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"Grammar, I hate" or "I grammar hate"?: L1 and L2 word order differences and bilingual DLD assessment

- Han, Weifeng

  • Authors: Han, Weifeng
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Multifaceted multilingualism Chapter 7 p. 184-203
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  • Description: Cross-module interfaces, such as the syntax-semantics interface, are among the most problematic properties to fully acquire in a second language (L2). First language (L1) monodialectal and bidialectal speakers may show different performances at the interfaces in L2. However, little is known if such a different performance is caused by learners' diverse L1 dialectal backgrounds. The study is motivated by the need to link speech-language pathology and word order typological studies in a bidialectal/bilingual context. The aim is to investigate L1 bidialectism in the L2 syntax-semantics interface acquisition outcome and to separate language difference from language disorder. A sentence-picture matching task on the topic-comment structure was administered among 37 Mandarin monodialectal and 39 Mandarin - Wu bidialectal child speakers. Results of a generalized linear model showed that L1 bidialectals exhibited better syntactic-semantic awareness in L2 than their L1 monodialectal counterparts. The results showed that mono- and bidialectal speakers have different performance patterns at the syntax-semantics interface involving noncanonical word orders for L2. However, the L2 performance was under the impact of language difference between L1 and L2, it does not qualify for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Finally, the study offers both theoretical and clinical implications for the diagnosis and assessment of bilingual DLD. © 2024 John Benjamins Publishing Company.

"Resisting Social Identity Threat and Maintaining Resilience" : A Qualitative Study of Chinese Parents Following the Loss of an Only Child

- Wang, Anni, Guo, Yufang, Cross, Wendy, Lam, Louisa, Plummer, Virginia, Zhang, Wen, Zhang, Jingping

  • Authors: Wang, Anni , Guo, Yufang , Cross, Wendy , Lam, Louisa , Plummer, Virginia , Zhang, Wen , Zhang, Jingping
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Psychol Trauma Vol. 16, no. 2 (2024), p. 167-175
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  • Description: Objective: Parents who lose an only child in China are stressed and traumatized due to social identity threat (SIT). This qualitative study aimed to interpret their experience to inform culturally and socially sensitive intervention strategies. Methods: Using a phenomenological approach, 17 bereaved parents who lost an only child were interviewed. The transcripts were analyzed using Colaizzi's method. Results: Three themes were identified, namely, "assuming a new social identity," "triggering social identity threat," and "resisting social identity threat and maintaining resilience." The study showed that SIT initially began with identity reconstruction, where self-identity and social identity occurred 1 after another. Once labeled with such social identity, the bereaved parents suffered social identity threat triggered by inner inferiority and external stigmatization. The bereaved parents undertook a variety of coping strategies to resist the threat and to maintain resilience of these strategies, 4 patterns depicting resilience and threat were interpreted. Conclusion: The findings offer an understanding of the multifaceted bereavement dilemma and lay a foundation for developing intervention strategies. Promoting or maintaining resilience and alleviating SIT are 2 important ways that help parents move on. To help them with identity reconstruction, the development of culturally sensitive resilience-based programs and the linking of social resources to solve practical problems are recommended. Community health professionals should encourage parents to maintain good health management to prevent their predicament from worsening. Raising economic assistance, building an elderly care support system, and promoting social acceptance are strategies that could be considered by policymakers. Clinical Impact StatementThe bereaved parents who have lost an only child in China is facing a multifaceted dilemma, which involves psychological, economic and cultural issues. This study applies the construct of social identity threat to interpretive lived experience of parents in China who have lost their only child. The study contributes to better understanding of their multifaceted bereavement dilemma, and lay the foundation for developing psycho-behavioural intervention strategies, which potentially also benefit other marginalized or traumatized bereaved groups. Results in this study offered several recommendations for psychological counselors, community workers, community health professionals, and government policymakers.

