19683 research outputs found
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Assessing the effects of microwave heat disturbance on soil microbial communities in Australian agricultural environments: A microcosm study
No full textWeeds reduce agricultural productivity by competing for resources intended for crops. Recently, the deactivation of weed seedbanks by microwave (MW) radiation has been developed as a chemical-free weed management practice. It is unknown, if these extreme heat disturbances permanently alter the soil microbiome of different farming systems. We performed a microcosm experiment to quantify the immediate and short-term effect of MW heating on the soil microbiome. We exposed three different soil types (representing dryland, temperate and irrigated farming systems) to MW heating, and monitored the fungal and bacterial communities over a month of recovery. Bacterial and fungal community composition were strongly dependent on the soil of origin. Following MW heating, bacterial and fungal richness decreased in all soils and did not recover during the period studied (four weeks). Notably, in all soils, bacterial communities became more dissimilar to each other following disturbance, but in fungi, this depended on the soil of origin. These results highlight the importance of considering the resistance and recovery of the resident soil microbiota in developing long-term sustainable MW-based weed management system
Using Data Mining to Discover New Patterns of Social Media and Smartphone Use and Emotional States
No full textSocial media and smartphone use are strongly linked to users' emotional states. While numerous studies have established that fear of missing out (FOMO), boredom, and loneliness predict social media and smartphone use, numerous other studies have concluded that social media and smartphone use negatively impact these emotional states (i.e., FOMO, boredom, and loneliness). Phubbing (phone snubbing), which is the act of ignoring a physically present person in favour of a smartphone, is associated with both social media and smartphone use and users’ emotional states. Much of the above research, however, has adopted the traditional hypothesis testing method. So far, limited work has been done using data-driven approaches. This paper uses data mining techniques to uncover previously unknown patterns about social media and smartphone use, phubbing, and users' emotional states based on two existing datasets originating from online questionnaires facilitated through social media. Novel patterns related to FOMO, loneliness, boredom, and phubbing are discovered and explored in detail. The study also demonstrates the usefulness of the data-driven approach and establishes it as a valid alternative to the hypothesis-driven approach to investigating social media and smartphone use, phubbing, and users' emotional states
Graph reasoning method enhanced by relational transformers and knowledge distillation for drug-related side effect prediction
No full textSummary: Identifying the side effects related to drugs is beneficial for reducing the risk of drug development failure and saving the drug development cost. We proposed a graph reasoning method, RKDSP, to fuse the semantics of multiple connection relationships, the local knowledge within each meta-path, the global knowledge among multiple meta-paths, and the attributes of the drug and side effect node pairs. We constructed drug-side effect heterogeneous graphs consisting of the drugs, side effects, and their similarity and association connections. Multiple relational transformers were established to learn node features from diverse meta-path semantic perspectives. A knowledge distillation module was constructed to learn local and global knowledge of multiple meta-paths. Finally, an adaptive convolutional neural network-based strategy was presented to adaptively encode the attributes of each drug-side effect node pair. The experimental results demonstrated that RKDSP outperforms the compared state-of-the-art prediction approaches. </p
Mediterranean Early Iron Age chronology: assessing radiocarbon dates from a stratified Geometric period deposit at Zagora (Andros), Greece
No full textIn this article, the authors present an analysis of radiocarbon dates from a stratified deposit at the Greek Geometric period settlement of Zagora on the island of Andros, which are among the few absolute dates measured from the period in Greece. The dates assigned to Greek Geometric ceramics are based on historical and literary evidence and are found to contradict absolute dates from the central Mediterranean which suggest that the traditional dates are too young. The results indicate the final period at Zagora, the Late Geometric, should be seen as starting at least a century earlier than the traditional date of 760 BC
Active Support Measure: a multilevel exploratory factor analysis
No full textBackground: Active Support is a person-centred practice that enables people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) to engage in meaningful activities and social interactions. The Active Support Measure (ASM) is an observational tool designed to measure the quality of support that people with IDs living in supported accommodation services receive from staff. The aim of the study was to explore the underlying constructs of the ASM. Methods: Multilevel exploratory factor analysis was conducted on ASM data (n = 884 people with IDs across 236 accommodation services) collected during a longitudinal study of Active Support in Australian accommodation services. Results: Multilevel exploratory factor analysis indicated that 12 of the ASM's 15 items loaded on two factors, named Supporting Engagement in Activities and Interacting with the Person. Conclusions: The 12-item ASM measures two dimensions of the quality of staff support. Both technical and interpersonal skills comprise good Active Support.</p
