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Health literacy and health behaviors among adults with prediabetes, 2016 behavioral risk factor surveillance system
Get PDFObjectives: Evidence is needed for designing interventions to address health literacy–related issues among adults with prediabetes to reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This study assessed health literacy and behaviors among US adults with prediabetes and the mediating role of health literacy on health behaviors. Methods: We used data from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (N = 54 344 adults). The BRFSS health literacy module included 3 questions on levels of difficulty in obtaining information, understanding health care providers, and comprehending written information. We defined low health literacy as a response of “somewhat difficult” or “very difficult” to at least 1 of these 3 questions. Respondents self-reported their prediabetes status. We included 3 health behavior indicators available in the BRFSS survey—current smoking, physical inactivity, and inadequate sleep, all measured as binary outcomes (yes/no). We used a path analysis to examine pathways among prediabetes, health literacy, and health behaviors. Results: About 1 in 5 (19.0%) adults with prediabetes had low health literacy. The rates of physical inactivity (31.0% vs 24.6%, P <.001) and inadequate sleep (38.8% vs 33.5%, P <.001) among adults with prediabetes were significantly higher than among adults without prediabetes. The path analysis showed a significant direct effect of prediabetes and health literacy on health behaviors. The indirect effect of prediabetes through health literacy on health behaviors was also significant. Conclusion: BRFSS data from 2016 showed that rates of low health literacy and unhealthy behaviors were higher among adults with prediabetes than among adults without prediabetes. Interventions are needed to assist adults with prediabetes in comprehending, communicating about, and managing health issues to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. © 2020, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
Long term effect of gender affirming hormone treatment on depression and anxiety symptoms in transgender people: A prospective cohort study
Get PDFBackground
Cross‐sectional studies show that transgender people are more likely than cisgender people to experience depression and anxiety before Gender Affirming Hormone Treatment (GAHT). However, the effect of GAHT on mental health in transgender people, and the role of other factors that may have a predictive effect, is poorly explored.
Objectives
Using a longitudinal methodology, this study investigated the effect of 18 months GAHT on depression and anxiety symptomatology and the predictors on mental health outcomes in a large population of transgender people.
Materials and Methods
Participants (n=178) completed a socio‐demographic questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and the Autism Spectrum Quotient Short Version (AQ‐short) at pre‐assessment (T0) and at 18 months after initiation of GAHT (T1).
Results
From T0 to T1, symptomatology was significantly decreased for depression (P <0.001) and non‐significantly reduced for anxiety (P=0.37). Scores on the MSPSS predicted reduction in depression, while scores on the AQ‐short predicted reduction in anxiety.
Discussion
GAHT reduces symptoms of depression which are predicted by having higher levels of social support. Although anxiety symptoms also reduce the changes are not significant and high levels of anxiety still remain post GAHT.
Conclusions
These results highlight the important mental health benefits of GAHT. Support services (professional, third sector or peer‐support) aiming at increasing social support for transgender individuals should be made available
The spread of rice to Japan: insights from Bayesian analysis of direct radiocarbon dates and population dynamics in East Asia
Get PDFThe shift from foraging to agriculture as an economic way of life can be influenced by multiple ecological and cultural factors. The introduction of rice cultivation in Japan appears to have facilitated a dietary and cultural transition from the Jomon to the Yayoi cultural repertoire (10th/4th century BCE). Here we examine how rice spread across the Yayoi cultural arena (Kyushu, Shikoku, and Honshu regions) using Bayesian modelling applied to a set of radiocarbon (14C) dates obtained from carbonized rice grains. The combined results of radiocarbon analysis and archaeological data suggest that rice could have appeared in the Central Highlands already in the 11th century BCE when the region was occupied by people of the Final Jomon culture group and was mainly used for ritual purposes. It then appeared in western Japan (northern Kyushu) in the 9th century BCE and continued to disperse discontinuously across eastern Japan. This dispersal pattern likely results from the fusion of Jomon hunter–fisher–gatherer groups in eastern Japan with cultural traits introduced from the Eurasian mainland. The main driving factors for the immigration of early rice farmers into Japan (starting around 1000 BCE) appears to have been sociopolitical. Transformations in China led to the dissemination of rice farmers into the Korean Peninsula about 500 years earlier. The main drivers likely comprised: (i) the eastward expansion of the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600–1400 BCE); (ii) the eastward expansion of the Zhou kingdom, accompanied by the establishment of satellite states, such as Lu (Shandong Province) and Yan (Beijing), following the defeat of the Shang in 1045 BCE; and (iii) the strengthening of local states during the early 8th century BCE after the weakening of the Zhou, due to conflicts with agropastoralists from the Asian steppes. In addition, it is likely that the gradual middle–late Holocene decrease in summer monsoon precipitation negatively affected agricultural yields in the regions located closer to the summer monsoon boundary, such as the middle Yellow River, and thus further fostered the observed population dynamics including the spread of rice farmers to the Korean Peninsula and Japan
Exploring personalised autonomous vehicles to influence user trust
Get PDFTrust is a major determinant of acceptance of an autonomous vehicle (AV), and a lack of appropriate trust could prevent drivers and society in general from taking advantage of such technology. This paper makes a new attempt to explore the effects of personalised AVs as a novel approach to the cognitive underpinnings of drivers’ trust in AVs. The personalised AV system is able to identify the driving behaviours of users and thus adapt the driving style of the AV accordingly. A prototype of a personalised AV was designed and evaluated in a lab-based experimental study of 36 human drivers, which investigated the impact of the personalised AV on user trust when compared with manual human driving and non-personalised AVs. The findings show that a personalised AV appears to be significantly more reliable through accepting and understanding each driver’s behaviour, which could thereby increase a user’s willingness to trust the system. Furthermore, a personalised AV brings a sense of familiarity by making the system more recognisable and easier for users to estimate the quality of the automated system. Personalisation parameters were also explored and discussed to support the design of AV systems to be more socially acceptable and trustworthy
