Habitual Activities for People with Dementia: The Role of Interiors in Supporting Their Development after Relocating to a Care Environment

People with dementia have pre-reactive instincts, known as bodily habits, that allow them to continue with habitual activities. According to recent research, continuing and developing habitual activities in care facilities can help individuals with dementia establish a deep-rooted sense of home. Three aspects of developing habitual activity are critical in this process: continuing habitual activities fluidly, incorporating positive interaction into these habitual activities, and carrying out these habitual activities regularly. Based on this foundation, this article discusses how the interior environment of care facilities can support these three aspects of habitual activity for people living with dementia. Three cases in a long-term care facility were in-depth examined by using the microethnography approach. The study produced four themes. These themes emphasize the importance of organizing and managing the interior environment to support dementia residents’ habitual activities. In addition, it emphasizes that caregivers and institutional regulations influence the organizational role of the interior environment

A Quantitative Analysis of Creating Genius Loci in a Museum Based on Spatial Visibility Analysis

Analysing building styles and guiding architectural design with architectural phenomenology is essential for spatial design. Architectural phenomenology and especially shaping the genius loci facilitates emotional expression in design. This creates a building-human connection and a meaningful spatial social culture. It also provides a sense of direction and identity. However, architectural phenomenology is abstract and perceptual, helping designers create architecture through qualitative analysis. This complicates practical guidance during their creative process: it lacks a quantitative explanation of its practical design applications. This research focuses on the genius loci (a sense of direction and identity) in architectural phenomenology. It also explores how quantitative analysis creates a museum's genius loci. Associating architectural legibility and narrative with the genius loci to enhance spatial readability and ensure richer description is the best way to accomplish this goal. A space syntax-based visibility graph analysis then determines how to create a legible space with a rich narrative for museum visitors. This is a quantitative method creating a museum's genius loci and provides architects with a standardized design method for creating a building's social culture. Finally, the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders explains how spatial visibility creates and affects the genius loci

An Isothermal Outflow in High-mass Star-forming Region G240.31+0.07

We present Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) observations toward the massive star-forming region G240.31+0.07 in the CO J = 3--2, 6--5, and 7--6 lines. We detect a parsec-sized, bipolar, and high velocity outflow in all the lines, which allow us, in combination with the existing CO J = 2--1 data, to perform a multi-line analysis of physical conditions of the outflowing gas. The CO 7--6/6--5, 6--5/3--2, and 6--5/2--1 ratios are found to be nearly constant over a velocity range of $\sim$5--25 km s$^{-1}$ for both blueshifted and redshifted lobes. We carry out rotation diagram and large velocity gradient (LVG) calculations of the four lines, and find that the outflow is approximately isothermal with a gas temperature of $\sim$50 K, and that the the CO column density clearly decreases with the outflow velocity. If the CO abundance and the velocity gradient do not vary much, the decreasing CO column density indicates a decline in the outflow gas density with velocity. By comparing with theoretical models of outflow driving mechanisms, our observations and calculations suggest that the massive outflow in G240.31+0.07 is being driven by a wide-angle wind and further support a disk mediated accretion at play for the formation of the central high-mass star.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Ap

Effective Utilization of Waste Glass as Cementitious Powder and Construction Sand in Mortar

The purpose of this study is to investigate the availability of waste glass as alternative materials in sustainable constructions. Collected waste glass was ground into waste glass powder (WGP) with similar particle size distribution as Portland cement (PC) and waste glass sand (WGS) with similar grade as sand. The compressive strength was investigated through the Taguchi test to evaluate the effect of different parameters on WGP-blended mortar, which include WG-replacement rate (G/B, 0, 10%, 20%, 30%), water/binder ratio (w/b, 0.35. 0.40, 0.50, 0.60), cementitious material dosage (Cpaste, 420, 450, 480, 500 kg/m3), and color of powder (green (G) and colorless (C)). The alkali–silica reaction (ASR) expansion risk of WGS-blended mortar was assessed. The experimental results indicated that WGP after 0.5 h grinding could be used as substituted cement in mortar and help to release potential ASR expansion. The replacement rate played a dominant role on strength at both the early or long-term age. The water/binder ratio of 0.35 was beneficial to the compressive strength at three days and 0.50 was better for strength at 60 and 90 days. An optimal value of cementitious material dosage (450 Kg/m3) exited in view of its strength, while the effect of the color of WG was minor. WGS could be graded as standard construction sand and no ASR expansion risk was found even for 100% replacement of regular sand in mortar. Through the comprehensive reuse of waste glass, this study could provide basic knowledge and a concept for the sustainable development of building materials

