Tracking the Swelling COVID-19 Vaccine Chatter on TikTok in Indonesia

On Indonesian social media, ambivalent sentiments towards the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program are amplified and solidified into polarized stances, creating fierce competition between opponents and proponents of vaccination to shape public perceptions. • These polarized stances are particularly pronounced on TikTok as its videos swiftly go viral by providing quick visual impact and instant emotional gratification to users. TikTok videos on contentious issues tend to fuel strong sentiments on an intuitive level, even if factual evidence is flimsy. • On Indonesian TikTok, anti-vaccine messages are often mixed with global COVID19 conspiracy theories and merged with domestic anti-government and anti-Chinese sentiments; furthermore, they are typically couched in religious discourse and spread by religious micro-influencers. • The government tried to counter the online spread of anti-vaccine messages by pressuring social media companies to remove misinformation and block accounts that spread them, while also intensifying its vaccination campaign on TikTok and other social media by using celebrities and influencers. • However, the silencing of anti-vaccine voices on social media does not make them disappear, and risks being interpreted as “evidence” of the government’s lack of transparency and hidden agendas. Besides engaging in social media battles, the government would do well to engage in grassroots dialogue with the sceptics

Photopic and scotopic multifocal pupillographic responses in age-related macular degeneration

AbstractWe compared photopic and scotopic multifocal pupillographic stimuli in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Both eyes of 18 normal and 14 AMD subjects were tested with four stimulus variants presented at photopic and 126 times lower luminances. The multifocal stimuli presented 24 test regions/eye to the central 60°. The stimulus variants had two different check sizes, and when presented either flickered (15Hz) for 266ms, or were steady for 133ms. Mean differences from normal of 5 to 7dB were observed in the central visual field for both photopic and scotopic stimuli (all p<0.00002). The best areas under receiver operating characteristic plots for exudative AMD in the photopic and scotopic conditions were 92.9±8.0 and 90.3±5.7% respectively, and in less severely affected eyes 83.8±9.7% and 76.9±8.2%. Damage recorded at photopic levels was possibly more diffusely distributed across the visual field. Sensitivity and specificity was similar at photopic and scotopic levels

Microstructure and tensile properties of friction stir processed Al-Si alloy

In this study, a solid state processing tool for microstructure modification and material properties enhancement; friction stir processing (FSP) was applied on the surface of as-cast Al-Si-Cu-Ni aluminium alloy. Samples were subjected to FSP using fixed tool rotation speed 1400 rpm and traverse speed 42 mm/min, with tool angle tilted 3˚.The influence of the FSP on the microstructure and tensile properties of the cast AlSi-Cu-Ni alloy samples were studied. Microstructural evolution of the samples was investigated using optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), tensile test carried out at 1 mm/min cross-head speed. The results showed that FSP improved the tensile strength of the samples by decreasing particles size and porosity. FSP improved the alloy strength by about 54%

Effect of Contrast, Stimulus Density, and Viewing Distance on Multifocal Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (MSVs)

We investigated the effects of image contrast, stimulus density, and viewing distance upon a multifocal steady-state visual evoked potential (MSV) method. Fourteen adults with normal vision (mean age = 27.0 ± 6.6 years; 6 males) participated in the stud

Candida and invasive candidiasis: Back to basics.

The ubiquitous Candida spp. is an opportunistic fungal pathogen which, despite treatment with antifungal drugs, can cause fatal bloodstream infections (BSIs) in immunocompromised and immunodeficient persons. Thus far, several major C. albicans virulence factors have been relatively well studied, including morphology switching and secreted degradative enzymes. However, the exact mechanism of Candida pathogenesis and the host response to invasion are still not well elucidated. The relatively recent discovery of the quorum-sensing molecule farnesol and the existence of quorum sensing as a basic regulatory phenomenon of the C. albicans population behavior has revolutionized Candida research. Through population density regulation, the quorum-sensing mechanism also controls the cellular morphology of a C. albicans population in response to environmental factors, thereby, effectively placing morphology switching downstream of quorum sensing. Thus, the quorum-sensing phenomenon has been hailed as the 'missing piece' of the pathogenicity puzzle. Here, we review what is known about Candida spp. as the etiological agents of invasive candidiasis and address our current understanding of the quorum-sensing phenomenon in relation to virulence in the host

