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Animals’ Entanglement with Technology: a Scoping Review
Get PDFAnimals living alongside humans are navigating a world increasingly filled with technology, yet little is known about how they interface with these systems, whether designed for, with, or around them. Anchored in HCI and ranging across diverse fields, this scoping review analyzes nearly 800 research works to explore the diverse realities of animal-technology research, examining the who, what, why, and how of animal-technology entanglements. Our analysis revealed 11 research objectives and eight types of technologies across six animal contexts. By categorizing the literature based on authors’ aims and intended beneficiaries, we highlight trends, gaps, and ethical considerations. We find that most systems involve animals with limited potential for direct engagement or sense-making. We propose a framework to understand animals as users versus subjects of interactive systems, focusing on feedback, empirical testing, and projected animal benefits. Our findings offer a foundation to understand current and future animal technology research and the diversity of animal user experience
Four decades of advancing research on adolescent health and informing health policies: the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study
Get PDFThe Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is a large cross-national research study, conducted in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO). The study has surveyed young people aged 11, 13 and 15 years every 4 years since the mid-1980s and has grown to include 50 countries across Europe, North America, and Western-Central Asia. Over the past 40 years more than 1.6 million students have participated. HBSC aims to advance understanding of adolescent health behaviours, health and wellbeing within social contexts, inform national and international health promotion policies and practice, and foster collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. In this paper we share the history and development of the HBSC study covering: i) theory-driven and novel research impact, ii) unique long-term trends in adolescent health behaviours and perceived health and wellbeing, iii) methodological rigor to allow cross-national comparison, and iv) embedding youth involvement and maximizing policy impact
Detection of pathogens associated with acute febrile illness in children under five years of age in rural Tanzania
Get PDFAcute febrile illness (AFI) investigations are crucial for public health. They can provide data on disease prevalence, morbidity, and mortality, and improve treatment, management, control, and detection of outbreaks in areas with limited diagnostic tests. Current understanding of multiple causes of AFI in the paediatric population in Tanzania is limited. This study aimed to simultaneously detect 33 pathogens using TaqMan Array Card based real-time PCR. Whole blood samples were collected from a total of 247 children (2–59 months old) who presented with febrile illness at Dareda and Haydom hospitals in north-eastern Tanzania between November 2015 and March 2016. Overall, 50 (20.2%) and 8 (3.2%) of 247 children had at least one and more than one pathogen detected respectively. Bacterial zoonoses were frequently detected including Brucella spp. (n = 18, 7.3%), C. burnetii (n = 4, 1.6%), Bartonella spp. (n = 3, 1.2%), Rickettsia spp. (n = 3, 1.2%) and Leptospira spp. (n = 1, 0.4%). Dengue virus was detected in 14 (5.7%) individuals and Plasmodium spp. in 12 (4.9%) individuals. These findings reveal the potential clinical importance of zoonoses and arboviruses in febrile children in Tanzania and highlight the need to consider a broad range of pathogens in febrile illness diagnosis
Spinal and corticospinal excitability changes with voluntary modulation of motor cortex oscillations
Get PDFAim:
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of EEG neurofeedback (NF)-induced modulation of sensorimotor alpha (i.e., mu) rhythm on spinal and corticospinal tract (CST) excitability.
Methods:
Forty-three healthy volunteers participated in 3 sessions of EEG-NF for upregulation (N=24) or downregulation (N=19) of individual alpha oscillations at central location Cz. Spinal excitability was studied before and during NF using H-reflex of the soleus muscle, and CST excitability was tested before and after NF, through MotorEvoked Potential (MEP) of the tibialis anterior muscle. Mu rhythm was extracted using current source density. Differences in MEP and H-reflex before and during/after NF were analysed using repeated measures analysis. The relationship with motor cortexcortical excitability was estimated through linear regression between change in MEP/H-reflex, and change in power of mu rhythm and the upper portion of mu rhythm, muh .
