Communication Capabilities Research Articles

The impact of a narrative medicine program on obstetrics and gynecology residents’ empathy ability

BackgroundEmpathy is essential in medical practice, particularly in obstetrics and gynecology. Narrative Medicine, which involves storytelling and reflective writing, has been shown to enhance empathy among healthcare providers. Despite its benefits, there is limited research on the impact of narrative medicine on empathy among obstetrics and gynecology residents.MethodsThis study is a prospective controlled trail aimed at investigating the impact of a narrative medicine-based curriculum on the empathy levels of obstetrics and gynecology residents. The subjects of this study are obstetrics and gynecology residents undergoing standardized training at Hangzhou First People’s Hospital in 2023, which was divided into two groups: one receiving narrative medicine training and the other, traditional training. The Chinese version of the Jefferson Empathy Scale was used to measure empathy levels before and after the intervention. A self-developed questionnaire was distributed to Group A residents at the end of the narrative medicine course to evaluate the curriculum.ResultsBefore the intervention, there was no significant difference in empathy scores between the two groups. However, after the narrative medicine intervention, Group A showed a significant improvement in empathy scores compared to Group B (P < 0.0001). Residents in Group A also rated the narrative medicine curriculum highly, with 92% considering it “great” or “excellent”; 87% finding it effective in improving empathy and doctor-patient communication; and 91% feeling that this course promoted their self-reflection in medical practice.ConclusionsThe integration of narrative medicine into the training of obstetrics and gynecology residents significantly enhanced their empathy levels. Most residents perceive narrative medicine as a valued and effective means of enhancing doctor-patient communication and reflection capability.

Emerging technologies and challenges to nuclear stability

ABSTRACT Emerging technologies are likely to have significant impacts on international security, particularly nuclear stability. A combination of these technologies could enable persistent surveillance, identification and tracking of mobile nuclear delivery platforms, such as submarines, mobile missile launchers, and bombers, weakening deterrence and catalyzing an arms race. At the same time, these technologies might enhance the survivability of nuclear arsenals, offering new ways to deceive adversaries and provide robust communication, attack warning, and navigation capabilities. To better understand the effect of emerging innovations on nuclear deterrence, we examine five technologies: small satellites, hypersonics, machine learning, cyber weapons, and quantum sensing.

The potential of cognitive remediation therapy for improving the communication capabilities of adults with schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders.

Impairment in aspects of communication is a core diagnostic feature of schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders. These communication difficulties inhibit participation in a range of daily activities and affect relationships and quality of life. There has been little research focussed on communication outcomes in relation to cognitive remediation therapy within this population. Data collected as part of an implementation trial of the Computerised Interactive Remediation of Cognition and Thinking Skills (CIRCuiTS) program provided an opportunity to examine the potential for changes in communication capability to support activities of daily living. To survey changes in ratings of aspects of communication capability of adults with schizophrenia who completed the CIRCuiTS cognitive remediation therapy program. Thirty adults with schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders completed the CIRCuiTS therapy program as part of an implementation trial in 2018 and 2019. Most participants were male (93%) and inpatients at Bloomfield Hospital (73%) in Orange, New South Wales. Ratings on the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System, Third Edition (ABAS3) were returned before and after completion of the CIRCuiTS program. The magnitude of changes in ABAS3 indices, the Communication scale and Functional academics scales were assessed between time points. Participants' mean adaptive functioning indices prior to the CIRCuiTS program were in the extremely low range (∼second percentile) and increased to the low range (∼seventh percentile) following this therapy, achieving large mean effect sizes (Cohen's d = 0.92-1.24). Significant improvements in functioning were observed on the ABAS3 Communication and Functional Academics scales, with large mean effect sizes on both scales (Cohen's d = 1.09 and 0.99 respectively). Improvements in ratings occurred on items including initiating conversations, talking and listening over longer periods, explaining more complex information, using lists and reminders and a schedule or diary, completing written forms and personal money management. Most participants were observed to make gains in aspects of communication. The results point to these aspects of communication as potential future targets for therapy with people with schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders. This study highlights the value and role of Speech and Language Therapists in cognitive remediation therapy. Further research seems warranted with participants with a broader range of demographic, clinical and functional capabilities, that controls for the effects of medications and other therapeutic interventions and utilises a more comprehensive assessment of communication. What is already known on the subject People with schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders experience impairment in cognitive functioning as well as communication capability that affects their daily functioning and quality of life. Cognitive remediation therapy has been shown to improve aspects of the daily functioning of people with schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders and is recommended in international treatment guidelines. However, very little research has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of this therapy in addressing communication difficulties. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The present study found participants with schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders made significant improvements in important aspects of communication after completing the Computerised Interactive Remediation of Cognition and Thinking Skills cognitive remediation therapy program. The results point to the potential of cognitive remediation therapy as a therapeutic approach that is likely to improve communication capability. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Cognitive remediation therapy is likely to be an important treatment for improving the communication capabilities of people with severe mental illness. This relatively new area of clinical practice and research highlights the value and potential of speech and language therapy in improving the communication capabilities of people with schizophrenia and other psychotic spectrum disorders.