The ability of Zea mays ears (Young Corn) powder in enhancing nutritional composition and changing textural properties and sensory acceptability of yeast bread

Consumption of dietary fibre-rich food has been associated with various beneficial physiological properties and health effects. Presently, different types of natural fibre-rich ingredients are added into variety of bakery-based products to improve it fibre content for health promotional purposes. However, majority of these products are frequently added with imported dietary fibre ingredients. In the present study, bread samples were prepared with Zea mays ear (young corn) powder at the levels of either 2%, 4% or 6%. The bread samples were analyzed for nutritional composition, textural properties and sensory acceptance. Addition of young corn powder (YCP) at the level of 6% increases total dietary fibre (from 3.48% to 5.26%), moisture (from 25.64% to 26.55%), fat (from 4.35% to 4.61%) and protein content (from 9.13% to 9.51%) significantly. However, with the increasing of YCP levels in the bread, the carbohydrate content was decreased significantly (from 59.93% to 58.34%) while the ash content (from 0.95% to 0.99%) was not significantly affected. Results of texture profile analysis indicated that addition of YCP up to 6% not significantly affected the springiness (1.01-1.00) but significantly decreased cohesiveness (0.95-0.82). However, the addition of YCP up to 6% has increased hardness (0.18kg-0.57kg), gumminess (0.17kg-0.47kg) and chewiness (0.18kg-0.47kg) attributes of bread samples. On the other result, the sensory evaluation shows that the flavour score was not significantly affected by addition of YCP up to 4% (4.82-4.52) while the tenderness (4.53-4.42), elasticity (4.75-4.58), aroma (4.40-4.47), colour (4.93-4.55) and overall acceptance (4.80-4.35) scores were not significant affected up to 6%. In summary, breads with 4% addition of YCP were considered to be acceptable and potentially used in improving nutritional composition without changing sensory score

trans-Tetra­carbonyl­bis­[tris­(3-fluoro­phen­yl)phosphane]chromium(0)

In the title compound, [Cr(C18H12F3P)2(CO)4], the Cr atom is octa­hedrally coordinated by four carbonyl ligands and the two tertiary phosphanes, which are trans to each other. The three benzene rings in one phosphane ligand make dihedral angles of 53.50 (9), 75.51 (10) and 80.63 (10)° with each other, while in the other ligand these angles are 51.92 (10), 78.56 (11) and 86.80 (10)°. C—H⋯O and C—H⋯F inter­actions link the mol­ecules into a three-dimensional network. Each of the F atoms is disordered over two positions with refined occupancies of 0.944 (3):0.056 (3), 0.702 (4):0.298 (4), 0.829 (4):0.171 (4), 0.567 (4):0.433 (4), 0.545 (4):0.455 (4) and 0.920 (4):0.080 (4)

1-(2,4-Dichloro­phen­yl)-3-[4-(dimethyl­amino)phen­yl]prop-2-enone

In the title compound, C17H15Cl2NO, the dimethyl­amino­phenyl group is close to coplanar with the central propenone group [dihedral angle = 13.1 (1)° between the mean planes], while the dichloro­phenyl group is twisted from the plane [dihedral angle = 64.0 (1)°]. In the crystal, C—H⋯O and weak C—H⋯π inter­actions are formed between mol­ecules

ELEMENTARY PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS FRACTIONS: A MIXED-ANALYSIS

Previous research has shown knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes are essential factors during mathematics classroom instruction. The current study examined the effects of a 3-week fraction instructional unit using concrete models, problem-solving, and problem-posing to improve elementary preservice teachers’ knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards fractions. A quasi-experiment design was implemented to gather data via closed-ended, open-ended, and essay tasks from a convenience sampling of 71 female elementary preservice teachers during pre- and post-assessments. The study discovered that the select preservice teachers were weak in the content knowledge specifically on unit-whole, part-whole, equivalent area, arithmetic operations, and ordering fractional values. In contrast, the incorporation of concrete models, problem-solving and problem-posing was effective in improving the preservice teachers’ level of pedagogical content knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards fractions. Implications of the results and suggestions are discussed