A new closed-loop solar power forecasting method with sample selection

- Kharazi, Somaieh, Amjady, Nima, Nejati, Maryam, Zareipour, Hamidreza

  • Authors: Kharazi, Somaieh , Amjady, Nima , Nejati, Maryam , Zareipour, Hamidreza
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy Vol. 15, no. 1 (2024), p. 687-698
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  • Description: In this article, a new short-term solar power forecasting method is proposed which has a closed-loop structure composed of point-estimating and range-classifying parts. If the forecasts generated by these parts for solar power are inconsistent, the feedback loop sends appropriate signals to them to correct their predictions. The feedback loop iterates until consistent forecasts are generated for the solar power by the point-estimating and range-classifying parts. This enables the proposed closed-loop forecasting method to enhance its solar power prediction accuracy and reliability. Furthermore, a novel sample selection approach, different from feature selection methods, is devised to mine the historical data for finding the most informative training samples for training the proposed forecasting engine. The effectiveness of the proposed solar power forecasting method is illustrated by testing it on some real-world solar farms and comparing its results with the results of several state-of-the-art solar power prediction methods. © 2010-2012 IEEE.

A Simultaneous power and data transfer method for dynamic wireless charging electric vehicles

- Li, Xiaofei, Zheng, Fan, Wang, Heshou, Sun, Yue, Dai, Xin, Hu, Jiefeng

  • Authors: Li, Xiaofei , Zheng, Fan , Wang, Heshou , Sun, Yue , Dai, Xin , Hu, Jiefeng
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE journal of emerging and selected topics in power electronics Vol. 12, no. 1 (2024), p. 1-1
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  • Description: This paper proposes a new method for simultaneous dynamic wireless power and data transfer (SDWPDT). When the receiver is moving, both power and data transfer channels are dynamically switched ON/OFF according to the receiver's position. In essence, data is transmitted through the high-frequency electric field (EF) generated by the parasitic capacitances of the coupling coils and the metal shield plates, while power is transmitted through the relatively low-frequency magnetic field (MF) generated by coupling coils. By doing this, mutual interference between two transfer channels (i.e., power and data transfer channels) is relatively small. Firstly, the interference from power to data can be greatly reduced due to the absence of a direct electrical wire-based connection. Secondly, the power loss caused by the data transfer channel in the power link is very small so it can be ignored. In addition, the implementation of real-time communication facilitates the establishment of a closed-loop control within the system. This mechanism guarantees consistent power output during dynamic movement, even in the presence of fluctuations in load or input voltage. Laboratory prototype-based experimental findings substantiate the feasibility of the proposed approach.

A step-up 5-level transformer-less switched capacitor inverter without leakage current for PV system application

- Ardashir, Jaber, Ghadim, Hadi, Ogly, Aydin, Hu, Jiefeng, Peyghami, Saeed

An analysis of the nature of young students’ STEM learning in 3D technology-enhanced makerspaces

- Forbes, Anne, Falloon, Garry, Stevenson, Michael, Hatzigianni, Maria, Bower, Matt

  • Authors: Forbes, Anne , Falloon, Garry , Stevenson, Michael , Hatzigianni, Maria , Bower, Matt
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Developing culturally and developmentally appropriate early STEM learning experiences Chapter 11 p. 172-187
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  • Description: Research Findings: This study was undertaken to investigate learning processes and outcomes from using 3D design and printing technologies with children aged 5–8 years, in three schools in a metropolitan city in Australia. Data were collected from five sources (teacher interviews, surveys, journals; student interviews; and iPad screen recordings) and analyzed to identify themes responding to the question: What is the nature of students’ learning and learning processes in technology-enhanced Makerspaces? Findings report the perspectives of teachers and students, supplemented by screen recordings from the iPads. Students were found to have significant engagement in learning through involvement in these technology-enhanced Makerspaces, and to have developed skills and understanding in a number of areas including: digital technical proficiency, design thinking, problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. Findings are conceptualized using a research-informed Maker Literacies Framework, to better understand the nature of students’ learning and work processes while engaged in these environments. Practice or Policy: Findings imply that Makerspaces with 3D design and printing could be used to promote young children’s STEM literacies although teachers need to be mindful of the need to explicitly plan for and teach important STEM concepts, if learning in these disciplines is a goal. © 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Analysing maintenance and renewal decision of sealed roads at city council in australia

