Identity play in an artistic, interactive urban projection

In this paper we review some emerging social interactions which are stimulated by the presence of large, public display screens. In particular, we consider the impact on the viewer’s perception of identity through the interaction of large screens with the private small screens of personal handheld devices, such as smart phones. Our research emerges from our experience creating Tentacles, a large screen public projection controlled by users’ phones

The Art of Waiting – Interactive displays in healthcare settings

Waiting in healthcare settings can be an anxious and fearful experience for children and their families. Opportunities for play are an important part of child-friendly healthcare and have been shown to reduce waiting anxiety. Conventional toys and games, however, usually have contact surfaces through which infections may be passed. Additionally, they often require fine motor movements which may not be available to children with disabilities. In this paper, we describe the design of an accessible and interactive large display to meet the needs of a hospital waiting room. We discuss the detailed design requirements, the participatory process by which the design was developed, and our plans to evaluate the efficacy of the interactive display for reducing waiting anxiety in healthcare settings

Sustainable development with geomatics

Learning for service is the main objective in service learning, students in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) are encouraged to apply their learning outcomes to serve the community for rather long term benefits. This paper will discuss how PolyU students with Geomatics knowledge committed a service learning project with local social enterprises-Hosteling International. Together with students from both Peking University and Yunnan University with different disciplines, a group of students from PolyU joined a service learning project in Yunnan. These students applied their knowledge in mapping and other professional skills to serve the community at Yuan Jie Township by enhancing guest reception capabilities of a local Youth Hostel. They crossed over between learning and serving. They learnt the difficulties in local community development with SWOT analysis approach to their collected local information and identified focus of their service through the inter-disciplines dialogues in this student group. They aware that people can use all forms of tools, like web maps to obtain geographical information about the surrounding areas in the well-developed cities, but as the infrastructure was not as well-developed in local as their living community in city. Local community and travelers had no such access in Tuan Jie Township, making the locals difficult to identify the natural resources and assets surrounding them and travelers not able to navigate around during their visits. By using Global Positioning System (GPS) and GeoIT technique, students collected important geographical information, survey the map and painted it on the wall of youth hostel. This helped to empower the local community development in recognizing and promoting their rural assets to visitors and in long-run revitalize the local community for future local cultural conservation and youth development. They also arranged the map application workshop to teach local kids map reading and applications so that they could ascertain the local youth identity and introduce this special community to visitors

Learning outcomes from international service-learning

To raise students\u27 awareness of global issues is one of the main objectives in service learning, students in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) are encouraged to apply their learning outcomes to serve the underprivileged community for rather long term benefits. This paper will discuss how PolyU students from different disciplines committed a service learning project in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Together with students from Duta Wacana Christian University(DWCU) with different disciplines, a group of students from PolyU joined a service learning project Yogyakarta Kampung Field School (YKFS) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. YKFS aims at exploring the need of the local rural community and proposing solutions to empower the local community development. In order to have thorough and quick understanding about the serving community in foreign, PolyU students joined hand with DWCU students to study the geographical relationship of natural resources and local community needs. They used a new mobile Apps, which was jointly developed by both DWCU and PolyU for collecting spatial information and production of digital map with contemporary GPS, GIS and mobile mapping technologies. Students interviewed the villagers to obtain geospatial information and explored the community needs with SWOT approach. Through this learning process, they had more understanding about the strengths of the local community such as local wisdom and rural assets. They also addressed their weakness of villagers in using technical knowledge and global information. It enabled them to propose the sustainable suggestions with achievable opportunities and tackle those threats towards their proposing suggestions in the local community. Students in this project implemented the new ideas with villagers, such as trash bank operation, trail run in mushrooms cultivation, they also simulated the local villagers to attempt in reduction of global carbon emission and the conservation of biodiversity. Hygienic issues have also been addressed, such as the transformation of local primitive toilet to a better sanitation place with international health standard. Through their reflective journals and questionnaires results, they illustrated that they have different understandings about Indonesian, local community, human interaction, empowerment, power of knowledge and the development strategy

