Various walking speeds may induce different responses on the plantar pressure patterns. Current methods used to analyze plantar pressure patterns are linear and ignore nonlinear features. The purpose of this study was to analyze the complexity of plantar pressure images after walking at various speeds using nonlinear bidimensional multiscale entropy. Twelve participants were recruited for walking at three speeds for 20 minutes. A plantar pressure measurement system was used to measure plantar pressure patterns. Complexity index, a summation of MSE2D from (...) all time scales, was used to quantify the changes of complexity of plantar pressure images. The analysis of variance with repeated measures and Fisher’s least significant difference correction were used to examine the results of this study. The results showed that CI of plantar pressure images of 1.8 mph was significantly lower compared with 3.6 and 5.4 mph. The results also showed that CI significantly increased from the 1st min to the 10th min and 20th min with slow walking. Our results indicate that slow walking at 1.8 mph may not be good for postural control compared with moderate walking and fast walking. This study demonstrates that bidimensional multiscale entropy is able to quantify complexity changes of plantar pressure images after different walking speeds. (shrink)

ObjectivesWuhan is the city where coronavirus disease was first reported and developed into a pandemic. However, the impact of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic on medical staff burnout remains limited. We aimed to identify the prevalence and major determinants of burnout among medical staff 1 year after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China.Materials and MethodsA total of 1,602 medical staff from three hospitals in Wuhan, China, were included from November 1–28, 2021. Chi-square tests were conducted to compare the (...) prevalence of burnout across groups based on sociodemographic and professional characteristics. A multivariate analysis was performed using a forward stepwise logistic regression model.ResultsApproximately 37.39% of the medical staff experienced burnout 1 year after COVID-19 pandemic. Emotional exhaustion was the most common symptom of burnout, with 1,422 participants reporting a severe EE. Burnout was associated with insufficient social support and “neutral” or “dissatisfied” patient-physician relationships. Respondents who participated in the care of COVID-19 patients had a higher risk of burnout symptoms than those who did not participate. In particular, mental resilience was negatively associated with burnout among the medical staff.ConclusionNearly two-fifths of the participants had symptoms of burnout, with reduced personal accomplishment being the predominant symptom 1 year after COVID-19. Healthcare organizations should regularly measure and monitor burnout among the medical staff. In addition, creating positive work environments and improving the mental resilience of medical staff may be effective ways to reduce burnout. (shrink)

Background Adherence to ethical guidelines and regulations and protecting and respecting the dignity and autonomy of participants by obtaining a valid informed consent form (ICF) prior to participation in research are crucial; The subjects did not add signatures next to the corrections made to signatures or dates on the ICF, Multiple signatures in other fields, ICF missing/missing signature, Incorrect ICF version Signed after modification, Correction tape used to correct signature, Impersonated signature, Non-research-member signature, however, ICFs are often not properly completed, (...) which must be addressed. This study analyzed ICF signing errors and implemented measures to reduce or prevent these errors. Methods We used the plan–do–check–act (PDCA) cycle to help improve the correctness and validity of ICF signing. Results Interim and final reports from January 2016 to February 2020 including 363 ICFs were studied. The total proportion of correct ICF signatures (200, 83.3%) following the PDCA intervention was significantly higher than that before the intervention (P < 0.05). Analysis of the types of signing error demonstrated that signature errors were significantly reduced after the intervention, particularly for subjects did not add signatures next to the corrections made to signatures or dates on the ICF (16, 6.7%) and impersonated signature (0; P < 0.05). Conclusions The proportions of other error types—multiple signatures in other fields, missing or unsigned ICF, incorrect signature order, incorrect ICF version, use of correction tape to correct signature, and non-medical profession members signing the ICF—did not differ significantly. (shrink)

BackgroundThis study aimed to elucidate the influence of dementia etiologies on the degree of caregiver burden and determine which factors predict a high caregiving burden.MethodsThis 18-month retrospective cohort study enrolled 630 patients and their caregivers from the Dementia Center of Changhua Christian Hospital. The care team performed face-to-face interviews every 6 months, for 18 months from when a diagnosis of dementia was made. The primary outcome was the change in Zarit Burden Interview scores. Generalized estimating equations were used for the (...) longitudinal data analysis.ResultsParticipants with Lewy body disease had a significantly higher caregiving burden compared with those with Alzheimer's disease after adjusting for patient and caregiver features. Caregivers of mixed-type dementia and frontotemporal dementia experienced a greater burden than caregivers of AD, at 6- and 18-month follow-up. Patients with more severe dementia, neuropsychiatric symptoms, being cared for by more than two caregivers, or utilizing social resources were associated with higher ZBI scores; the depressive mood of caregiver also predicted higher ZBI scores.ConclusionThis longitudinal study demonstrated that caregiver burden was influenced by the underlying dementia etiology of patients. The dementia care team should provide personalized education and transfer patients and caregivers to appropriate resources, especially for high-risk populations. (shrink)