An improving secure communication using multipath malicious avoidance routing protocol for underwater sensor network

The Underwater Sensor Network (UWSN) comprises sensor nodes with sensing, data processing, and communication capabilities. Due to the limitation of underwater radio wave propagation, nodes rely on acoustic signals to communicate. The data gathered by these nodes is transmitted to coordinating nodes or ground stations for additional processing and analysis. The characteristics of UWSN with underwater channels make them vulnerable to malicious attacks. UWSN communication networks are particularly susceptible to malicious attacks owing to high bit error rates, significant propagation delay variations, and low bandwidth. Moreover, because of the challenging and erratic underwater conditions, limited bandwidth, slow data transmission speed, and power constraints of underwater sensor nodes establishing secure communication in UWSN presents a significant challenge. To address the issues mentioned above, we have introduced the Multipath Malicious Avoidance Routing Protocol (M2ARP) and Foldable Matrix based Padding Rail Fence Encryption Scheme (FM-PRFES) methods to enhance secure communication in UWSNs. The proposed FM-PRFES method encrypts the input data to prevent unauthorized access during transmission within the network. Subsequently, the proposed Energy Efficiency Node Selection (EENS) method is used to identify the significant nodes in the network. Additionally, the Cuckoo Search Optimization (CSO) method is utilized to select the Cluster Head (CH) for data transmission. Subsequently, M2ARP is employed to analyze various routes and avoid adversarial nodes in the network. As a result, the proposed experimental analysis yields more efficient results regarding security, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), and throughput performance than traditional approaches.

Systematic review of the most relevant competencies for projects managers in the construction industry

Construction organisations are now focusing on ensuring that project managers acquire the core competencies they require to be successful in their assignments. An organisation can maximise its probabilities of consistent project success by recruiting, developing, nurturing and retaining skilled project managers. Working closely with a range of other professionals, project managers organise, plan, schedule and control work and are responsible for ensuring that the project is completed within established time and cost constraints. To manage the project professionally and successfully, a project manager must possess the necessary skills and knowledge. An extensive evaluation on the essential and relevant skills of project managers was carried out in order to analyse the most important skills. The past few decades have produced a number of investigations into the correlation between project managers’ competencies and project success. As a result, competencies lists have become too extensive, and the field is in constantchange; therefore, this study updates the discussion and downsizes the number of competencies to fewer, more relevant items. Communication capabilities are a necessity for a project manager to be as effective as possible. The ability to lead the team, solve problems and handle conflicts, while being result-oriented and team-oriented, are a must for project managers. To achieve project goals, a project manager needs a range of additional skills, including organisation, emotional intelligence, technical expertise and interpersonal relationship skills.