Associations of Maternal Educational Level, Proximity to Greenspace During Pregnancy, and Gestational Diabetes With Body Mass Index From Infancy to Early Adulthood: A Proof-of-Concept Federated Analysis in 18 Birth Cohorts
No full textInternational sharing of cohort data for research is important and challenging. We explored the feasibility of multicohort federated analyses by examining associations between 3 pregnancy exposures (maternal education, exposure to green vegetation, and gestational diabetes) and offspring body mass index (BMI) from infancy to age 17 years. We used data from 18 cohorts (n = 206,180 mother-child pairs) from the EU Child Cohort Network and derived BMI at ages 0-1, 2-3, 4-7, 8-13, and 14-17 years. Associations were estimated using linear regression via 1-stage individual participant data meta-analysis using DataSHIELD. Associations between lower maternal education and higher child BMI emerged from age 4 and increased with age (difference in BMI z score comparing low with high education, at age 2-3 years = 0.03 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.00, 0.05), at 4-7 years = 0.16 (95% CI: 0.14, 0.17), and at 8-13 years = 0.24 (95% CI: 0.22, 0.26)). Gestational diabetes was positively associated with BMI from age 8 years (BMI z score difference = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.25) but not at younger ages; however, associations attenuated towards the null when restricted to cohorts that measured gestational diabetes via universal screening. Exposure to green vegetation was weakly associated with higher BMI up to age 1 year but not at older ages. Opportunities of cross-cohort federated analyses are discussed
A Quantitative Meta-Analysis and Qualitative Meta-Synthesis of Aged Care Residents' Experiences of Autonomy, Being Controlled, and Optimal Functioning
No full textBackground and Objectives: The poor mental health of adults living in aged care needs addressing. Improvements to nutrition and exercise are important, but mental health requires a psychological approach. Self-determination theory finds that autonomy is essential to wellbeing while experiences of being controlled undermine it. A review of existing quantitative data could underscore the importance of autonomy in aged care, and a review of the qualitative literature could inform ways to promote autonomy and avoid control. Testing these possibilities was the objective of this research. Research Design and Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods systematic review of studies investigating autonomy, control, and indices of optimal functioning in aged care settings. The search identified 30 eligible reports (19 quantitative, 11 qualitative), including 141 quantitative effect sizes, 84 qualitative data items, and N = 2,668. Quantitative effects were pooled using three-level meta-analytic structural equation models, and the qualitative data were meta-synthesized using a grounded theory approach. Results: As predicted, the meta-analysis showed a positive effect of aged care residents' autonomy and their wellness, r = 0.33 [95% CI: 0.27, 0.39], and a negative effect of control, r = -0.16 [95% CI: -0.27, -0.06]. The meta-synthesis revealed seven primary and three sub-themes describing the nuanced ways autonomy, control, and help seeking are manifest in residential aged care settings. Discussion and Implications: The results suggest that autonomy should be supported, and unnecessary external control should be minimized in residential aged care, and we discuss ways the sector could strive for both aims.</p
Innovative Point Cloud Segmentation of 3D Light Steel Framing System through Synthetic BIM and Mixed Reality Data: Advancing Construction Monitoring
No full textIn recent years, mixed reality (MR) technology has gained popularity in construction management due to its real-time visualisation capability to facilitate on-site decision-making tasks. The semantic segmentation of building components provides an attractive solution towards digital construction monitoring, reducing workloads through automation techniques. Nevertheless, data shortages remain an issue in maximizing the performance potential of deep learning segmentation methods. The primary aim of this study is to address this issue through synthetic data generation using Building Information Modelling (BIM) models. This study presents a point-cloud-based deep learning segmentation approach to a 3D light steel framing (LSF) system through synthetic BIM models and as-built data captured using MR headsets. A standardisation workflow between BIM and MR models was introduced to enable seamless data exchange across both domains. A total of five different experiments were set up to identify the benefits of synthetic BIM data in supplementing actual as-built data for model training. The results showed that the average testing accuracy using solely as-built data stood at 82.88%. Meanwhile, the introduction of synthetic BIM data into the training dataset led to an improved testing accuracy of 86.15%. A hybrid dataset also enabled the model to segment both the BIM and as-built data captured using an MR headset at an average accuracy of 79.55%. These findings indicate that synthetic BIM data have the potential to supplement actual data, reducing the costs associated with data acquisition. In addition, this study demonstrates that deep learning has the potential to automate construction monitoring tasks, aiding in the digitization of the construction industry