With two eye movements tracking experiments, present study sought to establish whether predictability of target words facilitate characters processing in Chinese reading. Target Words embedded in sentences in both experiments were composed by 2 Chinese characters. Predictability of target words were manipulated in both experiments, beyond that, frequency of targets' first characters were manipulated in Experiment 1, frequency of targets' second characters were manipulated in Experiment 2. Pervasive predictability effects were observed on almost all of eye movement measures in both (...) experiments. It also yield reliable characters frequency effect in Experiment 1 & 2, on some measures. None reliable interaction effects of predictability and first character frequency were observed in Experiment 1, but predictability and second character frequency interactively impacted on some measures of eye movement. Theoretical implications of the data are discussed. (shrink)

Metrics and their weaker forms are used to measure the difference between two data. There are many metrics that are available but not desired by a practitioner. This paper recommends in a plausible reasoning manner an easy-to-understand method to construct desired distance-like measures: to fuse easy-to-obtain pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, or metrics by making full use of well-known t-norms, t-conorms, aggregation operators, and similar operators. The simple reason to do this is that data for a real world problem are sometimes from multiagents. (...) A distance-like notion, called weak interval-valued pseudo-metrics, is defined by using known notions of pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, and metrics; this notion is topologically good and shows precision, flexibility, and compatibility than single pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, or metrics. Propositions and detailed examples are given to illustrate how to fabricate an expected or demanded WIVP-metric in practical problems, and WIVP-metric and its special cases are characterized by using axioms. Moreover, some WIVP-metrics pertinent to quantitative logic theory or interval-valued fuzzy graphs are constructed, and fixed point theorems and common fixed point theorems in weak interval-valued metric spaces are also presented. Topics and strategies for further study are also put forward concretely and clearly. (shrink)

Background: Neurofeedback training has recently been proposed as a valuable technique for cognitive enhancement and psychiatric amelioration. However, effect of NFT of alpha activity on memory is controversial. The current study analyzed previous works in terms of randomized and blinded analyses, training paradigms, and participant characteristics to validate the efficacy of alpha NFT on memory in a healthy population.Objectives: A systematic meta-analysis of studies with randomized controlled trials was performed to explore the effect of alpha NFT on working memory and (...) episodic memory in a healthy population.Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library from January 1, 1999, to November 30, 2019. Previous studies were evaluated with the Cochrane risk of bias. A meta-analysis calculating absolute weighted standardized mean difference using random-effects models was employed. Heterogeneity was estimated using I2 statistics. Funnel plots and Egger's test were performed to evaluate the quality of evidence.Results: Sixteen studies with 217 healthy participants in the control group and 210 participants in the alpha group met the eligibility criteria. Alpha NFT studies with WM measures presented little publication bias, and 5 of 7 domains in the Cochrane RoB exhibited a low risk of bias. The overall effect size from 14 WM studies was 0.56. Six EM studies exhibited an effect size of 0.77.Conclusion: Meta-analysis results suggest that alpha NFT seems to have a positive effect on the WM and EM of healthy participants. Future efforts should focus on the neurophysiological mechanisms of alpha NFT in memory. (shrink)

Photovoltaic power forecasting can provide strong support for the safe operation of the power system. Existing forecasting methods are ineffective for grid scheduling decisions or risk analysis. The novel multicluster interval prediction method is proposed to consider the volatility and randomness of PV power output. First, this method utilizes the sparse autoencoder and Bayesian regularized NARX network for point forecasting of PV power. Second, density peak clustering improved by kernel Mahalanobis distance is applied to classify the dataset into multiple clusters, (...) including forecasting error and meteorological factors. Finally, the joint probability density is established by multivariate kernel density estimation to accomplish the PV power interval prediction. The proposed hybrid method is applied for the interval prediction of PV power at Yulara, Australia. Comparative research of point forecasting is implemented to evaluate the machine learning and deep learning methods, with the proposed SAE-BRNARX under four different periods. Results shows that the average values of nRMSE, MRE, nMAE, and R2 for the four periods are 4.45%, 0.90%, −0.15%, 3.39%, and 95.93%, respectively. Moreover, the results of interval prediction obtained by the other interval prediction approaches are compared with the proposed KMDDPC-MKDE. It shows that the average values of PICP, PINAW, ACE, and nMPICD for four periods are 93.93%, 9.50%, 3.93%, and 7.10% at 90% confidence level, respectively. Outcomes demonstrate that the proposed method can obtain more accuracy, a higher coverage rate, narrower average bandwidth, and a closer distance between the middle of interval and actual value than other methods. (shrink)

Rips et al.'s analyses have boosted the plausibility of proposals that the human mind embodies some critical properties of natural numbers. I suggest that such proposals can be further evaluated by infant studies, neuropsychological data, and evolution-based considerations, and additionally, that Rips et al.'s model may need to be modified in order to more completely reflect infants' quantitative abilities.

