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Physical exercise habits in people with epilepsy: A survey from Brazilian population
Get PDFThis survey evaluated the Brazilian population's physical exercise habits and compared them with those from two decades ago. In this cross-sectional study, 432 people with epilepsy (PWE) assessed the questionnaire. Of these, 387 (age: 33 ± 10.58, 81.4 % women) completed the questionnaire. Among them, 60.5 % were involved in regular physical activities. Among those who exercise regularly, the majority (96.5 %) exercised between 2 and 5 times weekly and had been physically active for at least two years. Only 23.3 % were prohibited by their doctors from participating in physical activities. Only 10 % reported that seizures occur during exercise, and about half of them (55.8 %) believed that exercise improves or has no effect on seizure frequency. Most (79.06 %) did not or rarely believe exercise can trigger seizures. More than half (57.3 %) were not afraid to have seizures during exercise or were not afraid of injury during exercise due to a seizure (69 %). Most believed exercise improves cognition (80.9 %), depression, and anxiety (93.8 %). We visited this scenario two decades early. In our previous study, only 15 % exercised regularly, while in this survey, 58.4 % routinely exercised. Our findings also align with our initial survey, indicating a low seizure frequency during regular exercise, a belief that physical activity reduces seizure frequency, and a reduction in the fear that exercise might trigger seizures. In conclusion, our results show that after two decades, there have been several improvements in physical and sports activity participation among PWE. Implementing strategies to reduce barriers to exercise for PWE and educating them on the benefits of physical activity can help improve this scenario
Features and eigenspectral densities analyses for machine learning and classification of severities in chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases
Get PDFChronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has been presenting highly significant global health challenges for many decades. Equally, it is important to slow down this disease's ever-increasingly challenging impact on hospital patient loads. It has become necessary, if not critical, to capitalise on existing knowledge of advanced artificial intelligence to achieve the early detection of COPD and advance personalised care of COPD patients from their homes. The use of machine learning and reaching out on the classification of the multiple types of COPD severities effectively and at progressively acceptable levels of confidence is of paramount importance. Indeed, this capability will feed into highly effective personalised care of COPD patients from their homes while significantly improving their quality of life.
Auscultation lung sound analysis has emerged as a valuable, non-invasive, and cost-effective remote diagnostic tool of the future for respiratory conditions such as COPD. This research paper introduces a novel machine learning-based approach for classifying multiple COPD severities through the analysis of lung sound data streams. Leveraging two open datasets with diverse acoustic characteristics and clinical manifestations, the research study involves the transformation and decomposition of lung sound data matrices into their eigenspace representation in order to capture key features for machine learning and detection. Early eigenvalue spectra analyses were also performed to discover their distinct manifestations under the multiple established COPD severities. This has led us into projecting our experimental data matrices into their eigenspace with the use of the manifested data features prior to the machine learning process. This was followed by various methods of machine classification of COPD severities successfully. Support Vector Classifiers, Logistic Regression, Random Forests and Naive Bayes Classifiers were deployed. Systematic classifier performance metrics were also adopted; they showed early promising classification accuracies beyond 75 % for distinguishing COPD severities.
This research benchmark contributes to computer-aided medical diagnosis and supports the integration of auscultation lung sound analyses into COPD assessment protocols for individualised patient care and treatment. Future work involves the acquisition of larger volumes of lung sound data while also exploring multi-modal sensing of COPD patients for heterogeneous data fusion to advance COPD severity classification performance
SARchaeological Prospection: Synthetic Aperture Radar for the Reconstruction and Mapping of Temperate Floodplain Environments
Get PDFTemperate river floodplains present a significant challenge for archaeologists, as cultural and palaeoenvironmental remains are often difficult to locate but can be exceptionally well preserved, especially where groundwater levels are high. In these alluvial environments, the deposition of thick, fine-grained sediments has potential to deeply bury rich archaeological archives that can be used to reconstruct past environments, but these deposits also render conventional forms of archaeological prospection largely ineffective. Consequently, subsurface mapping techniques have been developed to determine the three-dimensional spatial distribution of archaeological remains and their relationship to sediment architecture within alluvial environments. These can be generated using a combination of intrusive (boreholes, trial pits, etc.) and nonintrusive (e.g., geophysical survey) investigations augmented by other geological and topographical datasets. Although lidar and other passive remote sensing methods such as multispectral imagery and aerial photography have been utilized to investigate floodplain landscapes, the