Socio-Cultural Representations and Therapeutic Itineraries of Parents of Autistic Children Followed in the INSP’s Children’s Mental Health Services

Pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) remain little known to populations in developing countries. In black Africa their social representations remain strongly influenced by local belief systems. The general objective of this study was to understand the perceptions and representations of Ivorian parents vis-à-vis PDD. This was a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) prospective cross-sectional study with a descriptive aim that involved a sample of 49 parents. The sampling was of the qualitative type by multiple cases with reasoned choice by saturation. Our results showed that male parents were mostly aged between 40 - 49 years (48.98%) with a higher level of education (67.34%) while mothers were mostly aged between 30 - 39 (61.22%) and a higher level (30.61%). Autistic children were negatively perceived by their parents: either as a source of psychological suffering (82.85%), or as mysterious children who sacrificed their parents (44.66%), or as “bobo” children (mute children in common Ivorian language) (16.66%) or like rude children (13.34%). The supposed origin of the disorder according to the parents was mystical-religious (60.94%);natural (25%);hereditary (6.25%). In 6.25% of cases, PDD were assumed to be of unknown or iatrogenic origin attributable to vaccination (1.56%). 75.51% of parents said that in addition to conventional medical therapies, they also used traditional therapies. The use of this therapeutic alternative would be linked to the perceptions and beliefs that feed the socio-cultural representations of our respondents.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Relating to HIV among Motorbike Taxi Drivers in Parakou, Benin, in 2021

Background and Objective: HIV infection is a major global Public Health threat worldwide, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa of which Benin. The level of knowledge determines the attitudes and behaviors of the populations towards this infection. The study objective was to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices related to HIV infection among motorbike taxi drivers (MTD) in Parakou in 2021. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study targeting MTD in Parakou in 2021. Participants were selected by cluster sampling. Pretested Digitized questionnaire using KoboCollect@ applicationserved as a data collection tool. Knowledge, attitudes and practices variable were treated on a score scale. A knowledge score was considered to reflect a good knowledge of HIV if at least two-thirds of the knowledge statements had been correctly answered provided the subject recognized the sexual route as one of modes of HIV transmission, identified at least one preventive measure and meant the incurability of the disease. Quantitative and qualitative variables were appropriately described using the EPI Info 7.1.3.3 software. The participant was classified at positive attitude/practice for HIV prevention, when it has a score of at least 80% and suggests a good preventive measure face a risk of exposure to HIV. Results: A total of 374 subjects were recruited into the study. The mean age was 31.51 ± 7.76 years. Most participants (86.06%) had good knowledge of condom use as an HIV prevention method. The sources of information mentioned were mainly the media (77.07%), relatives or friends (63.38%), and field-workers from non-governmental organizations (37.26%). Routine HIV testing was 50.53%. Among participants, 76.10% reported at least two different sexual partners. Condom use was 59.18 % during the casual sexual intercourse. Within the client-provider relationship with female sex workers, 33.17% had had sexual intercourse with them. The sexual route was the most cited (92.99%), and 90.23% stated that HIV infection can be stabilized by medication in a health structure. Conclusion: The level of knowledge of motorbike taxi drivers in Parakou does not match their behavior with regard to HIV prevention. Appropriate strategies are needed to develop prevention skills in this population. To effectively comb at HIV, it will be necessary to strengthen the targeted HIV preventive interventions at key and bridge populations including motorbike taxi drivers in Benin.

Leading Pattern of Spring Drought Variability over East Asia and Associated Drivers

Drought events have become more frequent and intense over East Asia in recent decades,leading to huge socioeconomic impacts.Although the droughts have been studied extensively by cases or for individual regions,their leading variability and associated causes remain unclear.Based on the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index(SPEI)and ERA5 reanalysis product from 1979 to 2020,this study evealuates the severity of spring droughts in East Asia and investigates their variations and associated drivers.The results indicate that North China and Mongolia have experienced remarkable trends toward dryness during spring in recent decades,while southwestern China has witnessed an opposite trend toward wetness.The first Empirical Orthogonal Function mode of SPEI variability reveals a similar seesawing pattern,with more severe dryness in northwestern China,Mongolia,North China,South Korea,and Japan but increased wetness in Southwestern China and southeast Asia.Further investigation reveals that the anomalously dry(wet)surface in North(Southwestern)China is significantly associated with anomalously high(low)temperature,less(more)precipitation,and reduced(increased)soil moisture during the previous winter and early spring,regulated by an anomalous anticyclone(cyclone)and thus reduced(increased)water vapor convergence.The spring dry-wet pattern in East Asia is also linked to cold sea surface temperature anomalies in the central-eastern Pacific.The findings of this study have important implications for improving the prediction of spring drought events in East Asia.

