Changes in Internet use patterns among older adults in England from before to after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about an increased reliance on the Internet for various daily activities. Given the known digital divide, it is important to understand whether older adults changed their Internet use patterns, but current evidence is limited to cross-sectional studies. This study documents changes in frequency and types of Internet use among older adults from before to shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (2018/2019 to June/July 2020), and the factors predicting regular use during these early days of the pandemic. Using data on 6,840 adults aged 50 + from the nationally representative English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we apply longitudinal fixed-effects models to examine within-individual changes in Internet use behaviour. There was no change in the likelihood of daily Internet use between 2018/2019 and June/July 2020, despite the increased digitalisation of services over the pandemic. Daily use in June/July 2020 was negatively related to age, neighbourhood deprivation, and loneliness, and positively related to partnership status, education, employment, income, and organisation membership. Using the Internet for making calls and getting information about Government services increased, which was important given the social restrictions and overall uncertainty. However, Internet use for finding health-related information decreased. As the world moves towards digital alternatives post-pandemic, it is important to continually ensure older adults are not at risk of exclusion

Internet use and psychological wellbeing among older adults in England: a difference-in-differences analysis over the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal evidence on how Internet use affects the psychological wellbeing of older adults has been mixed. As policymakers invest in efforts to reduce the digital divide, it is important to have robust evidence on whether encouraging Internet use among older adults is beneficial, or potentially detrimental, to their wellbeing. METHODS: We observe depressive symptoms and loneliness of adults aged 50 + in the nationally representative English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, from before (2018/19) to during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (June/July and November/December 2020). Our quasi-experimental difference-in-differences strategy compares within-individual wellbeing changes between older adults who desired to use the Internet more but experienced barriers including lack of skills, access, and equipment, with regular Internet users who did not desire to use the Internet more. To reduce selection bias, we match both groups on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics that are predictive of Internet use. We assume that in the absence of COVID-19 - a period of increased reliance on the Internet - the wellbeing trajectories of both groups would have followed a common trend. RESULTS: Compared with matched controls (N = 2983), participants reporting barriers to Internet use (N = 802) experienced a greater increase in the likelihood of depressive symptoms from before to during the pandemic, but not worse loneliness levels. This effect was stronger for women, those aged above 65 years, and those from lower-income households. CONCLUSIONS: Besides enabling access to digital services, efforts to ensure older adults continue to be engaged members of an increasingly digital society could deliver returns in terms of a buffer against psychological distress

Preferential binding of HIF-1 to transcriptionally active loci determines cell-type specific response to hypoxia

ChIP-chip and microarray expression studies show that, in response to hypoxia, HIF-1 preferentially binds to and up-regulates already active genes

Optimizing the performance of sub-contractors in building construction projects in Hong Kong

The performance of sub-contractors directly affects the outcomes of most construction projects. However, sub-contractors are sometimes unable to perform in their full capacity due to unfavourable project environment and poor quality of management by the main contractor. In-depth interviews to the management and front line staff, of the main contractor and the sub-contractors have been conducted to identify the major factors governing the performance of the sub-contractors in the building construction projects in Hong Kong

Assessing the impact of main contractor's site co-ordination on sub-contractors' performance in Hong Kong

It is a common practice in Hong Kong for the main contractors of local building projects to sub-let most of their works, consequently their roles have gradually transformed from a constructor to a manager of sub-contractors of the project. The outcome of most projects therefore depends heavily on the sub-contractors' performance. However, most Hong Kong based sub-contractors complain that they are unable to operate efficiently and effectively due to main contractors' poor coordination of construction information, temporary works, interfacing works and temporary power supply. A list of the most serious problems caused by main contractors during the construction stage that reduce sub-contractors' performance has been produced. A questionnaire survey has been conducted to identify and analyse the frequency and potential impact of the problems. The aggregated impact on subcontractors' site work is analysed. The findings have been used to formulate guidelines for the improvement of site co-ordination by main contractors

Genetic Analysis of Yeast Sec24p Mutants Suggests Cargo Binding Is Not Co-operative during ER Export

Many eukaryotic secretory proteins are selected forexport from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) through theirinteraction with the Sec24p subunit of the coat protein II(COPII) coat. Three distinct cargo-binding sites on yeastSec24p have been described by biochemical, genetic andstructural studies. Each site recognizes a limited set ofpeptide motifs or a folded structural domain, however,the breadth of cargo recognized by a given site and thedynamics of cargo engagement remain poorly under-stood. We aimed to gain further insight into the broadermolecular function of one of these cargo-binding sitesusing a non-biased genetic approach. We exploited thein vivolethality associated with mutation of the Sec24pB-site to identify genes that suppress this phenotypewhen overexpressed. We identifiedSMY2as a gen-eral suppressor that rescued multiple defects in Sec24p,andSEC22as a specific suppressor of two adjacentcargo-binding sites, raising the possibility of allostericregulation of these domains. We generated a novel setof mutations in Sec24p thatdistinguish these two sitesand examined the ability of Sec22p to rescue these muta-tions. Our findings suggest that co-operativity does notinfluence cargo capture at these sites, and that Sec22prescue occurs via its function as a retrograde SNARE