GPThingSim: A IoT Simulator Based GPT Models Over an Edge-Cloud Environments

The Internet of Things encapsulates a vision of a world in which billions of objects, called connected devices, are endowed with intelligence, communication capabilities, and integrated sensing and actuation capabilities. They often outsource their storage and computing needs to more powerful resources in the cloud. In Edge computing, it is the device itself that collects and processes data and must make real-time decisions. A model that combines the edge and the cloud allows for instant processing of large amounts of data, making devices increasingly intelligent. One fundamental aspect of Artificial Intelligence, particularly Machine Learning (ML), is that it requires a substantial amount of data to learn. The GPT model can be adapted to operate within a cloud environment, which enables instant processing of large quantities of data. In this article, our approach relies on a hybrid of Cloud computing and Edge computing, merging the best features of both approaches by using Edge for real-time processing and the cloud for storage and large-scale data analysis. We will explore the possibilities of integrating the GPT model into IoT devices. This extension allows devices to offer processing capabilities at the local level, which can be extremely beneficial for many applications. We propose a platform for simulating connected objects augmented by the LSTM neural network model to predict the energy consumption of IoT devices in a smart city scenario.

Design of Microstrip Antenna Array for Autonomous Vehicles

The utilization of Autonomous vehicles has been rapidly increasing in both civilian and military applications. This is primarily due to their exceptional communication capabilities with ground clients, as well as their inherent properties such as adaptability, mobility, and flexibility. To effectively monitor and control the deployment of Autonomous vehicles, a 5G wireless network can be utilized alongside other devices as user equipment (UE). Through the utilization of a highly directive microstrip patch antenna (MPA) functioning within a dedicated frequency band, the Autonomous vehicle is able to establish effective long-range communication, overcoming signal degradation and minimizing interference from other channels within a confined area. The adoption of MPA is especially advised for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) due to its characteristics such as being lightweight, cost-efficient, small in size, and having a flat structure. This study details the development and simulation of a highly directive single-band 1x2 and 1x4 antenna array designed to operate at a 5.8 GHz frequency specifically tailored for Autonomous vehicle use. To enhance directivity and ensure structural robustness, the Roger RT5880 material has been utilized as a substrate, known for its lower dielectric constant.. The results demonstrate a high gain of 9.16 dBi and 11.4 dBi for the 1x2 and 1x4 antenna arrays respectively, while maintaining a compact size. The simulated 1x4 antenna array was fabricated using the Roger RT5880 material, and this array was tested in the microwave communication's laboratory at College of Engineering, Al-Nahrain University. The antenna presents good results by means of return losses (-26.672 dB) which equivalent to VSWR of 1.098.

Joint optimization trajectory and resource allocation for UAV-assisted semantic communications

Semantic communication can effectively save bandwidth, and enhance communication capabilities by transmitting semantic features. However, semantic communication has certain limitations, such as limited application scenarios and inflexible deployment. To this end, we investigate an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted semantic communication system in this paper. An UAV serves as a mobile base station to service users in designated area. Each user has different requirements for transmission delay and performance, and the UAV has a limited maximum flight time. We need to achieve the communication goals of all users in the shortest possible time, that is, to ensure that the information received by each user meets latency and quality requirements. This is a non-convex optimization problem, which is very complicated to solve using traditional methods. In order to solve this problem, we propose a deep reinforcement learning algorithm based on Proximal Policy Optimization 2. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.

Personality Expression Using Co-Speech Gesture

We express our personality through verbal and nonverbal behavior. While verbal cues are mostly related to the semantics of what we say, nonverbal cues include our posture, gestures, and facial expressions. Appropriate expression of these behavioral elements improves conversational virtual agents’ communication capabilities and realism. Although previous studies focus on co-speech gesture generation, they do not consider the personality aspect of the synthesized animations. We show that automatically generated co-speech gestures naturally express personality traits, and heuristics-based adjustments for such animations can further improve personality expression. To this end, we present a framework for enhancing co-speech gestures with the different personalities of the Five-Factor model. Our experiments suggest that users perceive increased realism and improved personality expression when combining heuristics-based motion adjustments with co-speech gestures.