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 10, Page 11-13, October 2011.

Mixture item response theory models include a mixture of latent subpopulations such that there are qualitative differences between subgroups but within each subpopulation the measure model based on a continuous latent variable holds. Under this modeling framework, students can be characterized by both their location on a continuous latent variable and by their latent class membership according to Students’ responses. It is important to identify anchor items for constructing a common scale between latent classes beforehand under the mixture IRT framework. (...) Then, all model parameters across latent classes can be estimated on the common scale. In the study, we proposed Q-matrix anchored mixture Rasch model, including a Q-matrix and the traditional mixture Rasch model. The Q-matrix in QAMRM can use class invariant items to place all model parameter estimates from different latent classes on a common scale regardless of the ability distribution. A simulation study was conducted, and it was found that the estimated parameters of the QAMRM recovered fairly well. A real dataset from the Certificate of Proficiency in English was analyzed with the QAMRM, LCDM. It was found the QAMRM outperformed the LCDM in terms of model fit indices. (shrink)

AimPatients with high myopia reportedly exhibit changes in functional brain activity, but the mechanism underlying such changes is unclear. This study was conducted to observe differences in dynamic spontaneous brain activity between patients with HM and healthy controls via dynamic regional homogeneity analysis.MethodsResting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed on 82 patients with HM and 59 HCs who were closely matched for age, sex, and weight. The dReHo approach was used to assess local dynamic activity in the human brain. (...) The association between mean dReHo signal values and clinical symptoms in distinct brain areas in patients with HM was determined via correlation analysis.ResultsIn the left fusiform gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, right Rolandic operculum, right postcentral gyrus, and right precentral gyrus, dReHo values were significantly greater in patients with HM than in HCs.ConclusionPatients with HM have distinct functional changes in various brain regions that mainly include the L-FG, R-ITG, R-ROL, R-PoCG, and R-PreCG. These findings constitute important evidence for the roles of brain networks in the pathophysiological mechanisms of HM and may aid in the diagnosis of HM. (shrink)

Body ownership concerns what it is like to feel a body part or a full body as mine, and has become a prominent area of study. We propose that there is a closely related type of bodily self-consciousness largely neglected by researchers—experiential ownership. It refers to the sense that I am the one who is having a conscious experience. Are body ownership and experiential ownership actually the same phenomenon or are they genuinely different? In our experiments, the participant watched a (...) rubber hand or someone else’s body from the first-person perspective and was touched either synchronously or asynchronously. The main findings: (1) The sense of body ownership was hindered in the asynchronous conditions of both the body-part and the full-body experiments. However, a strong sense of experiential ownership was observed in those conditions. (2) We found the opposite when the participants’ responses were measured after tactile stimulations had ceased for 5 s. In the synchronous conditions of another set of body-part and full-body experiments, only experiential ownership was blocked but not body ownership. These results demonstrate for the first time the double dissociation between body ownership and experiential ownership. Experiential ownership is indeed a distinct type of bodily self-consciousness. (shrink)

Against the backdrop of economic internationalization and market globalization, the world has witnessed faster competitive contents with a more dynamic market environment, a more rapid technological innovation, and more diverse customer needs. Thus, for every enterprise especially led by entrepreneurs, the focus is to maintain the sustainability of competitive advantages and dynamically transform core capacity to avoid rigidity. This paper introduces the process of the deepened rigidity in WS Co. Company, which occurs due to the wrong cognition of Dr. S (...) and his teams who managed or failed to respond to the rigidity encountered by the company during different periods. The rigidity of its capacity is believed to be caused by the cognitive errors of the entrepreneur and his team facing every period of potential rigidity, which makes them fail to deal with it, thus leading to complete rigidity. This paper intends to explain how rigidity takes shape from the cognitive aspect of senior managers, which may serve as illuminations for the similar enterprises led by entrepreneurs. (shrink)