The China miracle in a technological and socio-political framework—The role of institutions
Get PDFChina’s economy has grown at an average annual rate of around 9.5% in the past four decades, which is often hailed as the China Miracle. This paper proposes a new theoretical model to analyse the causes of China’s phenomenal growth in a technological and socio-political framework. In our new framework, the contemporary technology (T) determines what an economy can achieve; the objective (O) of the society has a fundamental impact on its economic growth; the performance (P) in implementing the social objective largely determines the growth rate of the economy; and the stability (S) of the society determines the sustainability of the economic growth. China’s institutions have played key roles in the TOPS framework to initiate and sustain China’s rapid growth in the past four decades. Socio-political changes caused by economic growth might affect the capacity of these institutions to promote economic growth in future
The architecture of coopetition: strategic intent, ambidextrous managers, and knowledge sharing
Get PDFThe study investigates the significance of strategic intent, manager's ambidexterity, and knowledge sharing routines for firms in their quest to pursue coopetition. We utilize the resource-based view and the dynamic capabilities theory to ground our hypotheses. We test the hypotheses using the data collected from 313 firms that engage in coopetition relationships through an online survey. The findings forward knowledge sharing and ambidextrous managers as intervening variables, in that when complemented with knowledge sharing, a firm's strategic intent could better guide the firm's managers to pursue coopetition successfully. Findings further advocate that knowledge sharing complements to enable the relationship between a firm's strategic intent and its ambidextrous managers, as well as the relationship between strategic intent and coopetition. Furthermore, results also indicate that ambidextrous managers, with a skillset of a combination of exploration and exploitation, are positively associated to coopetition. Overall, the findings make important theoretical as well as empirical contributions to the coopetition and strategic alliance literature
Extended operation range of photovoltaic inverters by current waveform shaping
Get PDFThe grid connection of photovoltaic voltage source inverters depends on the dc-link voltage level that can be supplied by the maximum power tracking of the photovoltaic system. The inverter disconnects from the grid, if the minimum required dclink voltage level is violated, which leads to unwanted energy curtailments implying losses to the system owner. This paper proposes to apply current waveform shaping to the inverter current in order to reduce the peak value of the voltage waveform at the point of common coupling by which the minimum required dc-link voltage level for power injection is reduced. This extended operation range of photovoltaic inverters is achieved through third harmonic current injection and can be applied to single-phase and three-phase, four-wire inverters without additional converter stages. A control structure for harmonic current injection and harmonic phase determination is presented and validated by simulations and the analysis is verified by
experiments
Reinforcement learning based adaptive handover in ultra-dense cellular networks with small cells
Get PDFThe dense deployment of the small base station (BS) in fifth-generation commination system can satisfy the user demand
on high data rate transmission. On the other hand, such a scenario also increases the complexity of mobility management. In this paper, we developed a Q-learning framework exploiting user radio condition, that is, reference signal receiving power (RSRP), signal to inference and noise ratio (SINR) and transmission distance to learn the optimal policy for handover triggering. The objective of the proposed approach is to increase the mobility robustness of user in ultra-dense networks (UDNs) by minimizing redundant handover and handover failure ratio. Simulation results show that our proposed triggering mechanism efficiency suppresses ping-pong handover effect while maintaining handover failure at an acceptable level. Besides, the proposed triggering mechanism can trigger the handover process directly without HOM and TTT. The respond speed of triggering mechanism can thus be increased
Exploring the design of interactive smart textiles for emotion regulation
Get PDFThe present study aims to investigate the design of interactive textiles for emotion regulation. In this work we proposed a design which allows users to visualize their physiological data and help regulate their emotions. We used the Research through Design method to explore how physiological data could be represented in four different interactive textiles and how movement-based interaction could be designed to support users’ understanding and regulation of their emotional state. After an initial user interview evaluation with several textile prototypes, light and vibration were selected as modalities within the biofeedback-based interaction. A smart interactive shawl that reacts to changes in emotional arousal was designed to help the users know their emotion and adjust it, if necessary, with the support of electrodermal activity sensor and pressure-based sensors. The results of the second study showed that the smart shawl could help the user to visualize their emotions and reduce their stress level by interacting with it. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Coronavirus disease 19 with gastrointestinal symptoms as initial manifestations: a case report
Get PDFSince the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in December 2019, an epidemic has spread rapidly worldwide. COVID-19 is caused by the highly infectious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. A 42-year-old woman presented to hospital who was suffering from epigastric discomfort and dyspepsia for the past 5 days. Before the onset of symptoms, she was healthy, and had no travel history to Wuhan or contact with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases. An examination showed chronic superficial gastritis with erosion and esophagitis. Enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen showed a lesion in the right lower lobe of the lungs. Chest computed tomography showed multiple ground-glass opacity in the lungs. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. There was no improvement after antibiotic treatment. Polymerase chain reaction performed 2 days later was positive and she was diagnosed with COVID-19. After several days of antiviral and symptomatic treatments, her symptoms improved and she was discharged. None of the medical staff were infected. Clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are nonspecific, making differentiating it from other diseases difficult. This case shows the sequence in which symptoms developed in a patient with COVID-19 with gastrointestinal symptoms as initial manifestations
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