Seroprevalence Survey of HIV and Hepatitis B Virus and Behavioral Characteristics among Heavy Truck Drivers along Port Sudan-Khartoum Highways

The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (AIDS) and hepatitis B virus among heavy truck drivers and their assistants has been well documented globally in correlation with their behavioral characteristics. The present study aimed to screen for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and behavioral characteristics among heavy truck drivers in Port Sudan. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 274 heavy truck drivers and their assistants who used the highway Port Sudan-Khartoum in Port Sudan city during 2019-2021. Data on behavioral characteristics and substance use habits were collected using a structured questionnaire, and an ELISA test was used to screen for HIV and HBV infections in the study participants. The chi-square test, odds ratio, and confidence intervals were used to find the association between behavioral characteristics and seropositive HIV/HBV. Of the 274 enrolled participants, the seroprevalence rates of HIV were 2.7% and HBV was 23.7%. Ninety-four (34.3%) of them had a history of high-risk sexual behavior outside of marriage;only two (0.7%) used condoms;14.2% of participants reported alcohol use;and 1.1% reported drug use. Univariate analysis revealed that having a sex history outside of marriage with ≥1 sex partner and never using a condom with a spouse or casual partner were significant risk factors for HIV and HBV among drivers. Fortunately, we found that most of the drivers reported low alcohol and drug use. Concerning this study, the seroprevalence of HIV and HBV is highly associated with a history of having sex outside of marriage and sexual behavior among truck drivers and assistances. Additional studies are needed to further investigate other STIs and behavioral characteristics associated with factors in truck drivers/assistance in different truck stop regions in Sudan.

OSMR is a potential driver of inflammation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease,and the molecular mechanism underlying its pathology remains poorly understood.However,inflammation is known to play an important role in the development of this condition.To identify driver genes that affect the inflammatory response in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,as well as potential treatment targets,it is crucial to analyze brain tissue samples from patients with both sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and C9orf72-related amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Therefore,in this study we used a network-driven gene analysis tool,NetBID2.0,which is based on SJARACNe,a scalable algorithm for the reconstruction of accurate cellular networks,to experimentally analyze sequencing data from patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.The results showed that the OSMR gene is pathogenic in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and participates in the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis by mediating the neuroinflammatory response.Furthermore,there were differences in OSMR activity and expression between patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and those with C9orf72-related amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.These findings suggest that OSMR may be a diagnostic and prognostic marker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

A Framework for Driver DrowsinessMonitoring Using a Convolutional Neural Network and the Internet of Things

One of the major causes of road accidents is sleepy drivers.Such accidents typically result in fatalities and financial losses and disadvantage other road users.Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the driver’s sleepiness and integrate it into a warning system.Most studies have examined how the mouth and eyelids move.However,this limits the system’s ability to identify drowsiness traits.Therefore,this study designed an Accident Detection Framework(RPK)that could be used to reduce road accidents due to sleepiness and detect the location of accidents.The drowsiness detectionmodel used three facial parameters:Yawning,closed eyes(blinking),and an upright head position.This model used a Convolutional Neural Network(CNN)consisting of two phases.The initial phase involves video processing and facial landmark coordinate detection.The second phase involves developing the extraction of frame-based features using normalization methods.All these phases used OpenCV and TensorFlow.The dataset contained 5017 images with 874 open eyes images,850 closed eyes images,723 open-mouth images,725 closed-mouth images,761 sleepy-head images,and 1084 non-sleepy head images.The dataset of 5017 images was divided into the training set with 4505 images and the testing set with 512 images,with a ratio of 90:10.The results showed that the RPK design could detect sleepiness by using deep learning techniques with high accuracy on all three parameters;namely 98%for eye blinking,96%for mouth yawning,and 97%for head movement.Overall,the test results have provided an overview of how the developed RPK prototype can accurately identify drowsy drivers.These findings will have a significant impact on the improvement of road users’safety and mobility.

Statistical Analysis of Accident Proneness of Drivers

A mathematical model describing the risks of road accidents has been built on the basis of statistical data of drivers’ accident rate. It has been revealed that drivers can be divided by the degree of their accident proneness into four categories with sharply differing probabilities of road accidents. It has been shown that there is a possibility of classification of drivers in accordance with specified categories.