This paper demonstrated the influences of initiation, development, turn-down, and reinitiation of the dynamic capability of an entrepreneurial firm in the solar energy industry. The focus is on the impact of entrepreneurial hubris, which may affect the decision of ambidexterity that can vitalize dynamic capability. The findings indicate that, when the major decision maker has the trait of hubris, the decision-making process may be overly arbitrary, and a decision of being exploratory or exploitative alone is likely to be made. On (...) the contrary, when the founder entrepreneur is aware of the hubris and shares decisive power, the decision of being ambidextrous as a dynamic capability is more freely achieved. This paper contributes by discovery of the cognitive-based microfoundation of entrepreneurial ventures and linkage of such microfoundation to organizational ambidexterity. (shrink)

Python language has become the most popular computer language. Python is widely adopted in computer courses. However, Python language’s effects on the college and university students’ learning performance, motivations, computer programming self-efficacy, and maladaptive cognition have still not been widely examined. The main objective of this study is to explore the effects of learning Python on students’ programming learning. The junior students of two classes in a college are the research participants. One class was taught Java language and the other (...) class was taught Python language. The learning performance, motivations, and maladaptive cognition in the two classes were compared to evaluate the differences. The results showed that the motivations, computer programming self-efficacy, and maladaptive cognition on the learning performance were significant in the Python class. The results and findings of this study can be used in Python course arrangement and development. (shrink)

Teacher support makes students feel loved and cared for because they believe that their teachers will provide them with opportunities to make choices, support them in independent problem solving, and understand their inner feelings. High TS levels reduce depression and anxiety, thereby improving students' mental well-being. This cross-sectional study involved 3,573 students from 29 schools in 16 counties/cities of six provinces, namely, Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan. The aim was to examine the impact of TS on students' level (...) of depression. The results indicated that for children in elementary schools, their status as left-behind children played a moderating role between TS and depression. The level of depression in non-LBC children decreased significantly with increases in TS, but the reduction for LBC children was not significant. For children in middle/junior high schools, their LBC status did not play a moderating role between TS and depression. TS was negatively correlated with the children's level of depression, but there was a significant positive relationship between their LBC status and depression. The theoretical and practical significance of the research findings were further discussed. (shrink)

Life education, also known as life and death education, is an important subject in Taiwan with institutions offering degree programs and courses that focus on quality learning and implementation of life education. What is interesting from the perspective of Taiwanese Education is that the teaching of life education also incorporates a number of Eastern-derived and conceptualized tenets, for example, Buddhist teaching and the importance of spiritual wisdom. This premise contends then that life education in Taiwan, in general, is concerned with (...) the promotion, fulfillment, and cherishing of quality life experiences (e.g., personal contentment, happiness). One example of life education, which resonates with other spiritual beliefs and religious faiths (e.g., Hinduism), is related to spiritual cultivation and the enlightenment of life wisdom. Our own teaching of the subject, likewise, places emphasis on the goal of teaching students to seek meaningful understanding of and appreciation for three major, interrelated components of life education: life wisdom, life practice, and life care. Life education is a beneficial subject as its theoretical understanding may help individuals cope with pathologies and negative life experiences. One negative life experience, in this case, is the ultimate fate of humankind: death. Approaching death and/or the onset of grief is something that we all have to experience. How does one approach death? It is not easy feat and, of course, grief for a loved one is personal and some of us struggle with this. We contend that spiritual cultivation and enlightenment, arising from life education, may assist us with the coping of death (e.g., the possibility of transcendence beyond the realm of life). Forming the premise of the present article, we propose that a person’s ‘spiritual and enlightened self’, reflecting the convergence of three major aspects of life education (i.e., Philosophical reflection, Enrichment of personal well-being, and Spiritual cultivation), would result in the initiation and creation of a number of virtues and positive characteristics – for example: having a positive outlook in life, showing compassion, forgiveness, etc. These virtues and quality characteristics, from our philosophical reasoning, are equivalent to those qualities that positive psychology advocates for. (shrink)

AimResting state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to analyze changes in functional connectivity within various brain networks and functional network connectivity among various brain regions in patients with high myopia.Methodsrs-fMRI was used to scan 82 patients with HM and 59 healthy control volunteers matched for age, sex, and education level. Fourteen resting state networks were extracted, of which 11 were positive. Then, the FCs and FNCs of RSNs in HM patients were examined by independent component analysis.ResultsCompared with the HC (...) group, FC in visual network 1, dorsal attention network, auditory network 2, visual network 3, and sensorimotor network significantly increased in the HM group. FC in default mode network 1 significantly decreased. Furthermore, some brain regions in default mode network 2, default mode network 3, auditory network 1, executive control network, and significance network increased while others decreased. FNC analysis also showed that the network connection between the default mode network and cerebellar network was enhanced in the HM group.ConclusionCompared with HCs, HM patients showed neural activity dysfunction within and between specific brain networks, particularly in the DMN and CER. Thus, HM patients may have deficits in visual, cognitive, and motor balance functions. (shrink)