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11 Years with wearables: Qantitative analysis of social media, academia, news agencies, and lead user community from 2009-2020 on wearable technologies
No full textThe role of wearable technology in our daily lives is rapidly growing and many users are cumulatively becoming dependent on it. To provide insight into the future of wearable technologies and various community attitudes towards them, we implemented an in-depth quantitative investigation of opinions from academic texts (DBLP and PubMed), social media (Twitter), news media (Google News and Bing News), and entrepreneurship communities (Kickstarter and Indiegogo) over a 10-year period. Our results indicate that unlike academia, the news media, entrepreneurship communities, and social media all hold overall positive attitudes towards wearable technologies. Secondly, there are diverse perspectives towards various wearable products across different platforms. Specifically, "XR"technologies received the most attention, while "Exoskeleton"ignited the most heated debates. Thirdly, we discovered that the lifetime of a hyped wearable technology lasts approximately three years. Furthermore, the news media and entrepreneurship community\u27s attitudes towards wearable technologies did not have a strong impact on public opinion. Finally, among all types of wearable technologies, "fashion design"and "healthcare"products were the most enlightening for the market
Coaches’ Mental Health Literacy and Role Perceptions for Supporting Young People’s Mental Health
No full textCoaches’ engagement in helping behaviors such as promotion, prevention, and early intervention may help to support young people’s mental health. The purpose of this study was to examine how coaches’ mental health literacy and role perceptions would relate to their engagement in these helping behaviors with young people in the sporting environment. Two hundred ninety-six Gaelic games coaches (M age = 41.96, SD = 9.78; 14% female) completed an online survey containing a self-report measure of mental health literacy relevant to depression, and measures examining role perceptions (i.e., role breadth and role efficacy) for and engagement in prevention, promotion, and early intervention. Results from three path analyses revealed that mental health literacy was not directly associated with any of the helping behaviors, but there were significant indirect effects of mental health literacy for promotion, prevention, and early intervention via role breadth and role efficacy. Enabling coaches to engage in these helping behaviors by developing their knowledge, competence, and beliefs that these actions are an expected part of the role may provide an alternative and informal source of initial support for young people. Lay summary: This study investigated coaches’ mental health literacy, their role perceptions, and how these factors may influence coaches’ engagement in behaviors that can support young people’s mental health. The results suggest that developing coaches’ knowledge, competence, and beliefs may enable them to engage in these helping behaviors within the sporting environment
Electrochemical glucose biosensor based on an osmium redox polymer and glucose oxidase grafted to carbon nanotubes: A design-of-experiments optimisation of current density and stability
No full textEnzymatic glucose electrodes based on mediated electron transfer have potential for application as semi-implantable or implantable sensors. Enzyme electrodes consisting of adsorbed osmium-based redox polymer crosslinked with a glucose oxidising enzyme are promising systems for continuous glucose monitoring, but suffer from signal output magnitude and long-term stability issues. The inclusion of carbon nanosupports such as multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) into these sensors tends to increase characteristics such as current density and surface coverage of enzyme or mediator. However, large quantities of nanomaterials are often necessary to see significant effects. Grafting of the enzyme to the surface of the MWCNTs improves dispersibility of the nanosupport aiding enzyme electrode fabrication, and increases enzyme activity. Here we report on a design of experiments (DoE) approach to determine the optimum amount of each component in enzyme electrodes, using glucose oxidase grafted to carbon nanotube support, to maximise current density and stability for application to continuous use glucose biosensing. Using the DoE approach while considering current density and stability responses delivers a set of component amounts where both responses are optimised. Thus far stability has not been investigated as a response to be optimised using a DoE approach. The optimised enzyme electrodes show a current density of 3.18 ± 0.30 mA cm−2, representing a 146% increase in current density in 50 mM phosphate-buffered saline at 37 °C containing 5 mM glucose when compared to similar systems where enzyme and nanosupport are not grafted to each other. Using the predictive DoE model, component amounts were then modified to minimise the quantity of the nanoconjugate while showing similar electrochemical behaviour and current density to the optimised system, using 93% less of the nanoconjugate. However, the operational stability under continuous use was moderate with only ≈ 50% amperometric current retained after 12 hr use. Overcoating with a Nafion protective layer improved stability to 72–75% over the same period. The coupling of adsorbed films to the electrode surface, use of additional perm-selective membranes, and/or use of pulsed potentials to implement intermittent sampling of glucose levels, rather than continuous amperometry, is proposed to improve operational stability.This Publication is part of a project that has received funding from the European Union\u27s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº813006. RB acknowledges funding from the Irish Research Council (GOIPG/2016/505)
Prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in Irish Hospital Healthcare Workers
No full textno abstract availabl
BALTIC+ Theme 3 Baltic+ SEAL (Sea Level) Product Handbook
No full textThis handbook is designed to support both novice and more advanced users. It is a reference guide for users of the ESA Baltic SEAL suite of products. It provides fundamental information on the theory underpinning the products, and the technical specifications of the data you can access. It also provides links to the more in-depth literature and information on the theory and technical aspects of the product you are using. Newcomers to satellite altimetry data can find basic information on altimetry, and how to interpret and understand the data files you have obtained. There are also helpful basic codes to display and explore your newly acquired data. For more expert users, the overview information is presented here, with more technical, and in-depth information available in the referenced literature
Associations between employment changes and mental health: US data from during the COVID-19 pandemic
No full textObjectives: To examine associations of changing employment conditions, specifically
switching to working from home (WFH) or job loss, with mental health, using data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Data from 2,301 US adults in employment prior to COVID-19 were collected April 3rd−7th, 2020. Participants reported whether their employment remained unchanged, they were WFH when they had not been before, or they had lost their job due to the pandemic. Outcomes were symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and positive mental health (PMH) assessed using validated questionnaires. Linear regression quantified associations of employment changes with mental health outcomes, controlling for age, sex, race, BMI, smoking status, screen time, physical activity, marital status, chronic conditions, and current COVID-19 containment strategies being followe
Bifidobacterium transformation
No full textThe protocol presented in this chapter describes a generic method for electrotransformation of Bifidobacterium spp., outlining a technique that is ideal for conferring selective properties onto strains as well as allowing the user to introduce or knock out/in selected genes for phenotypic characterization purposes. We have generalized on the plasmid chosen for transformation and antibiotic selection marker, but the protocol is versatile in this respect and we are able to achieve transformation efficiencies up to 107 transformants/μg of DNA
Facile tailoring of structures for controlled release of paracetamol from sustainable lignin derived platforms
No full textNowadays, sustainable materials are receiving significant attention due to the fact that they will be crucial for the development of the next generation of products and devices. In the present work, hydrogels have been successfully synthesized using lignin which is non-valorized biopolymer from the paper industry. Hydrogels were prepared via crosslinking with Poly(ethylene) glycol diglycidyl ether (PEGDGE). Different crosslinker ratios were used to determine their influence on the structural and chemical properties of the resulting hydrogels. It has been found that pore size was reduced by increasing crosslinker amount. The greater crosslinking density increased the swelling capacity of the hydrogels due to the presence of more hydrophilic groups in the hydrogel network. Paracetamol
release test showed higher drug diffusion for hydrogels produced with a ratio lignin:PEGDGE 1:1. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed approach is a promising route to utilize lignocellulose waste for producing porous materials for advanced biomedical applications in the pharmacy industry
Maritime Sri Lanka: historical and contemporary perspectives.
No full textThe governments of Mauritius and the Seychelles – both located in the western Indian Ocean have, like Sri Lanka, sought to re-imagine and revitalise their role within the emerging maritime order of the Indian Ocean by drawing on both their location and geographical vantage points. Three factors help us understand the return of geopolitics and its impact on the identity politics and international relations of island states: (1) the post-Cold War context; (2) the challenges of maritime governance today and, (3) the growing capacity and interest of China and India to play a greater role in the Indian Ocean
Milk reception in a time-efficient manner: a case from the dairy processing plant
No full textThe short raw milk lifespan is a matter of concern for the dairy processing sector. It is crucial to the final product
quality to ensure that raw milk will reach the cooling facility without undue delay while maintaining high
hygienic standards. However, an effective milk reception is undermined by numerous internal and external
challenges due to the complexity of the dairy manufacturing system and the stochastic variation of the milk
supply chain. This work presents an industrial case study where the milk reception performance was examined,
and opportunities for improvement were identified. The output provided operational documentation of each
stage of milk reception. The outcomes illustrate that existing infrastructure and operations were not set up to
manage a post-quota abolition uptake in milk production. A number of shortcomings and challenges were
outlined, namely process bottlenecks, inefficient design of the facility layout, lack of standardized procedures,
and internal-communication issues. Recommendations for improvements have been provided to achieve a 23.4%
reduction of process lead time. These findings provide an opportunity for the industry to review their milk
reception operations to deal with stochastic variations in milk supply and seasonality