General Difficulties Research Articles

A Reparameterization Feature Redundancy Extract Network for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Detection

In unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) detection, challenges such as occlusion, complex backgrounds, motion blur, and inference time often lead to false detections and missed detections. General object detection frameworks encounter difficulties in adequately tackling these challenges, leading to substantial information loss during network downsampling, inadequate feature fusion, and being unable to meet real-time requirements. In this paper, we propose a Real-Time Small Object Detection YOLO (RTSOD-YOLO) model to tackle the various challenges faced in UAVs detection. We further enhance the adaptive nature of the Adown module by incorporating an adaptive spatial attention mechanism. This mechanism processes the downsampled feature maps, enabling the model to better focus on key regions. Secondly, to address the issue of insufficient feature fusion, we employ combined serial and parallel triple feature encoding (TFE). This approach fuses scale-sequence features from both shallow features and twice-encoded features, resulting in a new small-scale object detection layer. While enhancing the global context awareness of the existing detection layers, this also enriches the small-scale object detection layer with detailed information. Since rich redundant features often ensure a comprehensive understanding of the input, which is a key characteristic of deep neural networks, we propose a more efficient redundant feature generation module. This module generates more feature maps with fewer parameters. Additionally, we introduce reparameterization techniques to compensate for potential feature loss while further improving the model’s inference speed. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed RTSOD-YOLO achieves superior detection performance, with mAP50/mAP50:95 reaching 97.3%/51.7%, which represents improvement of 3%/3.5% over YOLOv8, and 2.6%/0.1% higher than YOLOv10. Additionally, it has the lowest parameter count and FLOPs, making it highly efficient in terms of computational resources.

How Teachers of English Use Writing Approaches when Teaching Composition Writing: The Case of Three Selected Secondary Schools in Central West Education Division-Malawi

Since the inception of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) writing, educators and researchers have developed various writing approaches to address the needs of learners. This paper examines how English teachers apply these approaches in teaching ESL writing, focusing on key methodologies such as the product writing approach, genre writing approach, and process writing approach. The advantages and limitations of each approach are discussed. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, classroom observations, literature reviews, and the analysis of documents and students' exercise books. Content analysis was used to transcribe, categorize, and code the data. The study aimed to provide specific examples of empirical findings that illustrate effective strategies teachers use to enhance writing competence in composition instruction. The findings highlight that teachers predominantly use the product-oriented approach when teaching composition writing, particularly in tasks such as writing full-length compositions (350-500 words), answering comprehension questions, and summarizing texts. However, this approach often led to challenges, including students' inability to write meaningfully due to surface-level errors, a lack of ideas or vocabulary, poor organizational skills, and general difficulties in composing effectively. This study contributes to the understanding of how English teachers adapt writing approaches based on their specific contexts and the needs of their learners. The implications of these findings are also discussed

Death Anxiety and Resilience in Older Adults: The Moderating Role of Attachment Patterns

The unique human awareness of the fact that life is finite, and that death is unavoidable has been shown to elicit negative psychological consequences across the life cycle. However, research has demonstrated that the ability to seek, maintain, and gain comfort from close relationships mitigates the adverse psychological effects of death awareness/anxiety. Moreover, relatively little is known about how death anxiety and social relationships in old age are associated with resilience, an important personal protective factor for dealing with general and age-related difficulties. Accordingly, the current work examined the links between death anxiety and resilience in older adults and explored the potential moderating role of attachment patterns for this link. Data were collected from 369 older Israeli adults (Mage = 73.15, SD = 6.31, range = 60–94), who completed scales examining death anxiety, attachment patterns, and resilience, as well as sociodemographic scales. The results demonstrated that death anxiety, attachment anxiety, and attachment avoidance were associated with reduced resilience. Moreover, the death anxiety-resilience link was not significant for individuals reporting high or low levels of both attachment anxiety and avoidance. The findings are discussed through the prism of Terror Management Theory, and practical implications are suggested.