Autonomous vehicle eHMI communication modalities: pedestrian preferences in crossing scenarios

Abstract This paper presents results from a study on the impact of negative attitudes towards robots on pedestrians’ needs for technological communication capabilities of autonomous vehicles and preferred communication modalities. Further, the amount of prior information on autonomous vehicles given to test persons is varied. The study is realized in terms of an imagination scenario. Results show a significant dependency of the demand for communication of autonomous vehicles with pedestrians on the extent of negative attitudes towards robots as well as a general demand for such communication capabilities. Interestingly, these findings are independent of the amount of prior information. Differences of preferred communication modalities with respect to negative attitudes or prior information are not found. The results of this study emphasize the importance of vehicle-pedestrian communication, particularly, using multi-modal interfaces in future autonomous driving technology.

A longitudinal case study of Japanese informants’ attitudinal development after completing Global Englishes-oriented instruction: examining its long-term effects

This paper investigates how two Japanese informants who completed a 15-week specialised course in Global Englishes (GE) developed their attitudes towards English and intercultural communication over time through their post-instruction experiences. While recent theories of multilingualism highlight the multilingual, fluid, and emergent nature of English as a lingua franca, this nature is not reflected in language attitude research because it frequently examines static responses elicited from aggregates of participants at a single point in time. Additionally, although the positive impact of GE-oriented instruction on students’ attitudes towards English has been reported, its long-term effects remain unexplored. This paper aims to fill these gaps through a longitudinal case study of the two Japanese informants’ attitudinal development over four to five years. The qualitative analysis of diary entries and interview responses found that both informants generally enhanced inclusive attitudes, including a favorable view of ‘non-native’ English accents and an emphasis on message delivery. However, the informant with an inferiority complex about her pronunciation since childhood continued to devalue Japanese-accented English, while another informant, identified as having ‘good’ pronunciation since childhood, showed communicative capability, flexibly navigating between grammatical correctness and communicative effectiveness depending on communicative needs. The paper elaborates on these points.

Monitoring Perishable Commodities Using Cellular IoT: An Intelligent Real-Time Conditions Tracker Design

Perishable product losses can occur throughout postharvest handling. Proper monitoring of key environmental conditions during this period is essential for predicting quality losses throughout their shelf life. This paper presents the design and testing of a portable and compact datalogger for the real-time monitoring of environmental conditions throughout the food supply chain. The device developed incorporates high-precision sensors to measure temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration, luminosity and vibrations, as well as wireless communication capabilities for data transmission, simplifying real-time monitoring over existing multi-component systems while keeping costs affordable. Strategies to optimize power consumption allow a month of battery life, being able to cover entire periods of transport and storage, according to the results of the autonomy test performed on the device. The datalogger uses NB-IoT and relies on other wireless communication protocols if not available to send sensor data to a cloud platform. Comparative testing with commercial dataloggers has been carried out to verify correct device measurements, and field testing has validated successful real-time data transmission along an entire refrigerated transport route. The functionality and autonomy of the proposed device meet the needs of live remote monitoring to help reduce food losses.

Research on Cultivation of Cross -Cultural Communication Cultivation in International Chinese Education-Taking the "Belt and Road" Initiative as the Background

This article aims to explore how international Chinese education students improve cross -cultural communication capabilities under the background of the “Belt and Road ” initiative. By analyzing problems in the current curriculum settings, teaching resources, and practical opportunities, we have proposed response strategies such as optimizing the curriculum system, enriching teaching resources, and strengthening the construction of teachers. Studies have shown that the cultivation of cross -cultural communication capabilities is of great significance to improve students comprehensive quality and meet the needs of globalization.

