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Cross-national comparison of metabolic syndrome prevalence and related medication use in South Korea and the US, 2007-2020: Evidence from KHANES and NHANES
No full textNo description supplied</p
Refractive index gradient in the lens: reflections on form and function and on the lens paradox
No full textIntroduction
The eye lens is a sophisticated optical element that provides the eye with both refractive power and transparency as well as the ability to change focus. The latter function diminishes with age as the lens becomes less able to change its shape. The changes with age in lens structure affect its function as a transparent refractive element but much remains misunderstood.
Methods
The review considers the optical parameters of the lens, its gradient of refractive index, and how this may be formed and altered with growth and ageing. The review is structured around three axioms that relate to the creation of the refractive index, the explanation for the lens paradox, and the changes in the structural proteins and how these may be linked to opacification.
Results/discussion
It is accepted that the structure/function relationship in the eye lens is explained by the distribution of its proteins forming a gradient of refractive index that provides a high level of image quality to the eye. Delving deeper into explanations for the gradient index creation, the lens paradox and the state of proteins
in situ
in lenses with cataract, gives reason for doubt. The axioms described indicate which areas require revisiting the literature, reconsideration of accepted thinking, and further experimental investigations.</p
Policing extremism on gaming-adjacent platforms: awful but lawful?
No full textSince the inception of video games, extremist groups have been able to create, modify, and weaponise this medium for activism and propaganda. More recently, the emergence of gaming-adjacent platforms (most notably Discord, Twitch, and Steam) has provided a key organizational infrastructure for recruitment and community building. This development poses a significant challenge for policing communities worldwide, particularly have been grappling with, especially in regard to the potential for extremist content to given the potential for extremist content on these platforms to contribute to radicalization and political violence. This article explores how policing communities are responding to extremist activity on gaming-adjacent platforms, the strategies they employ, and the effect these approaches have on extremist activism both online and, more crucially, offline. Using semi-structured interviews with 13 leading P/CVE practitioners, academic and technology industry experts, and content moderation teams, the article finds that third-party policing communities are adopting increasingly sophisticated tactics to counter extremist content. However, these efforts are increasingly undermined by the networked and adaptive nature of extremism, as well as by insufficient enforcement mechanisms at the platform level. In the future, this research suggests that fostering greater transparency in terms of service enforcement from above, combined with efforts to counter toxic and extremist-“adjacent” cultures from below, may enhance resilience against the spread of extremism on gaming-adjacent platforms.</p
XR Body Illusion for Managing Pain in Fibromyalgia: Examining Optimal Duration
No full textNo description supplied</p
The role of the collateral circulation in stable angina: an invasive placebo-controlled study
No full textBackground: Little correlation exists between the burden of ischemia and severity of angina in patients with stable coronary artery disease. This placebo-controlled, n-of-1 study investigated the relationship between ischemia, the collateral circulation, and symptoms in stable coronary artery disease. Additionally, it explored the association between progressive collateral recruitment and ischemic preconditioning.Methods: Fifty-one participants with severe single-vessel coronary artery disease and angina were recruited. Antianginal medications were stopped, and daily angina symptoms were documented using a dedicated smartphone application (ORBITA [Objective Randomized Blinded Investigation