- Shrestha, Kishan, Chattopadhyay, Gopi

  • Authors: Shrestha, Kishan , Chattopadhyay, Gopi
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Conference paper
  • Relation: 7th International Congress and Workshop on Industrial AI and eMaintenance, IAI 2023, Lulea, Sweden, 13-15 June 2023, International Congress and Workshop on Industrial AI and eMaintenance 2023 Conference proceedings p. 291-301
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  • Description: Roads are one of the major physical infrastructures of Hepburn Shire Council (HSC) as of all other local councils. Every year HSC allocates and spends huge amount of budget on roads for maintenance and renewal. The road performance condition level has been the major priority for roads renewal selection. However, other criteria are under-considered, and there are gaps in significant analysis of the relation between roads age, condition, risk, and cost. In this study, decision-making framework or tool has developed using multi criteria technique (MCT) and analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for single objective optimisation i.e., to provide an agreed level of service optimising Maintenance and Renewal cost or improve the condition subjected to annual budget. This study adopted decision criteria as per community and council needs, by developing a model for criteria selection. Additionally, this study analysed the adopted HSC maintenance strategies, condition monitoring systems, performance conditions of the roads, and operational and renewal budget of HSC. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.

Assessing the validity and reliability of a baseball pitch discrimination online task

- Grieve, Georgia, Besler, Zachary, Müller, Sean, Spering, Miriam, Hodges, Nicola

  • Authors: Grieve, Georgia , Besler, Zachary , Müller, Sean , Spering, Miriam , Hodges, Nicola
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Vol. 22, no. 2 (2024), p. 481-505
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  • Description: There has been an increasing interest in training perceptual skills in sports through online video-based methods, particularly in baseball. However, there is little empirical evidence related to the reliability and validity of such online methods for the assessment of these skill. Here we developed an online task to assess pitch discrimination and evaluated (a) inter-item reliability, (b) reliability in assessment compared to an in-person task, also tapping into external validity and (c) discriminability across different skill groups. We also compared performance on a non-sport specific Dynamic Visual Acuity task (DVA), thought to tap into underlying visual skills comprising pitch discrimination. Skilled, Varsity-level baseball players (n = 17) were compared to novices (n = 14) when discriminating pitches thrown by two different pitchers, across three pitch types, edited to progressively remove sections of ball flight (3 time points). The online task discriminated across skill groups, showed good reliability across repeated viewings and from the online task to an in-person assessment of skilled athletes (n = 8). There were, however, differences in reliability and discriminant validity based on the type of pitcher, with one pitcher being responded to more accurately and reliably. Skilled participants showed good discriminability between fastballs and change-ups. There were no group differences for DVA, nor did it correlate with pitch discrimination for the skilled group. These data illustrate the reliability of online video assessments, but raise issues concerning discriminability across different pitchers and when standing ready to swing. Greater sensitivity testing of such assessments is still needed, within and across skill groups. © 2024 International Society of Sport Psychology.

Control of distributed converter-based resources in a zero-inertia microgrid using robust deep learning neural network

- Ngamroo, Issarachai, Surinkaew, Tossaporn

  • Authors: Ngamroo, Issarachai , Surinkaew, Tossaporn
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid Vol. 15, no. 1 (2024), p. 49-66
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  • Description: Considering the evolution of future microgrids (MGs) towards zero-inertia level due to the penetrations of distributed converter-based resources (DCRs), a large number of data produced by these generations will lead the control decisions to be more complicated than conventional power systems. This paper presents a control strategy for a zero-inertia MG with DCRs using a robust deep learning neural network (RDeNN). In a training phase, a sub-space state-based identification method is employed to monitor and analyze the data regarding stability indices, i.e., damping and frequency of dominant modes, and robustness against uncertainties. In addition, a mixed H2/H

DCCGAN based intrusion detection for detecting security threats in IoT

- Cyriac, Robin, Balasubaramanian, Sundaravadivazhagn, Balamurugan, Venkatachalam, Karthikeyan, R.

