respectively,were men.The descriptors of facial diagrams of“people with the five elements in TCM”were complexion,shape,distribution state of facial bones,convergence trend of facial muscles,and facial expression.A theoretical model of“people with the five elements in TCM”was shaped based on these findings.Conclusion The study suggests a possibility for bridging the gap between personality and bodily state,identifying an avenue for personality research from the perspective of TCM.

Deep Transfer Learning-Enabled Activity Identification and Fall Detection for Disabled People

The human motion data collected using wearables like smartwatches can be used for activity recognition and emergency event detection.This is especially applicable in the case of elderly or disabled people who live self-reliantly in their homes.These sensors produce a huge volume of physical activity data that necessitates real-time recognition,especially during emergencies.Falling is one of the most important problems confronted by older people and people with movement disabilities.Numerous previous techniques were introduced and a few used webcam to monitor the activity of elderly or disabled people.But,the costs incurred upon installation and operation are high,whereas the technology is relevant only for indoor environments.Currently,commercial wearables use a wireless emergency transmitter that produces a number of false alarms and restricts a user’s movements.Against this background,the current study develops an Improved WhaleOptimizationwithDeep Learning-Enabled Fall Detection for Disabled People(IWODL-FDDP)model.The presented IWODL-FDDP model aims to identify the fall events to assist disabled people.The presented IWODLFDDP model applies an image filtering approach to pre-process the image.Besides,the EfficientNet-B0 model is utilized to generate valuable feature vector sets.Next,the Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory(BiLSTM)model is used for the recognition and classification of fall events.Finally,the IWO method is leveraged to fine-tune the hyperparameters related to the BiLSTM method,which shows the novelty of the work.The experimental analysis outcomes established the superior performance of the proposed IWODL-FDDP method with a maximum accuracy of 97.02%.

基于改进Deformable-DETR的水下图像目标检测方法

针对由于水下复杂环境造成的目标检测效果较差、检测精度较低的问题,基于Deformable-DETR算法提出一种改进的水下目标检测算法Deformable-DETR-DA。使用空间注意力模块结合标准Transformer块设计了一个用于增加模型深度的深度特征金字塔(deep feature pyramid networks,DFPN)模块,将其嵌入到模型中提高模型对深层纹理信息的提取能力。使用注意力引导的方式对原模型中编码器部分进行改进,加强了对特征信息的聚合能力,提高了模型在复杂环境下的检测能力。针对URPC数据集,模型各交并比尺度的平均准确度(average precision,AP)为39.5%,相比原模型提升1%,与一些DETR(detection transformer)类的模型相比,不同目标尺度的平均准确度均有1%~4%左右的提高,表明改进的模型能够很好解决复杂环境的水下目标检测的问题。本文提出的模型可作为其他水下目标检测模型设计的参考。