How altruistic alternatives reverse the compromise effect

AbstractBrand managers increasingly add altruistic product attributes, such as fair trade or charitable donations, to their products to account for consumers’ increasing expectations of altruistic brand behavior. Despite the extensive amount of altruistic product attributes in today’s markets, it is unclear how these attributes affect consumer decision-making in different contexts. This paper particularly examines the influence of altruistic product attributes on the compromise effect. Through five experimental studies, we provide pioneering evidence that consumers face general difficulty in accepting trade-offs involving altruistic attributes and that altruistic attributes change the compromise effect substantially. While the well-established compromise effect, predicting a preference for middle options (compromises) over extreme options, holds for trade-offs between utilitarian attributes, it diminishes for altruistic trade-offs. Moreover, the trade-offs between utilitarian and altruistic attributes reverse the compromise effect, i.e., leading to a preference for extreme options. We also demonstrate that impression management moderates this effect.

Kinematic matrix: One-shot human action recognition using kinematic data structure

One-shot action recognition, which refers to recognizing human-performed actions using only a single training example, holds significant promise in advancing video analysis, particularly in domains requiring rapid adaptation to new actions. However, existing algorithms for one-shot action recognition face multiple challenges, including high computational complexity, limited accuracy, and difficulties in generalization to unseen actions. To address these issues, we propose a novel kinematic-based skeleton representation that effectively reduces computational demands while enhancing recognition performance. This representation leverages skeleton locations, velocities, and accelerations to formulate the one-shot action recognition task as a metric learning problem, where a model projects kinematic data into an embedding space. In this space, actions are distinguished based on Euclidean distances, facilitating efficient nearest-neighbour searches among activity reference samples. Our approach not only reduces computational complexity but also achieves higher accuracy and better generalization compared to existing methods. Specifically, our model achieved a validation accuracy of 78.5%, outperforming state-of-the-art methods by 8.66% under comparable training conditions. These findings underscore the potential of our method for practical applications in real-time action recognition systems.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Motor Planning Difficulties: A Confirmatory Study on the Overlap Between Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) represent two frequent neurodevelopmental disorders, which may be comorbid or have common characteristics with each other. The aim of the present study was to explore the presence of DCD or motor planning difficulties in children with behavioral disorders and/or ADHD, as already stated in the literature. Motor abilities were assessed in a sample of children which underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. A total of 43 children were included in the study and were subdivided in three groups: those with ADHD and DCD, those with DCD, and those with ADHD but also presenting motor-praxic difficulties. The first group obtained clinical scores at the considered tests, with worse performances in the balance area; in the second and third groups lower scores were observed in the manual dexterity and balance, with more homogeneous profiles. Overall, 27.3% of ADHD subjects received a diagnosis of DCD as well, whereas 31.8% showed documented motor-praxic difficulties. Our results confirmed an increased prevalence of DCD or general motor difficulties in children with ADHD compared to the general population. Further research should investigate whether a poorer motor performance assessed by standardized tests could be either due to a comorbid neurodevelopmental condition or a direct consequence of the pivotal symptomatology of the disorder.

Engineering a superamphiphilic surface for enhanced interfacial bonding in metal-polymer hybrid structure

Insufficient wetting of polymer due to its poor compatibility with metals leads to non-intimate interfacial mutual contact during the thermal-direct bonding process, thus hindering the establishment of effective mechanical interlocking and substantial chemical bonding at the interface, resulting in deficient performance of metal-polymer hybrid structures. To achieve high-quality bonding between non-polar ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and Ti6Al4V titanium alloy (TC4) for the application of artificial joint prostheses, this study innovatively engineered a superamphiphilic (simultaneously superhydrophilic and superlipophilic) TC4 surface, which was achieved through a morphology-chemistry dual regulation strategy. This pretreatment strategy aimed at improving the interfacial compatibility between in-situ oxidized UHMWPE and TC4 and ensuring intimate contact between these two materials during thermal-direct bonding, thus facilitating chemical reactions and mechanical interlocking at the interface. Defect-free and ultra-high-performance TC4-UHMWPE hybrid joints were successfully obtained via friction spot joining (FSpJ) with the lap shear strength reaching 18.05 MPa (higher than all those similar hybrid joints reported in existing literature) and the fracture was confined to the UHMWPE matrix, effectively avoiding interfacial failure. The formation of chemical bonds in the form of COTi at TC4/UHMWPE interface was solidly confirmed based on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analyses. This research presents a compelling strategy for improving interfacial compatibility between polymer and metal for thermal-direct bonding, to overcome the general difficulties in achieving effective interfacial bonding between these two categories of materials with significantly different physiochemical properties.

