Proposal for three Greek papyrological characters

This is a proposal to add three Greek characters to the international character encoding standard Unicode, needed to represent text on papyri. The characters were published in Unicode Standard version 7.0 in June 2014

Smoking in Ireland 2013: synopsis of key patterns and trends.

The Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) initiated a smoking prevalence tracker survey (Smoking Tracker Survey) in July 2002. The survey was continued by the OTC until the Office was dissolved in 2010. At that stage many of the functions of the OTC transferred to the Health Service Executive who have continued the survey. The smoking prevalence tracker survey involves a monthly nationally representative telephone poll of 1000 people (randomly selected) aged 15 years and over The smoking prevalence question in the survey is, “Do you smoke one or more cigarettes each week, whether packaged or roll your own?” The survey includes a range of sociodemographic characteristics that facilitate analysis by gender, age cohort, social socioeconomic group and region. The outputs from the smoking prevalence tracker survey provide a unique dataset for assessing trends in smoking prevalence in Ireland since 2002. Basic information obtained from the survey has been published on the OTC and HSE websites over the years. To improve accessibility to the dataset this concise downloadable report is being published for the first time. 12 month prevalence. The analysis of smoking patterns for 2013 established that: • The overall prevalence of cigarette smoking in 2013 was 21.5%. This is similar to 2012 (21.7%) and is a reduction of 1.6%.on the 2010 figure of 23.1%. • A higher percentage of men (22.9%) reported being smokers than women (20.2%). • Smoking rates were highest among young adults (18-34 years), reaching 30.7% in the 18-24 year old age group. Prevalence was lowest among the 65+ age group at 9.7%. • The highest cigarette smoking prevalence rates were in the lower socio economic groups (C2, 24.6%, DE, 25.9%) The lowest smoking rates (15.5% and 13%) were among farmers (F) and higher socio economic groups (AB). • Smoking rates were lowest in Connaught/Ulster (21.1%), with marginally higher rates in Munster (21.3%) and Dublin (21.4%) and highest in Rest of Leinster at (22%)

Durable low surface-energy surfaces

A formulation for forming a low surface-energy surface on a substrate having (i) a fluoroalkyl silane having a low surface energy part, (ii) a liquid crystal silane operable for enhancing the orientation of the molecules of the fluoroalkyl silane and for crosslinking with the fluoroalkyl silane, and, (iii) a transport medium for applying the fluoroalkyl silane and the liquid crystal silane to the surface of a substrate. In one embodiment the formulation can includes a crosslinking agent for crosslinking the fluoroalkyl silane. In another embodiment the formulation has a condensation catalyst for enhancing chemical bonding of the fluoroalkyl silane to the substrate. The transport medium can be an alcohol such as methanol or ethanol

Engaging community with social research: using social research to develop and evaluate local government community engagement initiatives

In 2011, a partnership between the Community Development and Facilities Branch of the Toowoomba Regional Council and Dr Andrew Hickey from the University of Southern Queensland commenced exploring the uses of social research in local government community development practice. The branch had identified a need for developing richer accounts of communities located within the Toowoomba region local government area, and although significant economic and demographic datasets were available via in-house and external providers, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing (2011, 2006) and Council’s own ‘Community Profile’ (2011) and ‘Community Atlas’ (2011) socio-demographic maps, the analyses of community drawn from these accounts could not provide Branch staff with a complete picture of the communities they were working with. Branch staff sought a sense of the qualitative aspects of living within community and set about attempting to identify the relational and affective nature of their communities. Through the gathering of accounts of the experience of community, Branch staff sought to refine and target program delivery in their community engagement initiatives. To this end, a partnership with Dr Andrew Hickey, a social researcher based at the University of Southern Queensland commenced, and set about identifying a skill set that community development practitioners in local government might draw on to effectively account for and record the relational and experiential aspects of community (Pretty 2002; Hickey 2012). An outcome of this early partnership included the development of a set of practitioner focused research training resources initially trialled with Community Development and Facilities Branch staff of Toowoomba Regional Council through 2012. Further funding to develop these resources was needed however, and following the securing of an ACELG Partnership Grant, the project extended to commence development of a web-based professional development training package, The Social Research Toolkit, underpinned by a research agenda that sought to understand how local government practitioners (especially those in community engagement and development) might go about using social research within their day-to-day practice. With a project team including Dr Andrew Hickey (University of Southern Queensland), Mr Paul Reynolds (Toowoomba Regional Council) and Dr Lisa McDonald (University of Southern Queensland), the development of The Social Research Toolkit commenced and a field-based research project exploring the uses of qualitative social research in local government settings undertaken in sites across Australia. This report details the key findings drawn from the Partnership Grant that supported this project and provides insight into the ways social research might come to be used in local government community engagement

Sparse distributed memory prototype: Principles of operation

Sparse distributed memory is a generalized random access memory (RAM) for long binary words. Such words can be written into and read from the memory, and they can be used to address the memory. The main attribute of the memory is sensitivity to similarity, meaning that a word can be read back not only by giving the original right address but also by giving one close to it as measured by the Hamming distance between addresses. Large memories of this kind are expected to have wide use in speech and scene analysis, in signal detection and verification, and in adaptive control of automated equipment. The memory can be realized as a simple, massively parallel computer. Digital technology has reached a point where building large memories is becoming practical. The research is aimed at resolving major design issues that have to be faced in building the memories. The design of a prototype memory with 256-bit addresses and from 8K to 128K locations for 256-bit words is described. A key aspect of the design is extensive use of dynamic RAM and other standard components