Results:
CST excitability changes were significantly correlated to change in muh (p-value < 0.044, |r| > 0.42), while spinal excitability changes were correlated to broad mu power modulation (p-value < 0.04, |r| > 0.43). While no distinct effect of NF on spinal versus CST excitability was found, the correlations indicate an inverted U-shape relationship between cortical and subcortical excitability. The trends of the correlations between spinal/CST excitability change and EEG power change were preserved when participants were grouped by success at NF task, and by mu modulation outcome, indicating that the net effect of power change at Cz weighs more than the task the participants attempted to accomplish.
Conclusions:
The consistent direction of mu power correlation with both MEP, tested after NF, and H-reflex, tested during NF, indicates that modifications in mu activity are associated with spinal and CST adaptations lasting beyond the NF session, evidencing neuroplasticity. Together with the inverted U-shape relationship found between amplitude of mu modulation and spinal/CST excitability change, the results provide support for further research and clinical implementation of NF to induce CNS plasticity, a prerequisite for effective neural rehabilitation
Financial teaching and financial understanding amongst young people
No full textThis paper examines the gender gap in financial understanding amongst 11-18 year-olds in Scotland. A regression analysis is carried out based on individual-level data collected in the 2014 Young People in Scotland Survey (N=2,016). This survey was supplemented with questions measuring financial understanding, along with questions relating to the teaching of economics, finance and business studies as school subjects. The analysis suggests that there is a large gender gap favouring males of nearly 30%. In addition, the teaching of economics, finance and business studies has a large positive effect on financial understanding. This effect is about four times larger for males compared to females. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition suggests that most of the gender gap is explained by this difference. More generally, the analysis suggests that the beginnings of the adult gender gap in financial understanding is when individuals are in school
Diagnosing spatial and temporal biases of OSM contributors: identifying differences between gender and age from an online survey
Get PDFCitizen science projects are open and available to anyone to contribute data. However, the literature concerning volunteered geographic information (VGI) has demonstrated significant demographic participation biases across time and space. Understanding the significance and impacts of these biases is challenging due to privacy concerns, which lead to the (pseudo-)anonymity of contributors. Using a sample of 265 users, this paper statistically analyses edits to the crowdsourced mapping platform OpenStreetMap (OSM) to examine the impact of gender and age on spatial and temporal contribution patterns. We find that men aged in the Others group (i.e. below 25 or over 54) made more contributions during the week and at weekends than those in the Economically Active age group (i.e. age 25-54). Using the Kruskal-Wallis test to compare temporal contributions between gender groups, the Economically Active group showed a significant gender difference on both weekdays and weekends, as well as the hours of the day, with men making more contributions than women regardless of age category. Men in the Others group made the most contributions overall. Calculating the Simpson Index of Diversity for user edits reveals that women have more limited spatial interests (i.e. they contribute to fewer countries) than their male counterparts, suggesting particular spatial preferences by gender
Carbohydrate quality is independently associated with cardiometabolic risk in Chinese individuals with impaired glucose tolerance
Get PDFBackground/Objectives: Dietary manipulation with carbohydrate restriction has been extensively investigated in diabetes prevention programmes. Carbohydrate (CHO) quality, rather than quantity, is associated with various metabolic outcomes. Few studies examined the fibre/CHO ratio on lipid profiles, liver fat and insulin resistance in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Methods: In this comprehensive cross-sectional study, we evaluated the association of carbohydrate-related nutritional factors with metabolic parameters in a cohort of 177 Hong Kong Chinese with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). The subjects underwent a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) with measurement of plasma C-peptide and lipid profiles, body composition, transient elastography, and three-day food records. The fibre/CHO ratio is calculated by dividing fibre intake by total carbohydrate intake (in