Life Of People Research Articles

Host Nuclear Genome Copy Number Variations Identify High-Risk Anal Precancers in People Living With HIV.

People living with HIV (PLWH) have substantially increased incidence of anal precancer and cancer. There are very little data regarding genomic disturbances in anal precancers among PLWH. In this study, specific chromosomal variants were identified in anal squamous intraepithelial lesions. Overall, 63 anal biopsy specimens (27 low-grade intraepithelial lesions [LSIL] and 36 high-grade intraepithelial lesions [HSIL]) were collected from PLWH obtained as part of anal cancer screening in our NYC-based health system. Data on patient demographics, anal cytological, and high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) diagnoses were collected. Specimens were tested for a panel of chromosomal alterations associated with HPV-induced oncogenesis using fluorescence in situ hybridization, and analyses compared the associations of these alterations with clinical characteristics. Gains of 3q26, 5p15, 20q13, and cen7 were detected in 42%, 31%, 31%, and 19% of HSIL compared with 7%, 0%, 4%, and 0% of LSIL, respectively. If at least 1 abnormality was observed, 89% had a 3q26 gain. In lesions with 5p15 gains, 20q13 gains co-occurred in 91% of cases, while cen7 gain only co-occurred with the other 3 alterations. The sensitivity and specificity of any alteration to predict HSIL were 47% (95% CI: 30%-65%) and 93% (95% CI: 76%-99%), respectively. Genomic alterations seen in HPV-associated cancers may help distinguish anal LSIL from HSIL. 3q26 amplification may be an early component of anal carcinogenesis, preceding 5p16, 20q13, and/or chr7. Insights into potential genomic biomarkers for discriminating high-risk anal precancers are shared.

Unlocking the Potentials of Sustainable Livelihoods in Chattogram Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

The Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT), home to diverse ethnic communities locally known as tribals, lags behind in socioeconomic development, with widespread poverty and precarious livelihoods. This paper, using diverse sources of literature, examines the existing livelihood challenges faced by the tribal people of CHT and explores various livelihood options that could improve their well-being. Our analysis revealed that a variety of factors, including geographic, economic, social, historical, and political, affect the livelihoods of tribal people in the CHT. The region's difficult topography, remoteness, poor infrastructure, and past conflicts have hindered development efforts and deterred both private and public sector investments. Although over 60% of the tribal people depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods, many of them are landless. Moreover, tribal communities have limited access to finance, education and training, health services, and markets due to their remote locations, poor infrastructure, and lack of transportation facilities. Our findings suggest that, despite many challenges, there is huge potential to improve the livelihoods of the tribal people. However, it would require a holistic and coordinated approach of managing natural resources, improving human, social, physical, and financial capital, as well as addressing underlying structural and institutional factors. Priority should be given to managing natural resources, improving governance, resolving land disputes, investing in infrastructure, improving access to markets and financial services, and developing skills and knowledge. This paper outlines a framework to address the existing challenges and harness the opportunities to promote sustainable livelihoods in CHT.

Determining community happiness index with transformers and attention-based deep learning

In the current digital era, evaluating the quality of people's lives and their happiness index is closely related to their expressions and opinions on Twitter social media. Measuring population welfare goes beyond monetary aspects, focusing more on subjective well-being, and sentiment analysis helps evaluate people's perceptions of happiness aspects. Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) effectively identifies sentiments on predetermined aspects. The previous study has used Word-to-Vector (Word2Vec) and long short-term memory (LSTM) methods with or without attention mechanism (AM) to solve ABSA cases. However, the problem with the previous study is that Word2Vec has the disadvantage of being unable to handle the context of words in a sentence. Therefore, this study will address the problem with bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), which has the advantage of performing bidirectional training. Bayesian optimization as a hyperparameter tuning technique is used to find the best combination of parameters during the training process. Here we show that BERT-LSTM-AM outperforms the Word2Vec-LSTM-AM model in predicting aspect and sentiment. Furthermore, we found that BERT is the best state-of-the-art embedding technique for representing words in a sentence. Our results demonstrate how BERT as an embedding technique can significantly improve the model performance over Word2Vec.

The Danger of a Single Story of Women: Challenging Perpetrator-Dominated Discourse through Internal Focalization and Polyvocality in Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun

ABSTRACT: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2006 novel, Half of a Yellow Sun , utilizes a nonchronological, polyvocal narrative structure to depict a group of people's lives before and during the Nigeria-Biafra War of 1967-70. Throughout its structure, the novel centers questions of authorial rights and suitability, as it through its internal metatext, "The World Was Silent When We Died," problematizes who authors stories of Biafra. Through a narratological investigation of the novel's implementation of polyvocality and internal focalization, I argue Half of a Yellow Sun refuses to provide an easily accepted authorial choice that atones Ugwu of his participation in rape. Instead, the narrative devices expose his projection toward sexual assault and reveal his misogyny toward women. The novel simultaneously condemns and accentuates the harming effects of male-dominated discourse where perpetrators control the narrative and exclude and/or skew the experiences of women victims of sexual assault as it calls for a diversity of voices.