Communication Capacities and Mutual Connection System of Teachers in Public Elementary Schools

This study examined the communication capabilities and mutual connection system of public elementary school teachers in the Davao Central District, Division of Davao City. A universal sampling method was employed using a non-experimental quantitative research design with a correlational approach. The respondents were 132 public elementary school teachers. Statistical tools utilized included the mean, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (Pearson r), and regression analysis. The findings revealed that the communication capabilities of public elementary school teachers—measured in terms of connections, compelling communication, stability, manners, listening, and charm—were often demonstrated. Similarly, the mutual connection system, assessed through revision, goal achievement, unification, and potential, was also frequently evident. A significant relationship was found between the teachers' communication capabilities and their mutual connection system. Furthermore, specific domains of communication capabilities significantly influenced the mutual connection system. These results underscore the synergistic relationship between communication capabilities and a mutual connection system, where effective communication enhances mutual connections, and a well-structured connection system fosters continuous and efficient communication. Conversely, weaknesses in these areas could result in communication breakdowns, misunderstandings, or diminished group cohesion. The study highlights the importance of fostering both robust communication skills and a supportive connection system among public elementary school teachers to promote collaboration and effectiveness in the educational setting. This study was limited to public elementary school teachers in the Davao Central District, which may affect the generalizability of the findings to other contexts. Future research could explore other educational levels or regions and consider mixed methods to provide deeper insights and validate the results.

A systematic review on WebRTC for potential applications and challenges beyond audio video streaming

AbstractVideo conferencing and live streaming are being used in various industries, such as healthcare, gaming, telecommunication, manufacturing and others. As technology progresses, the need for real-time data transmission with minimal latency has increased. Web Real-Time Communication () addresses this need effectively. WebRTC is a technology designed to provide real-time communication through web and mobile browsers. Its low latency and P2P communication capabilities make it a convenient technology for secure, efficient communication in real-time applications. This paper reviews the key features of WebRTC, discusses its strengths and weaknesses and investigates a detailed analysis of 83 existing studies. Moreover, It evaluates all use cases that can be adopted by WebRTC by examining their descriptions, problem statements, and research gaps based on literature to date. Finally, It highlights the open research directions for the emerging technologies and enhancements of WebRTC. to identify their potential applications.

Functional Role of the Incisive Duct in Neonatal Dogs.

The detection of chemical signals by the vomeronasal organ (VNO) is critical for mammals from an early age, influencing behaviors such as suckling and recognition of the mother. Located at the base of the nasal cavity, the VNO features a duct covered with a sensory epithelium. A critical aspect of VNO functionality is the efficient access of stimuli from the nasal and oral cavities to the receptors. In adult dogs, it has been demonstrated how the VNO duct (VD) communicates to the environment through the incisive duct (ID). In newborn puppies, the existence of functional communication between the ID and the VD has not been confirmed to date, raising doubts about the potential physiological obliteration of the ID. Determining this aspect is necessary to evaluate the role played by chemocommunication in the survival and socialization of puppies. This study employs serial histological staining to examine the presence and functionality of the ID in neonatal dogs. Additionally, a histochemical study was conducted using PAS and Alcian Blue staining, along with labelling with six lectins to characterize the expression of glycoconjugates in the incisive papilla and in the area between the ID and the VD. The histological study has confirmed both the existence of functional communication between both ducts in perinatal puppies, and the dual functional communication of the ID with the oral and nasal cavities. The ID is associated with a sophisticated cartilaginous complex that prevents its collapse, as well as erectile tissue that acts as a cushion, facilitating its action under pressure induced by sampling behaviors such as tonguing. Lectin labelling has allowed for the characterization of the glycoconjugate expression profile in the papilla and ID, showing significant differences between lectins . This investigation demonstrates the communicative capabilities of the VNO during the perinatal stage in dogs.