The TTYH3/MK5 Positive Feedback Loop regulates Tumor Progression via GSK3-β/β-catenin signaling in HCC

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide, and identification of novel targets is necessary for its diagnosis and treatment. This study aimed to investigate the biological function and clinical significance of tweety homolog 3 (TTYH3) in HCC. TTYH3 overexpression promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and inhibited HCCM3 and Hep3B cell apoptosis. TTYH3 promoted tumor formation and metastasis in vivo. TTYH3 upregulated calcium influx and intracellular chloride concentration, thereby promoting cellular migration and regulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related protein expression. The interaction between TTYH3 and MK5 was identified through co-immunoprecipitation assays and protein docking. TTYH3 promoted the expression of MK5, which then activated the GSK3β/β-catenin signaling pathway. MK5 knockdown attenuated the activation of GSK3β/β-catenin signaling by TTYH3. TTYH3 expression was regulated in a positive feedback manner. In clinical HCC samples, TTYH3 was upregulated in the HCC tissues compared to nontumor tissues. Furthermore, high TTYH3 expression was significantly correlated with poor patient survival. The CpG islands were hypomethylated in the promoter region of TTYH3 in HCC tissues. In conclusion, we identified TTYH3 regulates tumor development and progression via MK5/GSK3-β/β-catenin signaling in HCC and promotes itself expression in a positive feedback loop

Nanomaterial-based aptamer sensors for analysis of illicit drugs and evaluation of drugs consumption for wastewater-based epidemiology

The abuse of illicit drugs usually associated with dramatic crimes may cause significant problems for the whole society. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been demonstrated to be a novel and cost-effective way to evaluate the abuse of illicit drugs at the community level, and has been used as a routine method for monitoring and played a significant role for combating the crimes in some countries, e.g. China. The method can also provide temporal and spatial variation of drugs of abuse. The detection methods mainly remain on the conventional liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, which is extremely sensitive and selective, however needs advanced facility and well-trained personals, thus limit it in the lab. As an alternative, sensors have emerged to be a powerful analytical tool for a wide spectrum of analytes, in particular aptamer sensors (aptasensors) have attracted increasing attention and could act as an efficient tool in this field due to the excellent characteristics of selectivity, sensitivity, low cost, miniaturization, easy-to-use, and automation. In this review, we will briefly introduce the context, specific assessment process and applications of WBE and the recent progress of illicit drug aptasensors, in particular focusing on optical and electrochemical sensors. We then highlight several recent aptasensors for illicit drugs in new technology integration and discuss the feasibility of these aptasensor for WBE. We will summarize the challenges and propose our insights and opportunity on aptasensor for WBE to evaluate community-wide drug use trends and public health

Water absorption and chloride diffusivity of concrete under the coupling effect of uniaxial compressive load and freeze-thaw cycles

In cold coastal area, the destruction mechanism of reinforced concrete structures is mainly governed by a combination of factors such as self-loading, freeze-thaw and chloride erosion. In this study, ordinary cube concretes (C30 and C50, while w/c = 0.53 and 0.35 respectively) underwent a coupling effect of pressure load with stress ratio of 0, 0.3 and 0.5 and freeze-thaw cycles, following by capillary water absorption test and chloride penetration test. Concrete samples with 0.3fc showed the best water and chloride penetration resistance under the coupling effect, followed by samples with 0.5fc and 0fc, which is consistent with the conclusion that under load only. Water and chloride ions penetration increased sharply when freeze-thaw cycles was over 100 times, which is different with samples without load. Outside part of concrete showed higher permeability and chloride content than inside part. MIP results confirmed that stress played an important role in the water absorption and chloride penetration of concrete under the coupling effect. These results provide important new insights into the permeability of concrete under a coupling effect. The applied load performed a more important role on the service life prediction of concrete structure