Annual Feedback Is an Effective Tool for a Sustained Increase in Calcium Intake among Older Women

We aimed to optimize calcium intake among the 2,000+ older women taking part in the Vital D study. Calcium supplementation was not included in the study protocol. Our hypothesis was that annual feedback of calcium intake and informing women of strategies to improve calcium intake can lead to a sustained increase in the proportion of women who consume adequate levels of the mineral. Calcium intake was assessed on an annual basis using a validated short food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Supplemental calcium intake was added to the dietary estimate. Participants and their nominated doctor were sent a letter that the participant’s estimated daily calcium intake was adequate or inadequate based on a cutoff threshold of 800 mg/day. General brief statements outlining the importance of an adequate calcium intake and bone health were included in all letters. At baseline, the median daily consumption of calcium was 980 mg/day and 67 percent of 1,951 participants had calcium intake of at least 800 mg per day. Of the 644 older women advised of an inadequate calcium intake at baseline (<800 mg/day), 386 (60%) had increased their intake by at least 100 mg/day when re-assessed twelve months later. This desirable change was sustained at 24 months after baseline with almost half of these women (303/644) consuming over 800 mg calcium per day. This study devised an efficient method to provide feedback on calcium intake to over 2,000 older women. The improvements were modest but significant and most apparent in those with a low intake at baseline. The decreased proportion of these women with an inadequate intake of calcium 12- and 24-months later, suggests this might be a practical, low cost strategy to maintain an adequate calcium intake among older women

The Implications of Paraspinal Muscle Atrophy in Low Back Pain, Thoracolumbar Pathology, and Clinical Outcomes After Spine Surgery: A Review of the Literature.

STUDY DESIGN: Literature review. OBJECTIVES: Paraspinal muscle integrity is believed to play a critical role in low back pain (LBP) and numerous spinal deformity diseases and other pain pathologies. The influence of paraspinal muscle atrophy (PMA) on the clinical and radiographic success of spinal surgery has not been established. We aim to survey the literature in order to evaluate the impact of paraspinal muscle atrophy on low back pain, spine pathologies, and postoperative outcomes of spinal surgery. METHODS: A review of the literature was conducted using a total of 267 articles identified from a search of the PubMed database and additional resources. A full-text review was conducted of 180 articles, which were assessed based on criteria that included an objective assessment of PMA in addition to measuring its relationship to LBP, thoracolumbar pathology, or surgical outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 34 studies were included in this review. The literature on PMA illustrates an association between LBP and both decreased cross-sectional area and increased fatty infiltration of paraspinal musculature. Atrophy of the erector spinae and psoas muscles have been associated with spinal stenosis, isthmic spondylolisthesis, facet arthropathy, degenerative lumbar kyphosis. A number of studies have also demonstrated an association between PMA and worse postoperative outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: PMA is linked to several spinal pathologies and some studies demonstrate an association with worse postoperative outcomes following spinal surgery. There is a need for further research to establish a relationship between preoperative paraspinal muscle integrity and postoperative success, with the potential for guiding surgical decision making

Three transmission events of Vibrio cholerae O1 into Lusaka, Zambia

Cholera has been present and recurring in Zambia since 1977. However, there is a paucity of data on genetic relatedness and diversity of the Vibrio cholerae isolates responsible for these outbreaks. Understanding whether the outbreaks are seeded from existing local isolates or if the outbreaks represent separate transmission events can inform public health decisions. Seventy-two V. cholerae isolates from outbreaks in 2009/2010, 2016, and 2017/2018 in Zambia were characterized using multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) and whole genome sequencing (WGS). The isolates had eight distinct MLVA genotypes that clustered into three MLVA clonal complexes (CCs). Each CC contained isolates from only one outbreak. The results from WGS revealed both clustered and dispersed single nucleotide variants. The genetic relatedness of isolates based on WGS was consistent with the MLVA, each CC was a distinct genetic lineage and had nearest neighbors from other East African countries. In Lusaka, isolates from the same outbreak were more closely related to themselves and isolates from other countries than to isolates from other outbreaks in other years. Our observations are consistent with i) the presence of random mutation and alternative mechanisms of nucleotide variation, and ii) three separate transmission events of V. cholerae into Lusaka, Zambia. We suggest that locally, case-area targeted invention strategies and regionally, well-coordinated plans be in place to effectively control future cholera outbreaks.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06259-