Acceptance Factors of Generative AI in EFL Teaching: A Pedagogical Perspective

&lt;p&gt;The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has brought abundant potentials and challenges to the educational sector. This study explores the acceptance and adoption of GenAI in English language and its pedagogical affordability for EFL instructors in tertiary level institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. An exploratory sequential mixed method was utilized in this study to gain in-depth insights into the quantitative findings. The first quantitative phase recruited 256 EFL instructors in Saudi Arabia while the follow-up qualitative phase incorporated 17 interviewees. The findings of this study indicate that anthropomorphism, trust, ethics and regulations, and pedagogical affordability are significant determinants of instructors’ acceptance of GenAI. Conversely, instructors’ acceptance was not significantly influenced by communication capability of GenAI. Yet, there was no evidence of significant differences in GenAI acceptance or adoption due to demographic variables such as gender, age, and degree. The pedagogical affordances of GenAI appears to be the most acceptance factor specifically the productivity and efficiency that GenAI afford for instructors. The study recommends establishing ethical guidelines and embracing transparency and accountability to maintain academic integrity.&lt;/p&gt;

Optimizing Federated Learning Efficiency: A Comparative Analysis of Model Compression Techniques for Communication Reduction

Abstract. The rapidly growing number of connected devices continuously produces massive amounts of heterogeneous data, posing challenges to data privacy and security when leveraging them to train the high-quality big model. Federated learning, which enables numerous users to train a global model without cooperatively exchanging data, has emerged as a viable alternative. Though achieving significant progress, existing federated learning methods still struggle with large communication volumes, especially when the local devices only have limited computing and communication capabilities. To alleviate the efficiency issue, this paper compares the effect of three compression methods in promoting the training of federated learning models, including pruning, quantization, and knowledge distillation. The findings reveal that these methods reduce resource consumption while maintaining high model performance. Combining the pruning, quantization, and knowledge distillation technology through sequential application and parameter aggregation helps balance the model size and performance. Our cascading lightweight strategy, which preserves each method's unique edge while promoting deeper collaboration between them, has been shown beneficial through extensive testing.

Analysis of institutional factors in the implementation of the action research methodology: lessons learned in a case study

The growing need for academic research to generate a tangible social impact has increased the relevance of collaborative methodologies. Among them, the "Action Research" method stands out for its application in the field of business organization. This is especially relevant in the field of Operations Management as it involves close collaboration with organizations.This study aims to examine the key institutional factors that influence the success of the implementation of the "Action Research" methodology in the business context. Through a case study, two main contributions are made to the "Action Research" literature. First, six key institutional factors are identified to consider in the implementation of an Action Research project: external and internal environment, leadership, strategy, communication, and organizational resources and capabilities. Second, the analysis provides a series of lessons learned that cover the influence of aspects related to company's environment; alignment of objectives; participation of employees; clear definition of roles; training; adaptation and support of work team member; an adequate technological infrastructure; how to promote the participation of external agents; and the influence of communication channels.The identification and analysis of these factors and the lessons learned serve as a reference framework for researchers who are considering carrying out an "Action Research" project to transfer it to the company with which they are going to collaborate, and thus determine if the right conditions are in place to carry out the study.

A miniature capsule endoscope based on spiral antenna with wireless sensing capabilities

Abstract In this paper, a capsule endoscopy system with a sensing function is proposed for medical devices. A single-arm spiral antenna is designed for data transmission and is combined with the voltage controlled oscillator to achieve sensing capabilities. The designed antenna operates at a 900 MHz industrial scientific medical band. By establishing a three-layer cylindrical model of the stomach, it was concluded that the antenna in the stomach has a high peak gain of −1.1 dBi. Additionally, the antenna achieved a −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 5%. The capsule endoscopy was experimentally measured in both actual stomach and simulated environments. The maximum working distance of the capsule endoscope was measured to be 6.8 m. Additionally, the proposed capsule endoscope was tested for its sensing function using solutions with different dielectric constants. Finally, it was confirmed through link analysis that it has good communication capabilities. The results and analysis confirm that the proposed capsule endoscope can be used for examining gastric diseases.