Sonam Wangta:A Driver on the Worlds Highest Train Line

In midsummer,the banks of the Yarlung Zangbo River were covered in lush green.Bathed in the bright plateau sunshine,the Fuxing bullet train ran through the mountains and valleys like a long green dragon.In the cab,Sonam Wangdrak was holding the brake handle,his eyes fixed on the horizon ahead and his handsome face full of confidence.

A road hypnosis identification method for drivers based on fusion of biological characteristics

Risky driving behaviors,such as driving fatigue and distraction have recently received more attention.There is also much research about driving styles,driving emotions,older drivers,drugged driving,DUI(driving under the influence),and DWI(driving while intoxicated).Road hypnosis is a special behavior significantly impacting traffic safety.However,there is little research on this phenomenon.Road hypnosis,as an unconscious state,is can frequently occur while driving,particularly in highly predictable,monotonous,and familiar environments.In this paper,vehicle and virtual driving experiments are designed to collect the biological characteristics including eye movement and bioelectric parameters.Typical scenes in tunnels and highways are used as experimental scenes.LSTM(Long Short-Term Memory)and KNN(K-Nearest Neighbor)are employed as the base learners,while SVM(Support Vector Machine)serves as the meta-learner.A road hypnosis identification model is proposed based on ensemble learning,which integrates bioelectric and eye movement characteristics.The proposed model has good identification performance,as seen from the experimental results.In this study,alternative methods and technical support are provided for real-time and accurate identification of road hypnosis.

Major Problems in American Education: From a Socio-Cultural Perspective

American intellectuals of different generations and in various eras,with a strong sense of social responsibility and a critical mind,have dedicated themselves in revealing some major problems existing in American education,namely educational inequality,declining academic performance,inadequate funding,and school violence.By describing and probing into these problems from a socio-cultural perspective,they offer a solution of eliminating the socio-economic inequality in America,which is fundamental and essential.

Using Mixed Methods to Investigate the Relationship Between Student Motivation and Academic Achievement From Socio-Cultural Perspective

Language learning is a complex process for many reasons. First, it is closely related to linguistics. Second, language is social as it occurs within certain social contexts. And finally, it is individual. Personal characteristics such as experience, gender and age, attitude and aptitude, motivation, beliefs, self-confidence, and anxiety greatly influence language learning. Among these variables, motivation is considered to be one of the most important factors affecting the success of second or foreign language learning. However, the relationship between motivation and educational achievement is not quite clear. In the current literature, motivation is regarded as socially constructed, therefore as dynamic rather than static. Little research has been conducted on the motivation of Vietnamese students studying English as a compulsory curriculum component rather than as a major from a socio-cultural perspective. Understanding the relationship between student motivation and academic achievement as well as the socio-cultural factors that affect students＇ motivation will be an important contribution to motivation theory. Therefore, the situation requires longitudinal and in-depth research into student motivation, the factors affecting it during the learning process, and the relationship between student motivation and academic achievement. A mixed method approach has been chosen to meet the needs of the study. It is believed that insights in these areas will help address the issue of motivation at the Police University.

Socio-cultural Embeddedness of Spatial Agglomeration of Creative Industries in Shanghai

Rapidly emerged creative industries receive increasing attention from a variety of disciplines. However, the space features of creative industries and its association with local socio-cultural contexts have not been fully understood, especially at a micro-city level. This study attempts to understand the agglomeration of creative industries in Shanghai from the sociology perspective. For this study, this paper utilizes primarily a questionnaire survey to explain the space features of creative industries in Shanghai. The results indicate an extensive socio-cultural embeddedness of the agglomeration of creative industries in Shanghai. First, strong emphasis on face-to-face contacts by creative professionals makes geographical agglomeration necessary for creative industries. Second, the reason why inner city of Shanghai is popular among creative professionals and enterprises lies in the diversity of cultures and special environment of the former colonial zones of Shanghai. Additionally, highly concentrated dining and entertainment facilities in the central city of Shanghai offer creative workers social networking places and nightlife venues. Third, as the educational attainment of local citizens and the protection of intellectual property are highly stressed by creative professionals, research and design specialized creative industries are more likely located near universities and research institutes.