Development and validation of a Disorganised Thoughts Scale: a new measure to assess thinking difficulties in the general population

BackgroundDisordered thinking is a condition that can manifest in not only clinical cases (e.g., psychotic disorders), but also the wider general population. However, there is no current method to measure the specific cognitive processes experienced during such a condition. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a new self-report measure, the Disorganised Thoughts Scale (DTS), that can assess disorganised thinking in the general population.MethodsTo achieve this aim, a survey was developed and shared online with four independent samples, including a sample of Australians in the general population (N = 321) and three samples (N = 200 each) that were controlled for their substance use (i.e., frequent alcohol and cannabis use; non-frequent substance use). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and reliability analyses, were used to test the internal validity, whilst correlational analyses were implemented to examine the external validity.ResultsThe exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure (10 items each) measuring Positive thought disorder (i.e., accelerated, uncontrollable, and incongruent thinking) and Negative thought disorder (i.e., inhibited, disjointed, and disorientated thinking). This internal structure was confirmed with subsequent confirmatory factor and reliability analyses (α = 0.90 to 0.97) in the three substance-controlled groups. Concurrent validity was also supported, as the DTS exhibited strong correlations with established measures of general cognitive difficulties, specific self-regulatory dysfunctions, and psychopathological symptomology. Finally, the measure was also shown to be significantly higher in cohorts who exhibited a higher degree of psychological distress and who frequently used substances (i.e., alcohol and cannabis).ConclusionsOverall, this study provided preliminary evidence to suggest that the DTS is a sound measure of disorganised thought that is linked to psychopathology and substance use in non-clinical populations. The measure could be used in future research which seeks to better understand how thinking effects, and is affected by, various psychological conditions.

Metabolic and Inflammatory Aspects of Iron Deficiency in Obese

Obesity is a chronic disease with a complex etiology, characterized by a persistent inflammatory state induced by various pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-6. This condition leads to increased production of hepcidin, a protein hormone responsible for regulating iron homeostasis. Hepcidin's primary function is to inhibit iron absorption by enterocytes, the cells lining the small intestine. Symptoms of iron deficiency, which is crucial for oxygen transport, energy production, and immune system support, can be varied and often nonspecific, such as general weakness, pallor, or concentration difficulties, potentially prolonging the diagnostic process. This article aims to analyze the relationship between obesity and iron deficiency in the metabolic context. Obesity, being one of the most prevalent health issues of the modern world, is associated with numerous complications, including disturbances in iron metabolism. Iron deficiency in obese individuals can lead to anemia, reduced physical performance, and cognitive impairments. Traditional treatment methods for this micronutrient deficiency involve supplementation. However, supplementation shows reduced efficacy in overweight and obese individuals, likely due to elevated hepcidin levels. A more effective approach should include interventions targeting not only the supplementation of the missing micronutrient but also weight reduction.