  • Authors: Cyriac, Robin , Balasubaramanian, Sundaravadivazhagn , Balamurugan, Venkatachalam , Karthikeyan, R.
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation Vol. 23, no. 2 (2024), p. 111-124
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  • Description: Internet of things (IoT) consists of wired/wireless network, sensor, and actuator, where security is more important when more devices are connected to IoT. To increase more security in IoT devices, this manuscript proposes a dual-channel capsule generation adversarial network (DCCGAN) espoused intrusion detection scheme for detecting security threats in IoT network (DCCGAN-IDF-DST-IoT). Data are collected from MQTT-IoT-IDS2020 dataset and Bot-IoT dataset. Then, the data are fed to local least squares, which eradicate the redundancy and replace the missing value. The pre-processed dataset is supplied to fertile field optimisation algorithm (FFOA), which selects the relevant features. Then DCCGAN is used for classifying the data as normal or anomalous. The proposed technique is activated in Python language. The performance of proposed technique for MQTT-IoT-IDS2020 dataset attains 16.55%, 21.37%, 32.99%, 27.66%, 26.45%, 21.47% and 22.86% higher accuracy compared with the existing methods. Copyright © 2024 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Detection of anomalies and explanation in cybersecurity

- Samariya, Durgesh, Ma, Jiangang, Aryal, Sunil, Zhao, Xiaohui

Ecological and statistical models to configure flow regime for environment benefit in highly engineered rivers : a case study in the MacKenzie River, Southeast Australia

- Atazadeh, Ehsan, Gell, Peter, Mills, Keely, Barton, Andrew, Newall, Peter

  • Authors: Atazadeh, Ehsan , Gell, Peter , Mills, Keely , Barton, Andrew , Newall, Peter
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Environmental Science and Pollution Research Vol. 31, no. 5 (2024), p. 7408-7427
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  • Description: Ecological and statistical models were developed using freshwater algal assemblages to assess water quality and ecological health of a regulated river. These models were used to inform configuration of flows to maintain or improve environmental conditions of the waterway whilst meeting consumptive water supply commitments. The flow regime of the MacKenzie River, western Victoria, Australia, has been substantially modified since the construction of a water supply reservoir on its upper reach in 1887. Water is withdrawn at several locations downstream of the reservoir, creating a substantially modified flow regime, impacting key environmental values of the river. To assess the impact of the different flow regimes on river health and ecosystem function, ten sites were repeatedly sampled along the river between February 2012 and April 2014. Physical and chemical characteristics of water, including pH, temperature, turbidity, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, cations, and anions, were measured. Biological properties of the algal periphyton communities, including dry mass, ash-free dry mass, chlorophyll-a concentration, and species composition, were also measured. Exploration of the algal assemblage and water chemistry data using the computationally unconstrained ordination technique such as principal component analysis principal component analysis (PCA), correspondence analysis (CA), detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicated two strong gradients in the data sets. Furthermore, the quantitative ecosystem response models have been developed as the prototype tool to assist in the future configuration of flows in this river. The empirical data and models showed the lower reaches of the river to be in poor condition under low flows, but this condition improved under flows of 35 ML/day, as indicated by the reduction in green algae and cyanobacteria and improvement. Finally, the results are presented to tailor discharge and duration of water volume by amalgamation of consumptive and environmental flows to improve the condition of the stream thereby supplementing the flows dedicated to environmental outcomes. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Genetic and shared environmental factors explain the association between adolescent polysubstance use and high school noncompletion

- Davis, Christal, Gizer, Ian, Agrawal, Arpana, Statham, Dixie, Heath, Andrew, Martin, Nicholas, Slutske, Wendy

  • Authors: Davis, Christal , Gizer, Ian , Agrawal, Arpana , Statham, Dixie , Heath, Andrew , Martin, Nicholas , Slutske, Wendy
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Psychology of Addictive Behaviors Vol. 38, no. 1 (2024), p. 114-123
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  • Description: Objective: Examine the nature of the relationship between adolescent polysubstance use and high school noncompletion. Method: Among a sample of 9,579 adult Australian twins (58.63% female, Mage = 30.59), we examined the association between the number of substances used in adolescence and high school noncompletion within a discordant twin design and bivariate twin analysis. Results: In individual-level models controlling for parental education, conduct disorder symptoms, childhood major depression, sex, zygosity, and cohort, each additional substance used in adolescence was associated with a 30% increase in the odds of high school noncompletion (OR = 1.30 [1.18, 1.42]). Discordant twin models found that the potentially causal effect of adolescent use on high school noncompletion was nonsignificant (OR = 1.19 [0.96, 1.47]). Follow-up bivariate twin models suggested genetic (35.4%, 95% CI [24.5%, 48.7%]) and shared environmental influences (27.8%, 95% CI [12.7%, 35.1%]) each contributed to the covariation in adolescent polysubstance use and early school dropout. Conclusions: The association between polysubstance use and early school dropout was largely accounted for by genetic and shared environmental factors, with nonsignificant evidence for a potentially causal association. Future research should examine whether underlying shared risk factors reflect a general propensity for addiction, a broader externalizing liability, or a combination of the two. More evidence using finer measurement of substance use is needed to rule out a causal association between adolescent polysubstance use and high school noncompletion. © 2024 American Psychological Association. All Rights Reserved.