Hominin reactions to herbivore distribution in the Lower Palaeolithic of the Southern Levant

We explore the relationship between the edaphic potential of soils and the mineral properties of the underlying geology as a means of mapping the differential productivity of different areas of the Pleistocene landscape for large herbivores. These factors strongly control the health of grazing animals irrespective of the particular types of vegetation growing on them, but they have generally been neglected in palaeoanthropological studies in favour of a more general emphasis on water and vegetation, which provide an incomplete picture. Taking the Carmel-Galilee-Golan region as an example, we show how an understanding of edaphic potential provides insight into how animals might have exploited the environment. In order to simplify the analysis, we concentrate on the Lower Palaeolithic period and the very large animals that dominate the archaeofaunal assemblages of this period. Topography and the ability of soils to retain water also contribute to the differential productivity and accessibility of different regions and to patterns of seasonal movements of the animals, which are essential to ensure a supply of healthy fodder throughout the year, especially for large animals such as elephants, which require substantial regions of good grazing and browsing. Other animals migrating in groups have similar needs. The complex topography of the Southern Levant with frequent sudden and severe changes in gradient, and a wide variety of landforms including rocky outcrops, cliffs, gorges, and ridges, places major limits on these patterns of seasonal movements. We develop methods of mapping these variables, based on the geology and our substantial field experience, in order to create a framework of landscape variation that can be compared with the locations and contents of archaeological sites to suggest ways in which early hominins used the variable features of the landscape to target animal prey, and we extend the analysis to the consideration of smaller mammals that were exploited more intensively after the disappearance of the elephants. We consider some of the ways in which this regional-scale approach can be further tested and refined, and advocate the development of such studies as an essential contribution to understanding the wider pattern of hominin dispersal

Impact of Early Relapse within 24 Months after First-Line Systemic Therapy (POD24) on Outcomes in Patients with Marginal Zone Lymphoma: A US Multisite Study

Progression of disease within 24 months (POD24) from diagnosis in marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) was shown to portend poor outcomes in prior studies. However, many patients with MZL do not require immediate therapy, and the time from diagnosis-to-treatment interval can be highly variable with no universal criteria to initiate systemic therapy. Hence, we sought to evaluate the prognostic relevance of early relapse or progression within 24 months from systemic therapy initiation in a large US cohort. The primary objective was to evaluate the overall survival (OS) in the two groups. The secondary objective included the evaluation of factors predictive of POD24 and the assessment of cumulative incidence of histologic transformation (HT) in POD24 versus non-POD24 groups. The study included 524 patients with 143 (27%) in POD24 and 381 (73%) in non-POD24 groups. Patients with POD24 had inferior OS compared to those without POD24, regardless of the type of systemic therapy received (rituximab monotherapy or immunochemotherapy) at diagnosis. After adjusting for factors associated with inferior OS in the univariate Cox model, POD24 remained associated with significantly inferior OS (HR = 2.50, 95% CI = 1.53-4.09, p = 0.0003) in multivariable analysis. The presence of monoclonal protein at diagnosis and those who received first-line rituximab monotherapy had higher odds of POD24 on logistic regression analysis. Patients with POD24 had a significantly higher risk for HT compared to those without POD24. POD24 in MZL might be associated with adverse biology and could be used as an additional information point in clinical trials and investigated as a marker for worse prognosis