Whale Optimization Algorithm-Based Deep Learning Model for Driver Identification in Intelligent Transport Systems

Driver identification in intelligent transport systems has immense demand,considering the safety and convenience of traveling in a vehicle.The rapid growth of driver assistance systems(DAS)and driver identification system propels the need for understanding the root causes of automobile accidents.Also,in the case of insurance,it is necessary to track the number of drivers who commonly drive a car in terms of insurance pricing.It is observed that drivers with frequent records of paying“fines”are compelled to pay higher insurance payments than drivers without any penalty records.Thus driver identification act as an important information source for the intelligent transport system.This study focuses on a similar objective to implement a machine learning-based approach for driver identification.Raw data is collected from in-vehicle sensors using the controller area network(CAN)and then converted to binary form using a one-hot encoding technique.Then,the transformed data is dimensionally reduced using the Principal Component Analysis(PCA)technique,and further optimal parameters from the dataset are selected using Whale Optimization Algorithm(WOA).The most relevant features are selected and then fed into a Convolutional Neural Network(CNN)model.The proposed model is evaluated against four different use cases of driver behavior.The results show that the best prediction accuracy is achieved in the case of drivers without glasses.The proposed model yielded optimal accuracy when evaluated against the K-Nearest Neighbors(KNN)and Support Vector Machines(SVM)models with and without using dimensionality reduction approaches.

Socio-Cultural and Economic Role and Importance of Biodiversity and Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo:Case of the Upper-Katanga Province

Biodiversity plays a fundamental role in the life of the Congolese population in general and in that of the population of Upper-Katanga province in particular.The current study deals with the socio-cultural and economic role and importance of biological diversity and forest in the life of the population of Upper-Katanga province.The utilized methodology was based on observation,field investigation and bibliographic research.Investigations were concerned more particularly with wood and animal species which are significantly utilized in the province.The results reflect the use of wood and animals which are part of the province biological diversity.They are compiled under two segments,namely the socio-cultural importance of biodiversity with some species forbidden to the queen,those that are utilized to split couples,to give strength to children,to provide the king with authority power,etc.The second segment deals with the results which emphasize the socio-economic importance of biodiversity concerned with hunting,fishing,cutting of some wood species for sale,building houses,cooking food,producing heat during cold weather,making furniture and other finished products,and for personal use.

Personal, Situational and Socio-Cultural Factors as Correlates of Intimate Partner Abuse in Nigeria

This study established the relationships between personal, situational and socio-cultural factors and intimate partner abuse among couples in Nigeria. A multiple regression statistical procedure was employed in analyzing the data collected from 200 participants randomly selected from five ministries in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. Results obtained indicated that the three variables when combined effectively predicted intimate partner abuse (F-ratio of 5.756 significant at 0.05 alpha level). Taken separately, situational and socio-cultural factors contributed significantly to the prediction (t = 2.146, p t = 2.284, p (t = 1.705, p > 0.05). On the basis of these findings it was suggested that counselling psychologists should design intervention strategies to promote life-skills training in schools and out-of-schools settings. These include age-appropriate content on sexuality, conflict resolution, building healthy relationships and personal safety. Also, it was suggested that couples should be informed on the long-term health and social consequences of physical and sexual abuse.

A Lightweight Driver Drowsiness Detection System Using 3DCNN With LSTM

Today,fatalities,physical injuries,and significant economic losses occur due to car accidents.Among the leading causes of car accidents is drowsiness behind the wheel,which can affect any driver.Drowsiness and sleepiness often have associated indicators that researchers can use to identify and promptly warn drowsy drivers to avoid potential accidents.This paper proposes a spatiotemporal model for monitoring drowsiness visual indicators from videos.This model depends on integrating a 3D convolutional neural network(3D-CNN)and long short-term memory(LSTM).The 3DCNN-LSTM can analyze long sequences by applying the 3D-CNN to extract spatiotemporal features within adjacent frames.The learned features are then used as the input of the LSTM component for modeling high-level temporal features.In addition,we investigate how the training of the proposed model can be affected by changing the position of the batch normalization(BN)layers in the 3D-CNN units.The BN layer is examined in two different placement settings:before the non-linear activation function and after the non-linear activation function.The study was conducted on two publicly available drowsy drivers datasets named 3MDAD and YawDD.3MDAD is mainly composed of two synchronized datasets recorded from the frontal and side views of the drivers.We show that the position of the BN layers increases the convergence speed and reduces overfitting on one dataset but not the other.As a result,the model achieves a test detection accuracy of 96%,93%,and 90%on YawDD,Side-3MDAD,and Front-3MDAD,respectively.