B - 35 Recall of the Injury Event in Moderate–Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract Objective Autobiographical recall can be impoverished in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). We explored whether the recall of the TBI event was unique to this trend since the event is both self-defining and traumatic. Methods We recruited 30 non-injured comparison participants (NC) and 30 participants in the chronic phase of a moderate–severe TBI from the Brain Injury Patient Registry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Participants in the TBI group recalled their TBI event and a self-selected event from 0–5 years before the TBI. The NC group recalled a self-selected event that matched the pre-injury’s temporal distance. We used the Autobiographical Interview scoring system to test whether events differed in the amount and type of details. Results Compared to the pre-injury event, the injury event had a higher number of episodic-like, p = 0.002, and external details (e.g., repetition and meta-comments), p = 0.011. The injury and pre-injury events had a similar proportion of episodic-like details (relative to all details), p = 0.295, indicating events were similarly supplemented with extraneous/inferential information. Further, the pre-injury event of the TBI group had a smaller number of episodic-like details, p < 0.001, and a lower proportion of episodic-like details, p = 0.002, than the events from the NC group. Conclusion Whereas the recall of injury events may be unique due to their higher number of episodic-like details, they were also similar to general autobiographical memory recall in the preponderance of supplementary details. A confluence of factors, like personal relevance, compromised encoding due to loss of consciousness at the time of injury, and general difficulties in retrieval, may explain the findings.

Retinopathy and vision-related quality of life in blood dyscrasias.

To study the association of retinopathy with vision-related quality of life in patients with blood dyscrasias. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at a university-based hospital. Two hundred patients with blood dyscrasias underwent comprehensive ocular examination, including dilated fundus examination. Vision-related quality of life was assessed using the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25). Retinopathy was observed in 99 out of 200 patients (49.50%) with blood dyscrasias. The most common retinal findings were venous tortuosity with dilation (31.70%), intraretinal hemorrhages (27.88%), soft exudates (12.50%), white-centered hemorrhages (12.50%), and arteriolar attenuation (12.50%). A significant association was found between retinopathy in blood dyscrasias and NEI-VFQ subscales of general vision (P value: 0.01**), near activities (P value: 0.04*), distance activities (P value: 0.01**), mental health (P value: 0.01**), color vision (P value: 0.01**), peripheral vision (P value: 0.01**), role difficulties (P value: 0.01**), and social functioning (P value: 0.01**). The study highlights the prevalence of retinopathy in blood dyscrasia patients and its detrimental impact on vision-related quality of life. Regular fundus examinations are imperative for early detection and management of retinopathy to prevent significant visual impairment. Further research is warranted to elucidate underlying mechanisms and improve clinical management strategies.

Development of a medication review intervention by seconding a hospital pharmacist to primary care

BackgroundMedication reviews (MRs) are a well-described initiative that improves health outcomes for polypharmacy patients. However, there is limited knowledge about the performance of medication reviews carried out in general practice especially under the leadership of hospital clinical pharmacists. When developing complex interventions, such as MRs, it is essential to describe the development process to ensure transparency and avoid research waste. ObjectiveThus, this study aimed to describe the steps of developing a new MR intervention targeting general practice to ensure transparency and transferability. MethodsA stepwise approach inspired by the Medical Research Council framework was utilised in the process, covering two of the phases, i.e., development and feasibility, divided into four steps: 1) intervention drafting by a literature search, 2) expert opinion, 3) pilot testing in general practice clinics, and 4) evaluation of quantitative MR data. ResultsBased on the results from the first three steps, four main themes which influenced the success of the MR intervention were identified: general practitioner resources, patient involvement, implementation difficulties and interdisciplinarity. These themes guided the pilot evaluation in step four. ConclusionA new feasible, complex MR intervention utilising clinical pharmacists in general practice involving hospital clinical pharmacists in a real-life setting was developed.

Interactive roles of preterm-birth and socioeconomic status in cortical thickness of language-related brain structures: Findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study

Preterm-born (PTB) children are at an elevated risk for neurocognitive difficulties in general and language difficulties more specifically. Environmental factors such as socio-economic status (SES) play a key role for Term children's language development. SES has been shown to predict PTB children's behavioral developmental trajectories, sometimes surpassing its role for Term children. However, the role of SES in the neurocognitive basis of PTB children's language development remains uncharted. Here, we aimed to evaluate the role of SES in the neural basis of PTB children's language performance. Leveraging the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest longitudinal study of adolescent brain development and behavior to date, we showed that prematurity status (PTB versus Term) and multiple aspects of SES additively predict variability in cortical thickness, which is in turn related to children's receptive vocabulary performance. We did not find evidence to support the differential role of environmental factors for PTB versus Term children, underscoring that environmental factors are significant contributors to development of both Term and PTB children. Taken together, our results suggest that the environmental factors influencing language development might exhibit similarities across the full spectrum of gestational age.