How lived experience mediated my gold, ribbons, puzzles and morals research motivations : a reflective introspection

- Stranieri, Andrew

  • Authors: Stranieri, Andrew
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Research partners with lived experience : stories from patients and survivors Chapter 15 p. 183-191
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  • Description: Studies on factors that motivate researchers conclude that financial rewards, recognition, curiosity and a desire to contribute; the so-called, Gold, Ribbons, Puzzle and Morals motivating factors, combine to explain why individuals start and continue to be researchers. Lived experience with significant, often life-changing events as a patient, carer, victim, or bystander has motivated many, directly or indirectly, including me, to become researchers. In this chapter, I draw on introspection to examine my journey through 25 years of research experience in university settings. I use concepts from dual systems theories that identify intuition and cognition as two processes that come together to explain how key events and situations in life have influenced my decisions. This illustrates how critical events have mediated the Gold, Ribbon, Puzzle and Morals factors that were motivating my research efforts.

Insight into key obstacles and technological strategy for enzymatic digestion of full cellulose fraction from poplar sawdust

- Guo, Jianming, Li, Jing, Liu, Dylan, Xu, Yong

  • Authors: Guo, Jianming , Li, Jing , Liu, Dylan , Xu, Yong
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Bioresource Technology Vol. 391, no. (2024), p.
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  • Description: Lignocellulosic biomass mainly consists of hemicellulose, lignin, and cellulose, which differently affect the enzymatic digestibility of cellulose. As for the typical representative for inert woody biomass, three components of cellulose were proposed conceptually for poplar sawdust, i.e., active cellulose, inert cellulose, and resistant cellulose. Dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment, hydrogen peroxide-sulfuric acid delignification, and sulfuric acid-assisted glycerol swelling were, respectively, proven to break the three obstacle mechanisms that affect the cellulase of poplar. The removal of key obstacles improved the cellulase digestibility of poplar enzyme-hydrolyzed residues by 188.7 %, and glucose yield increased from 34.6 % to 99.9 %. Therefore, a total of 39.5 g glucose was obtained from 100 g poplar sawdust by integrating the above three technologies. This work presented insight into and removed the key obstacles to enzymatic digestibility of poplar cellulose and developed an integrated technology to effectively convert full cellulose fraction to glucose from woody biomass. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Intelligent feature selection algorithm using SA-SVM classification for skin cancer diagnosis

- Hoshyar, Azadeh, Al-Jumaily, Adel

  • Authors: Hoshyar, Azadeh , Al-Jumaily, Adel
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Non-Invasive Health Systems based on Advanced Biomedical Signal and Image Processing Chapter 15 p. 372-395
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  • Description: In recent decades, the incidence of malignant melanoma as a deadly skin cancer has increased worldwide. With its high medical costs and death rates, this cancer has prioritized the need for early diagnosis. Computer-based detection systems can improve the diagnosis rate of melanoma by 5%-30% compared to the naked eye and reduce human error. Although much effort has been made to advance the detection of skin cancers, there are still serious concerns about it. This chapter introduces automatic skin cancer diagnosis and an overview of methods in each step toward detection. A novel algorithm in feature selection and classification stages of automatic skin cancer diagnosis is designed and implemented to identify malignant and benign lesions. A smart algorithm is proposed based on inertia-based particle swarm optimization (IPSO) and the self-advising SVM (SA-SVM). This algorithm optimizes the feature selection stage. Additionally, SA-SVM, known as a new classifier in skin cancer detection systems, is employed along with the proposed algorithm. The statistical and performance measurement analyses of algorithms are presented to prove the superiority of the proposed algorithms. © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Adel Al-Jumaily, Paolo Crippa, Ali Mansour, and Claudio Turchetti; individual chapters, the contributors.