grams). Results: The median (IQR) age of the study cohort was 60 (54–62) with a mean ± SD BMI of 26.7 ± 3.9 kg/m2, and 40.7% were female. A higher carbohydrate quality, measured as fibre/CHO ratio, was inversely correlated with triglycerides (r = −0.305, p < 0.001) and positively correlated with High-density lipoproteins cholesterol (HDL-C) (r = 0.354, p < 0.001). These associations remained significant after adjusting for age, gender, lipid-lowering drugs, total calorie, macronutrient and sugar intake, physical activity and sodium/potassium ratio. Blood pressure, liver fat and insulin resistance were also associated with the fibre/CHO ratio after the adjustment of these confounding factors. Consuming more than 5.5 g of fibre per 100 g carbohydrate was associated with lower serum triglycerides. Conclusions: Our results highlight the potential for using the fibre/CHO ratio as a metric for daily carbohydrate quality and the importance of addressing both carbohydrate quality and quantity in designing dietary interventions to reduce cardiometabolic risk
The effect of soil physical structure in soil carbon and nitrogen distribution under different land use types in typical forest grassland transition zone on Loess Plateau, China
No full textLand use/vegetation cover change, reflecting a range of human land use practices, is the most prevalent and immediate influence on alterations in soil quality. The physical structure of soil is crucial for safeguarding soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), as it modulates the physical protection mechanisms and the distribution of these elements within the soil. Nevertheless, the impact of soil physical structure on soil C and N accumulation under different land use/vegetation cover in the same area remains unclear. This research collected soil samples from five land use types in the typical forest grassland transition zone of the Loess Plateau, including natural forests, artificial forests, shrubs, meadows, and farmland. We investigated the topsoil physical structure, soil C and N pools within aggregates, and driving factors in five land use types. Our results indicated that SOC of soil macroaggregates in natural forests, artificial forests, shrublands, and meadows was 16.4%, 23.7%, 8.6%, and 40.7% higher than in farmland. The MBC of soil macroaggregates in natural forests, artificial forests, shrublands, and meadows was 48.9%, 26.4%, 37.0%, and 18.8% higher than in farmland. Soil C and N storage and soil aggregate stability were the lowest in farmland soil ( p < .05). The changes in soil C and N in five land use types were markedly influenced by the C and N quantity contained in large aggregates with a size range of >0.25 mm. Soil MBC and MBN were closely related to soil enzymes. Environmental factors indirectly influence soil C and N storage through impacting soil properties and physical structure. These results emphasized the significance of soil physical structure in soil C and N content. When formulating land use policies, we should fully consider the effects of alterations in soil physical structure on soil C and N storage after vegetation cover changes. It is crucial to improve and enhance soil structure to maintain soil C and N nutrients and resist erosion
Waste to hydrogen: steam gasification of municipal solid wastes with carbon capture for enhanced hydrogen production
Get PDFThe research focuses on enhancing hydrogen production using a blend of municipal solid waste (MSW) with Biomass and mixed plastic waste (MPW) under the Bioenergy with Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (BECCUS) concept. The key challenges include optimising the feedstock blends and gasification process parameters to maximise hydrogen yield and carbon dioxide capture. This study introduces a novel approach that employs sorption-enhanced gasification and a high-temperature regenerator reactor. Using this method, syngas streams with high hydrogen contents of up to 93 mol% and 66 mol% were produced, respectively. Thermodynamic simulations with Aspen Plus® validated the integrated system for achieving high-purity hydrogen (99.99 mol%) and effective carbon dioxide isolation. The system produced 70.33 molH₂ /kgfeed when using steam as a gasifying agent while 37.95 molH₂ /kgfeed was produced under air gasification conditions. Case I employed a mixture of MSW and wood residue at a ratio of 1:1.25, with steam and calcium oxide added at 2:1 and 0.92:1, respectively, resulting in 68.80 molH₂ /kgfeed and a CO2 capture efficiency of 92 %. Case II utilised MSW and MPW at a 1:1 ratio, with steam and calcium oxide at 2:1 and 0.4:1, respectively, producing 100.17 molH₂ /kgfeed and achieving a 90.09 % CO2 capture efficiency. The optimised parameters significantly improve hydrogen yield and carbon capture, offering valuable insights for BECCUS applications
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