Videoconferencing CBT: a mixed-methods analysis of outcomes amongst young people depending on current self-harm risk status

PurposeA notable number of young people self-harm, with only a minority receiving professional support. Evidence suggests that therapy can help recovery from self-harm, but little is known about the experiences of those who self-harm and participate in therapy delivered via videoconferencing.Design/methodology/approachRisk assessments were examined for evidence of self-harm and used to identify two groups for analysis: young people who had self-harmed in the past six months and those who had not. A mixed methods analysis was then conducted to examine process and outcome data for these two groups. Data included a number of sessions attended, late-cancelled and missed without notice; and patient-reported outcome measure scores (Young Person-Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation and Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale). End-of-treatment reports were subsequently analysed using thematic analysis.FindingsThose with current self-harm risk appeared to start therapy with lower well-being. No notable differences in progress were found between groups on quantitative outcomes. There was greater reporting of poorer clinical outcomes in the reports of those with current self-harm risk, including two unique types of barriers to effective therapy: “general difficulties” (e.g. poor well-being limiting engagement, specific components of therapy being challenging) and “CBT was not preferred”.Originality/valueLower baseline well-being could explain the greater ongoing care needs and lower well-being post-therapy among those with current self-harm risk, despite both groups appearing to make similar levels of therapeutic progress quantitatively. Recent self-harm does not appear to reduce the utility of videoconferencing cognitive behavioural therapy; however, clients’ individual needs should be carefully considered.

Feedback timing-modulated weather prediction reveals relative deficits in both procedural and declarative learning in adults with dyslexia.

A topic of recent debate is the hypothesis that deficits associated with developmental disorders of language, such as reading disability, can be explained by a selective weakness in procedural memory. Adults with (n = 29; RD) and without (n = 29; TD) reading disability completed a weather prediction task under immediate and delayed feedback conditions, that rely on the striatal (procedural) and hippocampal (declarative) circuits, respectively. We examined trial-by-trial accuracy by feedback condition (immediate vs. delayed) and group (RD vs. TD). In the immediate feedback condition, we found the TD group to have a higher learning rate than the RD group. In the delayed feedback condition, we found the TD group reach a high level of accuracy early, and outperform the RD group for the duration of the task. The TD group also made gains in reaction time under both conditions, while the RD group slowed in their responses. Taken together, it appears that while procedural memory is indeed impaired in adults with reading disability, to a lesser extent, declarative memory is also affected. This lends partial support to the PDH, and more broadly to the position that reading disability is associated with general (non-linguistic) difficulties in learning.

What’s so Hard about Hard Choices?

What, exactly, is so hard about hard choices? I suggest that what is distinctively hard about hard choices is that they present us with the volitional difficulty of putting ourselves behind an alternative and thereby making it true of ourselves that we have most reason to do one thing rather than another. Making it true through your commitments that, for instance, you have most reason to be a philosopher rather than a lawyer makes the choice between the careers hard. This answer is in contrast to that of Sergio Tenenbaum, who understands the hardness of a hard choice as a deliberative difficulty in specifying our alternatives and ends in ways that conform with certain proposed constraints of rationality. For Tenenbaum, the hardness of hard choices is not distinctive to such choices but is a general difficulty rational agents face when they need to further specify their alternatives and ends, even if the choice is easy.