Triggered Electrical Stimulation Cueing to Address Hypofunctioning Peroneus Muscle in the Treatment of Chronic Ankle Instability: Two Repeated Single Case Designs

Background: Approximately two million ankle sprains occur in the United States annually. Lateral ankle sprains (LAS) account for 85% of all ankle sprains, 74% of those individuals report continued symptoms following the initial insult. Persistent pain and instability following ankle sprain is indicative of chronic ankle instability (CAI). There are many interventions to address hypofunctioning muscle including electrical stimulation (ES) and it is known that peripheral ES changes muscle behavior. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of electrical stimulation of the peroneal muscles combined with 3 exercises for the treatment of CAI.Methods: Two participants with CAI were recruited for this repeated single case design. The Cumberland Ankle Instability Tool (CAIT), the modified Star Excursion Balance Test (mSEBT), and center of pressure (CoP) was measured. A single limb hop to stabilization protocol and single limb stance activities were combined with manual triggered electrical stimulation for six sessions.Results: Improvements in CAIT scores for both patients were observed. There was no statistically significant change in mSEBT scores. Center of Pressure measurement improvements varied between subjects. For subject 1, there was no significant change in CoP in eyes open and eyes closed conditions. For subject 2, there was a significant change in the anterior/posterior CoP data points in both conditions.Discussion: In individuals with CAI, the addition of electrical stimulation to a single limb stance and hop stabilization protocol for hypofunctioning peroneal muscles led to positive CAI outcomes as measured by improved CAIT scores and improved CoP measurement in one subject

No Love Among Haters: Negative Interactions Reduce Hate Community Engagement

While online hate groups pose significant risks to the health of online platforms and safety of marginalized groups, little is known about what causes users to become active in hate groups and the effect of social interactions on furthering their engagement. We address this gap by first developing tools to find hate communities within Reddit, and then augment 11 subreddits extracted with 14 known hateful subreddits (25 in total). Using causal inference methods, we evaluate the effect of replies on engagement in hateful subreddits by comparing users who receive replies to their first comment (the treatment) to equivalent control users who do not. We find users who receive replies are less likely to become engaged in hateful subreddits than users who do not, while the opposite effect is observed for a matched sample of similar-sized non-hateful subreddits. Using the Google Perspective API and VADER, we discover that hateful community first-repliers are more toxic, negative, and attack the posters more often than non-hateful first-repliers. In addition, we uncover a negative correlation between engagement and attacks or toxicity of first-repliers. We simulate the cumulative engagement of hateful and non-hateful subreddits under the contra-positive scenario of friendly first-replies, finding that attacks dramatically reduce engagement in hateful subreddits. These results counter-intuitively imply that, although under-moderated communities allow hate to fester, the resulting environment is such that direct social interaction does not encourage further participation, thus endogenously constraining the harmful role that these communities could play as recruitment venues for antisocial beliefs.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Auditing Elon Musk's Impact on Hate Speech and Bots

On October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter, becoming its new CEO and firing many top executives in the process. Musk listed fewer restrictions on content moderation and removal of spam bots among his goals for the platform. Given findings of prior research on moderation and hate speech in online communities, the promise of less strict content moderation poses the concern that hate will rise on Twitter. We examine the levels of hate speech and prevalence of bots before and after Musk's acquisition of the platform. We find that hate speech rose dramatically upon Musk purchasing Twitter and the prevalence of most types of bots increased, while the prevalence of astroturf bots decreased.Comment: 3 figures, 1 tabl

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of carer stress on subsequent institutionalisation of community-dwelling older people.

BACKGROUND: In the caregiving literature there is a common assertion that a higher level of carer stress is a critical determinant of premature ending of homecare. However, this contention has not been systematically assessed. We therefore systematically reviewed and meta-analysed the prospective association between various forms of carer stress and subsequent institutionalisation of community-dwelling older people. METHODS: Systematic literature search of prospective studies measuring carer stress at baseline and institutionalisation at follow-up. Given substantial interchangeability in the measurement of carer stress, we included a wide number of exposure measures, namely: carer stress, burden, depression, distress, anxiety, burnout, and strain. Institutionalisation included both acute and long-term care utilisation. The standardised mean difference between stressed and non-stressed carers was the primary measure of effect. We assessed study quality with the Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool (CCAT). Pre-planned sensitivity analysis included examination of estimates according to study size; decade published; study quality according to quartiles of CCAT scores; population; follow-up period; study design and impact of adjusted or unadjusted estimates. RESULTS: The search yielded 6,963 articles. After exclusions, we analysed data from 54 datasets. The meta-analysis found that while carer stress has a significant effect on subsequent institutionalisation of care recipients, the overall effect size was negligible (SMD=0·05, 95% CI=0·04-0·07). Sensitivity analyses found that, the effect size was higher for measurements of stress than for other measures, though still relatively small (SMD=0·23, 95% CI=0·09-0·38). Thus, whether analysing the association between carer stress, burden, distress, or depression with either acute or long-term care, the effect size remains small to negligible. Concurrently, we found estimates reduce over time and were smaller with larger studies and those of higher quality, according to the CCAT scores. CONCLUSION: Despite strong statements to the contrary, it appears that the effect of carer stress on subsequent care recipient institutionalisation is small to negligible. The current findings point to a biased literature, with significant small study effects. The results suggest a need to re-evaluate the degree to which carer stress predicts premature ending of home care. Concurrently, other factors may be more crucial in institutional placement than carer stress and should be investigated