With Optimal Medical Therapy of Angioplasty in Stable Angina] app) for 14 days before undergoing invasive pressure wire studies and coronary flow reserve assessment. Each participant then underwent four 60-s episodes of low-pressure balloon occlusion across their coronary stenosis. Each episode was paired with an audiovisually identical placebo inflation in a randomized order. After each episode, participants scored pain intensity on a 10-point scale, and a placebo-controlled pain intensity score was calculated. Collateral flow index was calculated from simultaneous measures of aortic, right atrial, and distal coronary wedge pressure during balloon occlusion. Higher Pr values from Bayesian models indicate a greater likelihood of association.Results: The mean (±SD) age of participants was 63±9 years, and 78% were men. The median (interquartile range) fractional flow reserve was 0.68 (0.57–0.79), the median instantaneous wave-free ratio was 0.80 (0.48–0.89), and the median coronary flow reserve was 1.42 (1.08–1.85). Daily angina frequency showed little correlation with severity of ischemia, as assessed by fractional flow reserve (Somers' D 0.124, Pr=0.057) or instantaneous wave-free ratio (Somers' D 0.056, Pr=0.150). However, there was strong evidence of an association between lower fractional flow reserve and instantaneous wave-free ratio values and greater collateral flow (Somers' D 0.302, Pr=0.998 and Somers' D 0.316, Pr=0.999, respectively). There was also strong evidence of an association between more collateralization (higher collateral flow index) and lower pain intensity scores (Somers' D 0.341, Pr=0.999). Finally, pain intensity scores and collateral flow index remained stable between sequential balloon occlusion episodes within individual patients, indicating little evidence of ischemic preconditioning.Conclusions: Coronary collateralization is associated with ischemic burden and may reduce the intensity of ischemic chest pain. This may explain the nonlinear relationship between stenosis, ischemia, and angina.</p
Estimating sectoral livestock biomass and stock value using data from national diseases eradication programs: a case study based on the Irish cattle herd from 2011 to 2021
No full textIntroduction: Livestock biomass is a denominator for a wide range of important production metrics, including productivity, environmental impact, greenhouse gas emissions, and antimicrobial usage. Accurate biomass estimates allow cross-sectoral and international comparisons for these important indices across a range of high-priority areas, which can then inform policy risk assessments and decision-making. Similarly, accurate estimates of the value of livestock are needed to monitor economic efficiency and productivity and understand the costs associated with animal health policy decisions. Previous methods to estimate biomass have relied on assigning an average liveweight for a given species and multiplying this by the number of individual animals of that species in a region. However, without taking into account the population’s demographics and structure, these approaches cannot be relied upon to accurately represent the cattle population.Methods: Using data from the Irish cattle herd as a case study, this study developed liveweight and value models and applied these models to a cattle registration and movement database to estimate the biomass (kg) and economic stock value (€) of each animal and herd, aggregated by herd type based on a herd classification tree model, and explored trends in biomass and stock value over time.Results: The Irish cattle sector biomass increased from 2,924,800 tonnes in 2011 to 3,317,100 tonnes in 2021, and the cattle sector stock value increased from €6,323.7 m in 2011 to €8,792.3 m in 2021. Furthermore, this study demonstrated the biomass and stock value within-year and between years.Discussion: We illustrate a novel approach using real-time movement data for dynamic estimates of biomass and stock value at animal-, herd- and national-level that can be applied in countries with existing animal registration and movement tracing systems.</p
Conceptualizing and prototyping an open web-based decolonial methodological platform to facilitate the digitization and equitable management of indigenous knowledge.