spaceborne capabilities of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) have yet to be explored within the context of geoarchaeological prospection. This contribution, therefore, examines the capacity of SAR to reconstruct and map landform assemblages within temperate river floodplains by analysing images in a 6-year time series of (COSMO-SkyMed) SAR data across two valleys in Herefordshire, United Kingdom. The results demonstrate that SAR can be used to record the spatial extent of recent flood events to outline surface topographic complexity and water table levels to achieve a detailed understanding of subsurface complexity across temperate river floodplains. This information can, in turn, be used to form a ‘model’ of the likely distribution and potential preservation conditions of archaeological resources. Although higher resolution topographic datasets (e.g., lidar, if available) may often be more effective, the integration of SAR within geoarchaeological investigations provides an alternative data source for the reconstruction of alluvial landscapes
Conceptual and ethical considerations in invasion science
Get PDFInvasion science addresses interconnected ecological, economic, and social challenges posed by the introduction of nonnative species. Therefore, invasion scientists have to consider and reconcile interdisciplinary needs while addressing the potential implications of their findings. Navigating diverse disciplines, including environmental sciences, ecology, economics, and the humanities, invasion scientists seek to arrive at informed decisions on invasion risk, impact, and management. Individual biases, uncertainties, and systemic pressures influence the ability to maintain objectivity and resist pressures that might otherwise distort their findings or applications. In the present commentary, we examine conceptual and ethical dilemmas within the field of invasion science, particularly reputational and the risks of the discipline perpetuating its own relevance by framing invasions as insurmountable challenges. In the discussion, we highlight how incentive structures, biased assessments and framing, and conflicts of interest may compromise the discipline’s integrity. We also explore questions surrounding human responsibility to animal welfare and highlight ethical conundrums in the management of invasive species
User Correction of Misinformation on Social Media: Perceived and Actual Social Norms
No full textDespite the effectiveness of the User Correction approach in combating misinformation, people on social media often avoid correcting others due to fears of consequences and doubts about its usefulness. Users’ perceptions and misperceptions regarding challenging misinformation—a form of User Correction—remain underexplored. This study, based on data from 250 UK-based social media users, examined misperceptions about correcting misinformation and their impact on the likelihood of taking action. The findings reveal that individuals hold misperceptions about the negative consequences of challenging others and the acceptability of such behavior. These consequences include perceived negative effects on relationships, harm to the person being challenged, and the belief that challenging misinformation is ineffective. Participants believed that challenging others could damage relationships more than being challenged themselves, and they perceived challenging others as more futile than being challenged. Those who viewed correcting misinformation as more socially acceptable for others were more likely to engage in such actions. Injunctive norms and perceived negative impacts on the person being challenged also influenced the likelihood of participating in User Correction. This study highlights the importance of addressing users’ attitudes and misperceptions to develop effective user-centric countermeasures on social media. The findings suggest that a social norms approach to behavior change may be a promising strategy to encourage corrective actions
Using Sentence Embedding Techniques for Enhancing Terms-of-Service Text Summarization
No full textSummarization is useful for extracting salient information from linguistically complex texts. This is especially relevant in the legal domain, where it can be used to make content more accessible to layman readers. A simplified representation can help foster transparency and trust between an organization and individuals. We examine the background of the latest advances in extractive and abstractive summarization approaches. The recent appearance of transformer architecture with a self-attention mechanism has a huge impact on abstractive summarization performance. However, a major limitation of abstractive summarization pertains to constraints on input size. To address these shortcomings, in this paper, we propose a target-oriented sentence embedding classification (SEC) architecture. It is designed specifically for Terms-of-Service (ToS) document summarization and is intended to serve the preliminary text processing for abstractive summarization. The results of experiments conducted under a collection of ToS documents from the service TOS;DR show that SEC model results in average 11% increment across all ROUGE metrics (F-measure) in comparison with other extractive summarizers for significantly short summaries. The application of SEC in general-purpose abstractive summarizers results in models that illustrate increment in ROUGE-2 by 11-12% and equal or better ROUGE-L. We accompany the proposed architecture with the annotation service and complex word simplification modules, formed into a publicly available system(https://github.com/HarryPeach/simplifying-legal-content)
Eco-friendly behavior as a moderator: How responsible leadership shapes environmental performance through organizational green culture in the hospitality industry?