Rosko: Row Skipping Outer Products for Sparse Matrix Multiplication Kernels

We propose Rosko -- row skipping outer products -- for deriving sparse matrix multiplication (SpMM) kernels in reducing computation and memory access requirements of deep neural networks (DNNs). Rosko allows skipping of entire row computations during program execution with low sparsity-management overheads. We analytically derive sparse CPU kernels that adapt to given hardware characteristics to effectively utilize processor cores and minimize data movement without the need for auto-tuning or search space exploration. Rosko can be integrated with other outer product scheduling methods, allowing them to leverage row skipping by using Rosko's packing format to skip unnecessary computation. Rosko kernels outperform existing auto-tuning and search-based solutions as well as state-of-the-art vendor-optimized libraries on real hardware across a variety of neural network workloads. For matrices with sparsities ranging from 65% to 99.8% typically found in machine learning, Rosko kernels achieve up to a 6.5x runtime reduction on Intel and ARM CPUs.Comment: Rosko's CPU implementation can be found at https://github.com/vnatesh/Rosk

Changes in retirement plans in the English older population during the COVID-19 pandemic: The roles of health factors and financial insecurity

Over the course of 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives globally. In the UK, unemployment rate continued to increase during and post-lockdown periods, and job security and financial wellbeing deteriorated. It is important to understand whether individual decisions related to retirement plans have changed systematically as a result of the pandemic, especially among older adults who experienced greater rates of pandemic unemployment. Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this article examines changes in retirement plans of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and estimates the impact of health and financial circumstances on these changes. In June/July 2020, 5% of 2095 participants reported planning earlier retirement, while 9% reported planning later retirement. We found that poor self-rated health and financial insecurity were associated with intentions to postpone retirement. Additional risk of later retirement associated with poor health was detected among those experiencing financial insecurity. In November/December 2020, 7% of 1845 participants reported planning earlier retirement, while 12% reported planning later retirement. We found that poor health was predictive of a lower relative risk of later retirement, while depressive symptomology and financial insecurity predicted a higher relative risk of later retirement. The findings imply a contextual role of health factors in, and a persistent influence of financial insecurity on, retirement planning in the older population

\u3ci\u3eIn Vitro\u3c/i\u3e Validation of Patient-Specific Hemodynamic Simulations in Coronary Aneurysms Caused by Kawasaki Disease

To perform experimental validation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applied to patient specific coronary aneurysm anatomy of Kawasaki disease. We quantified hemodynamics in a patient-specific coronary artery aneurysm physical phantom under physiologic rest and exercise flow conditions. Using phase contrast MRI (PCMRI), we acquired 3-component flow velocity at two slice locations in the aneurysms. We then performed numerical simulations with the same geometry and inflow conditions, and performed qualitative and quantitative comparisons of velocities between experimental measurements and simulation results. We observed excellent qualitative agreement in flow pattern features. The quantitative spatially and temporally varying differences in velocity between PCMRI and CFD were proportional to the flow velocity. As a result, the percent discrepancy between simulation and experiment was relatively constant regardless of flow velocity variations. Through 1D and 2D quantitative comparisons, we found a 5–17% difference between measured and simulated velocities. Additional analysis assessed wall shear stress differences between deformable and rigid wall simulations. This study demonstrated that CFD produced good qualitative and quantitative predictions of velocities in a realistic coronary aneurysm anatomy under physiological flow conditions. The results provide insights on factors that may influence the level of agreement, and a set of in vitro experimental data that can be used by others to compare against CFD simulation results. The findings of this study increase confidence in the use of CFD for investigating hemodynamics in the specialized anatomy of coronary aneurysms. This provides a basis for future hemodynamics studies in patient-specific models of Kawasaki disease

PHOTOLYTIC GENERATION OF NITRENIUM IONS: KINETIC STUDIES AND POLYMERIZATION REACTIONS

Nitrenium ions are highly reactive transient species that contain a positively charged and dicoordinate nitrogen atom. The nitrogen atom contains only six electrons in its valence shell and thus the nitrogen is electron deficient and bears a positive charge. Nitrenium ions are of interest due to their suspected role in carcinogenesis since amines are known to form covalent bonds to DNA. The synthesis and photolysis of 1-(N-methyl-N-(1-naphthyl)amino)-2,4,6-trimethylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate, by laser flash photolysis, allowed for the direct observation of N-methyl-1-naphthylnitrenium ion as well as measurements of N-methyl-1-naphthylnitrenium ion's lifetime and trapping rate constants. It was determined that N-methyl-1-naphthylnitrenium ion has an absorption maximum centered around 500 nm and a lifetime of 835 ns. The trapping rate constants with simple nucleophiles, such as chloride, alcohols, and amines, were determined to be on the order of 108 - 109 M-1s-1. These trapping rate constants were compared to other arylnitrenium ion systems to determine what factors contribute to a chemical's inherent carcinogenicity. The synthesis and photolysis of 1-(N-methyl-N-(2-naphthyl)amino)-2,4,6-trimethylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate was also performed. Although no transient intermediate was observed, products from photolysis are consistent with arylnitrenium ion products. Nitrenium ions are also of interest due to their possible role in the polymerization of aniline to form polyaniline (PANI). PANI is of interest because of it is an electronically conducting polymer with many commercial aspects and the mechanism of formation has been under dispute for decades. Although it is generally agreed that the initial dimerization step is due to radical cation coupling, the mechanism for aniline polymerization is argued as proceeding through either a radical cation mechanism or via a nitrenium ion mechanism. Synthesis of a photochemical precursors of an aniline dimer 4-(N-anilino)phenyl azide produced what is believed to be a 4-(N-anilino)phenylnitrenium ion which has an absorption maximum centered around 490 nm. Spectroscopic analysis by MALDI-TOF-MS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), shows that PANI is a photoproduct. The extrapolated data and results from similar systems, supports the hypothesis that polymerization involves a nitrenium ion intermediate