No full textThis practice-based PhD study acknowledges that Indigenous peoples continue to experience negative consequences from Western epistemologies. These epistemic frameworks perpetuate the marginalization of Indigenous knowledge systems by shaping data practices that relegate them to the periphery of Canadian society. In response, this dissertation introduces the Decolonial Research Aboriginal Wing (DRAW) platform, a cocreated digital methodological framework developed through long-term, reciprocal engagement with Indigenous First Nation communities and elders. Grounded in graphic design as a methodological and epistemic practice, this study reconceptualizes design as a means of engaging with relational, embodied, and culturally grounded knowledge, not merely as a tool of communication. DRAW is a platform meant for research, knowledge documentation, and governance that contributes directly to the advancement of Indigenous data sovereignty. Rooted in community-based participatory research (CBPR), Indigenous natural law, and relational ethics, the platform invites non-Indigenous researchers to adopt a learner position and make space for Indigenous epistemic authority. DRAW provides opportunities for Indigenous community members, researchers, and the broader society to ethically document traditional knowledge through multimodal features, such as drawing, writing, photography, and audio/video recording. These features support authentic engagement and address the risks of cultural loss through mistranslation or misrepresentation. Every element, including the decolonial database, is intentionally designed to align with Indigenous values and principles. By doing so, DRAW resists the extractive logic of digital and data colonialism by embedding community-determined protocols in the design of decolonial praxis. Through this framework, the dissertation contributes original knowledge to the intersecting fields of decolonial design research, Indigenous data governance, and digital humanities. It reconceptualizes research grounded in Indigenous epistemologies as a site of co-learning, where informed consent is an ongoing, relational process rooted in trust, protocol, and cultural sovereignty. This approach offers a decolonial methodological orientation for ethical, respectful, and reciprocal research practices.</p
Desplazamiento forzado interno en Chile (1973-1990): consecuencias económicas y sociales de una invisibilidad histórica
No full textThis article examines the phenomenon of forced internal displacement during the Chilean dictatorship (1973–1990), arguing that this human rights violation has been rendered invisible in both official discourse and the country’s transitional justice processes. Through the study of three emblematic cases, which reflect different types of the phenomenon —the Panguipulli Forestry and Timber Complex (COFOMAP), the eradication of urban camps in Santiago, and the pseudo-expropriation of the Vega family— the regime’s strategies for controlling territory, reconfiguring property, and promoting economic interests are revealed. The article highlights that the lack of recognition and reparation for victims constitutes a historical debt, underscoring the need to include the phenomenon and its consequences in transitional justice processes.</p
Atrial fibrillation detection on the embedded edge: energy-efficient inference on a low-power microcontroller
No full textAtrial Fibrillation (AF) is a common yet often undiagnosed cardiac arrhythmia with serious clinical consequences, including increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and mortality. In this work, we present a novel Embedded Edge system performing real-time AF detection on a low-power Microcontroller Unit (MCU). Rather than relying on full Electrocardiogram (ECG) waveforms or cloud-based analytics, our method extracts Heart Rate Variability (HRV) features from RR-Interval (RRI) and performs classification using a compact Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model optimized for embedded deployment. We achieved an overall classification accuracy of 98.46% while maintaining a minimal resource footprint: inference on the target MCU completes in 143±0 ms and consumes 3,532±6 µJ per inference. This low power consumption for local inference makes it feasible to strategically keep wireless communication OFF, activating it only to transmit an alert upon AF detection, thereby reinforcing privacy and enabling long-term battery life. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of performing clinically meaningful AF monitoring directly on constrained edge devices, enabling energy-efficient, privacy-preserving, and scalable screening outside traditional clinical settings. This work contributes to the growing field of personalised and decentralised cardiac care, showing that Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven diagnostics can be both technically practical and clinically relevant when implemented at the edge.</p
Anthropogenic factors and social organisation drive picobirnavirus communities in wild rhesus macaques
No full textBiologists are increasingly interested in the ecological and evolutionary factors that influence microbial communities. Yet compared to bacterial communities, our understanding of viral community ecology remains limited. Here, we investigated the factors influencing viral community composition and structure among wild rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in human‐modified environments in Bangladesh, focusing on assemblages of picobirnaviruses (PbVs) as a model system. We found that anthropogenic factors—particularly human and livestock densities—were the strongest predictors of viral community composition. Host social organisation played a secondary role, shaping viral communities at the group and site levels. Virus–virus associations influenced co‐occurrence patterns primarily within individual hosts, but their effect became less evident at broader scales. In contrast, individual host traits (age, sex and physiological stress) and viral phylogenetic relationships had minimal effects on viral co‐occurrence. Notably, anthropogenic factors had opposing effects on different PbV taxa: While some viruses were more prevalent in areas with higher human and livestock densities, others were less common, possibly due to their association with wildlife or natural environments. This suggests that macaques may acquire certain PbVs from anthropogenic sources while experiencing reduced exposure to others in human‐modified landscapes. Together, these findings reveal the dominant role of environmental and social factors in shaping viral communities and highlight the hierarchical nature of virus community assembly—with different ecological processes operating at individual, group and site scales.</p
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