A kernel integral method to remove biases in estimating trait turnover
No full textTrait diversity, including trait turnover, that differentiates the roles of species and communities according to their functions, is a fundamental component of biodiversity. Accurately capturing trait diversity is crucial to better understand and predict community assembly, as well as the consequences of global change on community resilience. Existing methods to compute trait turnover have limitations. Trait space approaches based on minimum convex polygons only consider species with extreme trait values. Tree-based approaches using dendrograms consider all species but distort trait distance between species. More recent trait space methods using complex polytopes try to harmonise the advantages of both methods, but their current implementation has mathematical flaws. We propose a new kernel integral method (KIM) to compute trait turnover, based on the integration of kernel density estimators (KDEs) rather than using polytopes. We explore how this approach and the computational aspects of the KDE computation can influence the estimates of trait turnover. The novel method is compared with existing ones using justified theoretical expectations for a large number of simulations in which the number of species and the distribution of their traits is controlled for. The practical application of KIM is then demonstrated using data on plant species introduced to the Pacific Islands of French Polynesia. Analyses on simulated data show that KIM generates results better aligned with theoretical expectations than other methods and is less sensitive to the total number of species. Analyses for French Polynesia data also show that different methods can lead to different conclusions about trait turnover and that the choice of method should be carefully considered based on the research question. The mathematical properties of methods for computing trait turnover are crucial to consider because they can have important effects on the results, and therefore lead to different conclusions. The novel KIM method provided here generates values that better reflect the distribution of species in trait space than other methods. We therefore recommend using KIM in studies on trait turnover. In contrast, tree-based approaches should be kept for phylogenetic diversity, as phylogenetic trees will then reflect the speciation process.</p
Understanding Diaspora Pasifika (Sāmoan and Tongan) Intergenerational Sense-Making and Meaning-Making through Imageries
No full textThis article presents imagery representative of Pasifika (Sāmoan and Tongan) diaspora (nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa/ tu‘a Tonga) intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making. The main author, Ruth (Lute) Faleolo, presents a selection of eleven photographs shared with her by Pasifika knowledge holders across Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, and the United States, alongside six personally photographed people/events in Aotearoa. Collectively, these images show important Pasifika meaning-making and sense-making processes that are occurring intergenerationally in tu‘a Tonga/ nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa. These selected images were collected as part of an ongoing larger study of Pasifika migration and mobilities (2013-2023). The second author, Sh’Kinah Tuia‘ana Nauna Faleolo, presents pieces from her art collection (2015): Two Woven Identities and discusses her meaning-making and Indigeneity enfolding these pieces while growing up in Aotearoa. The third author, Lydiah Malia-Lose Faleolo, presents her Identity artwork (2019) and Duality design pieces (2023) that demonstrate her current and continued Indigeneity as a Sāmoan Tongan woman, living and studying in Australia. The fourth author, Nehemiah Thomas Faleolo’s artistic expressions captured in his annotated sketches and sculpture work were selected from a collection he had created in Australia. Nehemiah’s respected artwork and meaning-making, carefully documented by him in 2020 was (posthumously) selected by Faleolo family members, from his private exhibition and collection (Brisbane). Scanned documents and photographs stored on his mobile device have been contributed to this article on his behalf, with permission. For many Pasifika living in Aotearoa, Australia and the United States, the processes of intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making occur in the diaspora contexts of faith, family, community, and education. The imageries presented by Ruth (Lute) Faleolo follow these thematic contexts, with short analyses about the intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making observed per photo. The purpose of her contribution to the discussion is to promote imageries as a way of conveying Pasifika understandings and knowledge. Sh’Kinah Tuia‘ana Nauna Faleolo, Lydiah Malia-Lose and Nehemiah Thomas Faleolo’s contributions present personal accounts of intergenerational sense-making and meaning-making as experienced through their artistic expressions, within nofo ‘i fafo o Sāmoa/ tu‘a Tonga contexts of Aotearoa and Australia.</p