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Leveraging Artificial Immune Systems for Mental Health Re-search: Anomaly Detection in EEG Data
No full textMental Health is a physical, mental and social state affecting 970 million people in the world. Artificial Intelligence and deep learning techniques classifying ElectroEncephaloGraphy (EEG) data have emerged as a promising technology for the detection of mental health disorders. In this context, one underexplored area is the application of Artificial Immune Systems, which is a technique inspired by the human immune system that has been useful in many computational tasks, including anomaly detection. This paper aims to bridge the gap by leveraging Artificial Immune Systems for Mental Health through anomaly detection in EEG Data: a novel Negative Selection Clonal for Anomaly Detection (NSCAD) algorithm is presented and applied on a data set of 945 samples with individuals diagnosed with disorders and a control group of healthy participants. Efficacy of NSCAD on anomaly detection was assessed using precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy metrics. Results are promising, with a precision of 0.92, a recall of 0.83, an F1-score of 0.88 and an accuracy of 0.78. A comparative analysis between the evaluation metrics and anomaly detection of NSCAD vs other methods is finally reported together with a critical analysis of the limitations
Domestic violence and abuse within Roma and Traveller communities: a scoping review
Full text linkDomestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a global human rights problem. This scoping review focuses on the characteristics, impacts and risk and protective factors for DVA within Roma and Traveller communities. Applying a socio‐ecological model for thematic analysis, this review underscores the pervasive influence of patriarchal and gendered norms, which manifest at the individual, family and community levels and prevent women from escaping abusive relationships. No studies on men as victims/survivors were included. The normalisation of DVA within familial and communal settings and a deficiency in specialised support tailored to the unique requirements of Roma and Traveller women are interconnected factors associated with this complex issue. Through critical analysis of current social work practices, we identify such implications as the need for improved knowledge and sensitivity around cultural norms, enhanced understanding of the barriers to disclosure and enhanced understanding of both the risk and protective factors for victims/survivors from Roma and Traveller communities
Muscle activity relationships during isometric shoulder internal and external rotation using the ForceFrame dynamometer and athletic shoulder tests in baseball athletes
Full text linkBackground
Optimal shoulder and trunk neuromuscular coordination significantly contributes to performance and injury prevention in overhead athletes. Although isolated shoulder rotation tests are often discussed in research, they may not fully evaluate the complex muscle synergies necessary for functional thrower positions or force deficiencies. Despite the increasing use of the athletic shoulder (ASH) test in elite sports, evidence regarding the relationship between muscle activation patterns in this multi-joint test and traditional isolated assessments is lacking. This study aimed to examine the muscle activity relationships during shoulder strength assessment of isometric rotation and the ASH test in overhead throwing athletes.
Methods
Surface electromyography was used to analyze the muscle activation of nine shoulder and trunk muscles during maximal voluntary contractions in 17 male national team baseball athletes. Normalized values were used in muscle activation relationship analysis between internal/external rotation and ASH test’s three shoulder positions in the dominant arm (ASH I, ASH Y, and ASH T).
Results
Analysis between internal rotation, external rotation, and the ASH I, ASH Y, and ASH T test positions showed significant differences in muscle activity (p < 0.05). The infraspinatus, anterior and posterior deltoid, and upper trapezius demonstrated higher activity in the shoulder rotation tests, while the external obliques and pectoralis major indicated higher activity during ASH tests. Moderate (ρ = 0.40–0.69) correlations were found between muscles during the tests, while strong (ρ = 0.70–0.89)-to-very strong (ρ = 0.90–1.00) correlations were found between individual muscles.
Conclusion
The ASH and shoulder rotational tests’ results showed different shoulder and trunk neuromuscular activation levels, demonstrating a low relationship between the prime movers for ASH positions and muscles activated during shoulder rotation. This implies that muscle synergies vary significantly depending on joint positioning and test mechanics. It also emphasizes the importance of using multiple test batteries to capture force production deficits and abnormalities that are relevant to overhead athletes. The results support rehabilitation progression starting with infraspinatus strengthening in neutral shoulder abduction, followed by scapular stabilizer training at wider abduction angles to restore functional overhead capacity. Acute or chronic performance may be monitored weekly for further training optimization, return-to-sport decisions, and injury prevention in elite overhead throwing athletes
Lattice Calculation of Short-Range Contributions to Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay π−→π+ee at Physical Pion Mass
Full text linkNeutrinoless double-beta () decays provide an excellent probe for determining whether neutrinos are Dirac or Majorana fermions.
The short-range matrix elements associated with the process contribute at leading order in the decay channel through pion exchange between nucleons.
However, current lattice calculations show notable discrepancies in predicting these short-range contributions.
To address this issue, we perform a lattice QCD calculation of the matrix elements using domain wall fermion ensembles at the physical pion mass generated by the RBC/UKQCD Collaboration. To mitigate contamination from around‑the‑world effects, we develop a new method to reconstruct and subtract them directly from lattice data.
We then perform a nonperturbative renormalization using the RI/SMOM approach in and (\slashed{q},\slashed{q}) schemes.
Compared with previous studies, this work reduces the uncertainties in the matrix elements and provides an independent cross-check that helps to reconcile the discrepancies among previous lattice calculations
From Hot Club Swing to StringTing: Learning jazz violin in a community of musical practice
No full textWhile the violin was a significant instrument in early jazz and its precursor ensembles such as string bands (Shipton 2007), it has become more commonly associated with the ‘hot club swing’ style popularized by Stéphane Grappelli and continued by players such as Didier Lockwood in his later career. Outside of this style, the violin has remained a somewhat marginalized instrument in jazz, despite having its own category from the beginning of the DownBeat polls in 1936 (compared with, for example, flute, which was a ‘miscellaneous instrument’ until 1956) (deMichael 1961). Compared with more popular jazz instruments such as the saxophone, there are fewer opportunities for aspiring jazz violinists to take part in ensembles such as big bands.