Is doctor google our best choice for healthcare information recommendations? A duty of care to improve processes

- Burstein, Frada, Meredith, Grant

  • Authors: Burstein, Frada , Meredith, Grant
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Research partners with lived experience : stories from patients and survivors Chapter 7 p. 91-102
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  • Description: Living with a life-long medical condition or a serious disease requires a lot of research skills on how to access the best quality information to inform better decision-making of healthcare consumers. Relatives, friends, and carers are often sharing the stress and responsibility of looking after the healthcare of consumers. They feel personally responsible for meeting not only physical, but also information needs of people they care for. With the internet being almost a default source of a wide variety of information, and health information in particular, this interview-based chapter reflects on what are the opportunities and challenges for information and communication technology (ICT) researchers who aim to address the personalized needs for quality healthcare information provision. Professor Frada Burstein is a leading information technology researcher specializing in smart information portals in health care. Her research has contributed to the transformations in web-based information systems architecture to empower patients. She was named the ICT Educator of the Year for her pioneering work in knowledge management and ICT education. In this interview with Grant Meredith, she reveals how her intense experiences caring for her father led her to focus her intelligent systems research toward health care.

Knowledge graph completion via subgraph topology augmentation

- Huang, Haufei, Ding, Feng, Zhang, Fengyi, Wang, Yingbo, Peng, Ciyuan, Shehzad, Ahsan, Lei, Qihang, Cong, Lili, Yu, Shuo

Living with family violence and the great escape

- Zentveld, Elisa

  • Authors: Zentveld, Elisa
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Book chapter
  • Relation: Research partners with lived experience : stories from patients and survivors Chapter 5 p. 57-71
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  • Description: Lived experience can add an important dimension to research. Whilst acceptance of lived experience in research has not exactly taken hold yet, there is a movement towards valuing the contribution lived experience can provide, especially in some research areas. This book chapter explains how lived experience drew me, as a researcher in one discipline, to move into another research area—family violence. It is not living with family violence per se that resulted in the discipline change, but more so the systems that keep victims bound to perpetrators of family violence. I realised through my experiences that living with family violence can feel like a one-way ticket where there is no return journey; no escape route. I use my lived experience with navigating systems (namely legal systems) to contribute to family violence research. This chapter explains my three court journeys and how those outcomes and experiences led me to turn my research attention to family violence. This chapter also explains how the research gaps I uncovered could best be found through lived experience. This chapter, therefore, provides an important perspective on both the value of lived experiences with research, as well as the field of family violence (focusing on legal systems).

Lophomonas as a respiratory pathogen—jumping the gun

- Mewara, Abhishek, Gile, Gillian, Mathison, Blaine, Zhao, Huan, Pritt, Bobbi, Bradbury, Richard

  • Authors: Mewara, Abhishek , Gile, Gillian , Mathison, Blaine , Zhao, Huan , Pritt, Bobbi , Bradbury, Richard
  • Date: 2024
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Clinical Microbiology Vol. 62, no. 1 (2024), p.
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  • Description: Human infections with the protozoan Lophomonas have been increasingly reported in the medical literature over the past three decades. Initial reports were based on microscopic identification of the purported pathogen in respiratory specimens. Later, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed to detect Lophomonas blattarum, following which there has been a significant increase in reports. In this minireview, we thoroughly examine the published reports of Lophomonas infection to evaluate its potential role as a human pathogen. We examined the published images and videos of purported Lophomonas, compared its morphology and motility characteristics with host bronchial ciliated epithelial cells and true L. blattarum derived from cockroaches, analyzed the published PCR that is being used for its diagnosis, and reviewed the clinical data of patients reported in the English and Chinese literature. From our analysis, we conclude that the images and videos from human specimens do not represent true Lophomonas and are predominantly misidentified ciliated epithelial cells. Additionally, we note that there is insufficient clinical evidence to attribute the cases to Lophomonas infection, as the clinical manifestations are non-specific, possibly caused by other infections and comorbidities, and there is no associated tissue pathology attributable to Lophomonas. Finally, our analysis reveals that the published PCR is not specific to Lophomonas and can amplify DNA from commensal trichomonads. Based on this thorough review, we emphasize the need for rigorous scientific scrutiny before a microorganism is acknowledged as a novel human pathogen and discuss the potential harms of misdiagnoses for patient care and scientific literature. Copyright © 2023 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.