Socio-Cultural Identities, Perceptions of Sexuality/Sexual Behavior and Cultural Contexts as Determinants of HIV and AIDS Prevalence in Southern Africa

This paper attempts to examine the connection between one’s socio cultural setting and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Often, local communities form the contexts within which people negotiate their social and sexual lives and identities. These communities also play a key role in enabling or restraining people from taking control over their health. The paper will try to demonstrate through specific examples that in African societies, sexual behavior is a product of one’s socio-cultural environment and structural contexts and not the cognitive properties of the individual. The article draws from the qualitative study (Focus group sessions, individual interviews) conducted in three high schools in the Boland area of the Western Cape with about 18 learners, 3 Life skills teachers, 3 Performer-Educators on the efficacy of the HIV/AIDS intervention by The Centre for HIV/AIDS Management theatre group based at the University of Stellenbosch. The aim of the study was to ascertain the cultural content of their campaign model as well as their knowledge of the determinants of sex and sexuality of their target areas. Based on the findings of this study, I argue that theatre will achieve greater success in its campaign against HIV/AIDS in South Africa if the designers of the campaign models adopt a more participatory approach, make indigenous culture central to the design of their intervention model and pay closer attention to what Campbell refers to as “community level of analysis” which simply put implies a greater understanding of the target audiences local communities and its determinants of sex and sexuality.

Embodied Cognition From the Perspective of Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural Theory

Embodied cognition is an approach to cognition that departs from traditional Descartes’ mind-body dualism for its emphasis on bodily interactions with the environment. The paper firstly describes three distinctive features of embodied cognition. Furthermore, from the perspective of philosophical methodology, the paper outlines Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and his contributions to the development of cognitive science. Three basic themes of Vygotsky’s writings are specifically described： genetic forces as a foundation of the study of mind, social origin of higher mental functioning, and mediation of sign systems in inter-mental and intra-mental functioning. Against the background of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, we further discuss the interface between embodied cognition and Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory. It is claimed that bodily states and body-environment interactions are closely connected to sense-making. Embodied cognition should emphasize on the unity of body, mind, and cultural environment. Finally, the paper concludes with the influence of sociocultural theory on the study of embodied cognition.

Socio-Cultural Barriers Influencing Utilization of Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Information and Services among Adolescents and Youth 10 - 24 Years in Pastoral Communities in Kenya

Background: As in other developing countries, sexual and reproductive ill-health continues to mostly affect adolescents and youths. Samburu and Turkana counties in Kenya have some of the highest levels of total fertility rates (TFR) at 6.3 and 6.9 respectively placing them well above the national TFR of 3.9. Establishing factors that influence utilization of SRH services among adolescent and youth aged 10 - 24 years is critical in developing an effective program. Method: We used primary data from qualitative and purposeful study design. Data collection used Focus group discussions (FGD), In-depth interviews (IDIs) and Key informant interviews (IDIs). The target groups were adolescents and youth aged 10 - 24 years, health care providers, community health volunteers (CHVs), chemist assistants, parents of adolescents and youth, teachers, spiritual leaders and traditional activists. Findings and Conclusion: Socio-cultural factors were found to influence utilization of SRH services and information. Early marriage, being youth, male only decisions on sexuality matters and fear of family contribute to unprotected sex while myths and misconceptions on contraceptives affected utilization. The findings revealed that youth needs to know sources, how contraceptives work and how to use them. The findings suggest capacity building of health care providers, CHVs, teachers, parents and community leaders on adolescence, sexuality needs of adolescents and disadvantages of female genital mutilation (FGM) including early marriage.

Socio-Cultural, Legal and Ethical Issues Related to Gene Banking in Oman

Establishment of genetic databases has socio-cultural, ethical and legal implications particularly in developing countries. However, there are no available data in Oman about the community knowledge and understanding of genetic database and gene banking. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating Omani public awareness on socio-cultural, ethical and legal aspects of gene studies （with consideration to regional variations） and to assess the public acceptance of initiating gene banking. This study was conducted using self-completed questionnaires by a sample of adult Omani population invited to participate in the study, from 14 health centers, a school and a university. For illiterate subjects, structured interviews were conducted. There were a total of 1,702 participants with nearly equal numbers of males and females. The mean age of respondents was 31 （＋ 12） years for males and 28 （＋ 10） years for females. In general, 9% of the studied population were illiterate and a total of 29% were preparatory school level and below, classified as the uneducated. While, 60% of the respondents were unemployed. The awareness on the genetic disposition of some common diseases was generally higher than 80% with the highest on sickle cell anemia. Only 17% of the participants had knowledge of genetic databases, 95% of whom were from the educated group. Public opinion on acceptance of gene banking, participation in genetic research and setting protection laws in those aware and non-aware, achieved good scores, indicating public acceptance of the above.