This paper begins with an examination of recent and current possibilities for violinists (and other bowed string players) to play jazz, often in an ensemble setting with other bowed strings, using examples from informal educational and community settings, some of them online. This group participatory approach to learning could be considered a ‘community of musical practice’ (Kenny 2016), members of which have a common interest and a desire to improve their practice outside of formal educational institutions. The case studies indicate that, contrary to popular association, violinists wanting to play jazz are interested in more than just hot club swing, and that, in an increasingly fragmented world, these communities of musical practice may be becoming the primary means by which many violinists get to experience jazz performance
Unravelling Radicalisation: Exploring Concepts, Contexts, and Perspectives.
No full textThe term radicalisation is being used by politicians, activist groups, the media, governmental organisations, and many other groups, although it lacks conceptual clarity and insufficient consideration is given to its historical context. This edited book offers a reflective overview of the state of the research by addressing questions such as ‘what is radicalisation?’ and ‘does the concept help us to understand political violence differently?' across the social sciences. From a global selection of scholars, it explores the definition and the utilisation of the concept of radicalisation, pathway modelling, and the impact of gender, religion, and ideologies on radicalisation. It combines theoretical and historical analysis, providing a good introduction for any scholar and student starting in that field
Reflection from the field: Considering the safety of the researcher within disability studies research
No full textWhilst disability research emphasises the importance of sharing the same condition as participants, it has neglected the potential safety issues for researchers that can arise as a result. Sharp and Kremer (2006) argue that the researcher’s positionality can result in incidents of harassment due to how the participants respond to certain identities. As I have previously argued, ‘both feminist and disability research lack the experiences of disabled women, including within the research process’ (Pritchard, 2019: 504). This can be associated with the lack of consideration given to researcher safety, as well as the notion of disabled people as asexual (Shakespeare et al., 1996). Whilst there has since been a rise in the topic of disability and sexuality, the subject has neglected how disabled researchers can be victims
Children’s Film Festivals as Potential Spaces for Radical Content/Consumption
No full textThe children’s film festival is the most important vehicle for the distribution of non-mainstream productions for children and youth, but it has been almost entirely overlooked as an object of study.1 This chapter aims to redress the balance, exploring its potential as a space
for the exhibition and consumption of radical content. The film festival for children, we argue, is the only platform where radical topics can be presented live and direct to the target audience. This radical potential is inherent in its structure, immediacy and privileged position both as intrinsic to the children’s film industry and as partially
external to it, existing outside the systems of mainstream production, distribution and exhibition that dominate the multimedia terrain for children and young people. As well as theorising the position of the children’s film festival within the larger institutional framework of international children’s cinema, this chapter explores how such festivals are shaped by local, regional and national attitudes towards
children and media, as well as broader constructions of childhood and adulthood. It also explores the relationship between children’s film festivals and the local community, particularly schools. Drawing on interviews with several international children’s film festival programmers, we weigh the potentiality of the children’s film festival as a promoter of radical content against the cultural and institutional constraints that place limits on its subversive challenge to norms of production and consumption
The Community Toolkit: A Hopeful Approach to Community Development
No full textThe Community Toolkit is a concept that emerged through postgraduate social policy research and holds The Pyramid of Hope at its core. The four strata structure is the focal point for this two-hour workshop which explores each layer, namely universalism, participation, altruism and activism, in turn. The workshop aims to offer a hopeful approach to community work, nurturing reflective practice and focusing on social justice. It is intended to be useful for a wide audience including experienced professionals and social work or human service students
EEG and EMG Induced Pain-Sensitive Learning Controller forRobotic Knee Rehabilitation Using Deep Learning
Full text linkKnee pain is a problem of common interest for its increasing prevalence in adult population. It can severely impair mobility and diminish the quality of life of affected individuals. Traditional physiotherapy depends heavily on the expertise of the therapists and is often costly and sometimesinaccessible to many patients. Robotic rehabilitation, under this circumstance, is analternative solution for personalized rehabilitation therapy to these patients.Thisstudyaims at classifying knee pain-levels from the acquired EEG and EMG signals of experimental subjects using an extended Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model, and also proposes a novel learning controller that learns the speed-setting of the motors depending on the degree of the classified pain-levels in knee-bending exercises. A complete stand-alone robotic physiotherapeutic system is developed to undertake knee-bending exercises on patients suffering from knee pains. The proposed system learns the pain-levels of experimental subjects at different angular position of knee bending, stores them in the matrix of a Learning controller, and utilizes the learnt experience to modulate motor speeds at different angular knee-bending for the same subject. The proposed system involves 2 classifiers, one to determine subjective intension for left/right leg selection for physiotherapy, and the other to classify pain-levels into 11 classes during knee-bending using P-1000 event related potential and EMG signals. The proposed LSTM-based classifier achieves an accuracy of 95.37% ± 2.53% in knee pain-level classification.The original contribution of the paper includes: i) extension of LSTM classifier architecture by one novel attention module, ii) inclusion of a learning controller with its thorough stability analysis, iii) design and development of the complete stand-alone robotic rehabilitative system for automatic physiotherapy. Feedback taken from healthy people with mild knee pain and clinically designated arthritic patients confirms the superiority of the new proposal over the conventional physiotherapy with respect to individual liking, convenience, trustworthiness and safety