Get PDFThis research examines the influence of responsible leadership on environmental performance and organizational green culture within the hospitality sector. In light of increasing environmental challenges, responsible leadership—defined by its stakeholder-oriented approach—has emerged as a critical driver of sustainable practices. The research tests a conceptual model using data from 572 employees and managers in four- and five-star hotels in Antalya, Türkiye. Key hypotheses include the positive effects of responsible leadership on both environmental performance and organizational green culture. Additionally, this study investigates the mediating role of green culture and the moderating effect of employees' eco-friendly behavior. Results confirm that responsible leadership positively impacts environmental performance and green culture, with green culture partially mediating this relationship. Furthermore, eco-friendly behavior amplifies the influence of green culture on environmental outcomes. The findings emphasize the importance of integrating responsible leadership and cultivating a green organizational culture to enhance sustainability efforts. Practical implications for hospitality management include prioritizing sustainability-oriented leadership and fostering eco-conscious behaviors among employees. Future research may explore longitudinal data and expand the model to different cultural contexts
Mass grave mapping and the protection of the dead
Get PDFThe need to respect and (physically) protect the dead is well established under international and national laws and extends to human remains found in mass graves. Once mass graves are discovered, and prior to any investigation, the dead in mass graves should be secured to an extent through the protection of the site itself. Should investigations follow (due to human rights abuses or breaches of international humanitarian or international criminal law), then the dead, if excavated, are in the custody and protection of the investigating authorities. Following successful identification of human remains, their return to the next of kin may be possible, or appropriate reburial may ensue.
Engagement with mass graves is complex: no two mass graves are the same, and contexts differ, as may the legal framework governing mass graves. Building on the Minnesota Protocol, international standards for a rights-informed response to human remains found in mass graves are proffered by the Bournemouth Protocol on Mass Grave Protection and Investigation. A new research project now collates information to generate a digital global map of mass graves and asks how and to what extent this holds protective value. Such regularized mass grave mapping was advocated by former United Nations Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard; indeed, mapping is increasingly employed in human rights contexts as a protection and justice-monitoring measure.
By combining legal, forensic and anthropological insights in responding to the question of data collation in relation to mass graves, this paper sheds light on ways of both conceptualizing and operationalizing digital mapping of mass graves and appraises what kind of protection this may hold for the dead. Structured into four main interrelated sections, the paper briefly anchors data collation as a protection measure under international legal provisions; it then examines the challenges associated with the curation and creation of a global map of mass graves by adopting anthropological, forensic and legal lenses on the subject of mass graves and the data generated surrounding the dead. In a third step, the paper outlines the methodological challenges encountered during the pilot phase of the study, before then offering analysis and discussion on our preliminary findings, where we conclude that the informative value of mass grave mapping holds protective potential, particularly in the absence of physical protection.
As well as offering an original inquiry that fits well with the theme of “protection of the dead”, the paper investigates the very boundaries of protection measures in the context of mass graves and what value they may hold. Such contribution to knowledge and practice is increasingly pressing in situations where physical protection of the dead is not forthcoming, and as an avenue to offer some (albeit incomplete) protection mechanisms for emerging mass grave landscapes: migratory deaths and the threat of mass fatalities arising from extreme climatic events
Empowering the pipeline: Developing a human-centred multi-level mentorship framework for women in design & engineering
Get PDFThis paper presents the preliminary work for the development of a Human-Centred Multi-Level Mentorship Framework designed to support and empower women in design and engineering. Despite growing awareness of the need for diversity, women in engineering continue to face challenges related to career progression, and a lack of tailored support. This research uses human-centred design principles to gather insights to aid in the development of a mentorship model that addresses these issues by placing the experiences and needs of women at the core of its development. The project focuses on gathering and analysing real-world mentorship experiences through a series of focus groups and interviews. By exploring their insights on mentorship, academic and career obstacles, and support mechanisms, the research aims to understand the critical elements of effective mentorship from a human-centred perspective. These qualitative findings will inform the creation of a practical resource aimed at fostering impactful mentorship relationships that support women’s success in design and engineering fields.
Through this resource, we aim to support women’s advancement, strengthen their professional networks, and create a supportive pathway for success in design and engineering. The paper details the methodology of using human-centred design to extract and incorporate user experiences into a mentorship resource
Physioethology: a post-humanist perspective on physiotherapy.
Get PDFPhysiotherapy faces mounting challenges in an era of planetary crisis. This paper proposes a reorientation of physiotherapy through the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, specifically their concept of ethology, which foregrounds affect, relation, and immanence. We argue that contemporary physiotherapy remains tethered to anthropocentric, essentialist, and representational assumptions that limit its capacity to respond to complex ecological entanglements. Drawing on ethology, we explore how bodies, human and non-human, can be understood not as stable entities but as dynamic assemblages defined by what they can do. We consider the implications of this approach for practice, education, and planetary health, suggesting that physiotherapy shift from its traditional forms of praxis toward a dynamic composition of capacities. In doing so, the profession might cultivate an ecologically attuned, affectively sensitive, and experimentally oriented practice capable of engaging in the world