“I used to be a storyteller”: the perspectives of people with primary progressive aphasia on the communication needs for themselves and their family members

ABSTRACT Background Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) refers to a group of neurological disorders characterised by the progressive deterioration of language functions. The primary avenue of support for the wide-ranging impacts of PPA on the lives of people with PPA and their family members is the delivery of communication care from speech-language pathologists. To align the provision of communication care services and the development of communication interventions with the peoples’ and family members’ needs, it is important to understand those needs from the perspectives of key stakeholders, particularly individuals with PPA. Aims The aims of the current study were to explore (a) the communication needs of people with PPA in the early and middle stages, and (b) the communication needs of their family members, from the perspectives of people with PPA. Methods & Procedures Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with seven people with PPA (all variants of PPA) from one to 96 months post diagnosis. The qualitative data was analysed using qualitative content analysis to identify codes and categories that related to the study’s research aims. Outcomes & Results Qualitative content analysis yielded six categories of communication need pertaining to people with PPA: Diagnosis and disclosure; Wanting information for self and the general public; General communication difficulties; Impact on communication in everyday life; Impact on psychosocial wellbeing; and Future planning. In contrast, only one category of need pertaining to family members was identified: Impact on family and others. Conclusion This study has yielded a breadth of findings on the communication needs of people with PPA and an initial contribution on those of their family members, implicating a range of health and social care professionals and other system level supports, as well as community members and family and friends, in addition to speech-language pathology services. Speech-language pathologists supporting this population might consider needs in areas such as impact on working life, impact on driving, coping with a changing self-perception of their identity (e.g. as a storyteller), and managing fluctuation in communication abilities. Future research can build on these findings to inform clinical practice and to develop interventions which address the needs of this population.

Czech Republic: Czech private foundations and trusts in the light of recent discussions and case law

Abstract This article aims to summarize, in the context of recent court decisions (case law), the development of the views and concepts with which private foundations and trusts have been viewed in Czech law over the last 10 years. In this respect, the authors believe that Czech law can serve as a kind of (albeit imperfect) laboratory for exploring the general difficulties encountered by traditional civil law jurisdictions in introducing these wealth management instruments institutes into traditional civil law systems.

Impact of Pre-Sleep Visual Media Exposure on Dreams: A Scoping Review.

A body of experimental research has aimed to investigate processes underlying dream formation by examining the effects of a range of pre-sleep stimuli and events on subsequent dream content. Given its ever-growing presence and salience in people's everyday lives, pre-sleep media consumption stands out as a key variable that could influence people's dreams. We conducted a scoping review to evaluate the experimental evidence of the effects of pre-sleep exposure to visual media on dream content. A systematic search on PubMed, PsycInfo, and Web of Science using terms related to moving visual media and dreams yielded 29 studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Overall, we found modest yet varied effects of pre-sleep exposure to visual media on dream content, with rates of stimulus-related incorporation ranging from 3% to 43% for REM dream reports, 4% to 30% for NREM sleep mentation reports, and between 11% and 35% for home dream reports. Our review highlights the large methodological heterogeneity and gaps across studies, the general difficulty in influencing dream content using pre-sleep exposure to visual media, and suggests promising venues for future research to advance our understanding of how and why digital media may impact people's dreams.

Impact of aging on crossmodal attention switching

Previous studies on crossmodal visual-auditory attention switching using a spatial discrimination task showed performance costs when the target modality changed relative to when it repeated. The present study (n = 42 for each age group) examined age-related changes in crossmodal attention switching by asking young (age range 19 to 30 years old) and older (age range 64 to 80 years old) participants to respond to unimodal central cues and bimodal lateralized stimuli. The participants’ task was to indicate the location of the target in the relevant modality using button presses. Results showed general attention switch costs. Additionally, we found no specific age-related increase of attention switch costs (no difference in performance between switch and repetition of target modality), but age-related increased mixing costs (decreased performance for repetition in modality-mixed condition compared to single target modality). Moreover, spatial distraction produced a crossmodal congruency effect, which was only slightly larger in older adults. Taken together, age-related increased mixing costs suggest a general difficulty with maintaining more than one task, but no specific age-related crossmodal impairment in crossmodal attention switching.