Epistemic justice and critical minerals–Towards a planetary just transition

Global transitions to low-carbon energy systems are heavily reliant on the large-scale extraction of critical minerals (e.g. cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements). These minerals are key components in green technological developments such as wind turbines, solar photovoltaics and electric vehicle motors. However, research has highlighted the multifaceted social and environmental costs of critical mineral extraction and processing across marginalised parts of the Global South, evidencing significant impacts on local people's health, livelihoods, human rights and land-based resources. This paper centres on epistemic justice in the critical mineral (CM) industry, an under-explored dimension of just energy transitions. Through the analysis, we identify two main forms of epistemic injustice in the CM industry: discriminatory epistemic injustice and distributive epistemic injustice. Building on Heffron's (2020) JUST framework on CM, we highlight the importance of epistemic injustice in the just transition to reveal the power dynamics, socio-environmental injustices, and exclusionary practices in the CM industry. Through bringing new insights on knowledge equity in the context of CM, we recommend creating participatory spaces for dialogue, decision-making, and knowledge sharing, which can facilitate more respectful and equitable interactions between all stakeholders, thereby contributing to more holistic understandings of a ‘planetary just transition’.

Study of Babak River water quality using physical and chemical parameters in Kebon Kongok landfill (Lombok, Indonesia)

The study has been conducted on the water quality level of the Babak River around Kebon Kongok landfill, Lombok. This research was conducted considering that water has many benefits in the daily lives of people. This research uses an experimental method by analyzing physical parameters (temperature, conductivity, pH, and total dissolved solids (TDS)), and chemical parameters in the form of heavy metal content lead (Pb), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu)). Analysis results were compared with quality standards based on Ministry of Health Regulation No. 32 of 2017 concerning water quality. Based on the study, it was found that the farther the distance of water measured from the source of pollution, the value of the physical and chemical parameters of water will be smaller. Most of the physical parameter test results show the Babak River water quality is still at the safe threshold limit but there is 1 point of river water that is polluted due to the distance that is too close to the active zone. Chemical parameters show the results of heavy metal content below the threshold limit. Analysis of the water quality shows that the water is still in good condition, which is below the threshold set by the Indonesian government.

Estimating the Proportion of People Living With HIV Who May Benefit From the Reverse Algorithm for the Diagnosis of Incident Syphilis.

Among 8455 people engaged in HIV care in 4 US cities, 4925 (58%) had treponemal testing at care entry. Of the 4925 tested, 3795 (77%) had a nonreactive result and might benefit from the reverse algorithm for a future incident syphilis diagnosis. Furthermore, low-barrier treponemal testing as a first step in the reverse algorithm may increase syphilis screening and decrease time to treatment.

Culture and local wisdom of the lampung indigenous people on the Pesisir Barat in the utilization of the Repong Damar Agroforestry System

Forest resources have a very important role in people's lives, both directly and indirectly. Agroforestry can be an interesting example in the production of timber and non-timber forest products. Agroforestry is an intensive land management system that combines forestry plants and agricultural plants to achieve optimal results, while still paying attention to aspects of land conservation and carrying out cultivation in accordance with the needs of local communities. Indigenous communities on the Pesisir Barat inherit the values of Repong Damar through unique management, which is based on local wisdom of the local area. This research was conducted using a qualitative approach using the research desk method. This study approach seeks to explore data from various sources as secondary data so that the main source of research data is obtained using the research desk method or Secondary Data Analysis (SDA) with qualitative data. Indigenous communities in Pesisir Barat Regency manage Repong Damar by applying traditional values, namely regulated through customary law, inheritance of Repong Damar, and values in managing Repong Damar as a guideline for not destroying forests and continuing to manage them properly. Therefore, granting utilization permits, collaborative implementation, partnerships, and cooperation in empowering indigenous communities through local culture and wisdom in utilizing agroforestry systems carried out around the Repong Damar customary forest can help maintain sustainability and the ecosystem within it.

Analysis of protein profile and reducing sugar content of cassava plants (Manihot esculenta Crantz) results of induced resistance with salicylic acid

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important food commodity in Indonesia, and in the future this commodity will play an increasingly strategic role in people's lives and the country's economy. But until now there are still many obstacles, one of which is fusarium wilt disease. Fusarium wilt disease can be controlled by using superior cultivars that are resistant to the disease, by applying salicylic acid. The aim of this study was to analyze the protein profile and reducing sugar content in cassava plants after being induced with salicylic acid and compare them with controls. This research used a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with one factor, namely the addition of salicylic acid consisting of 5 concentration levels, namely 0 ppm, 80 ppm, 100 ppm, 120 ppm, and 140 ppm. Each concentration was repeated 5 times. This research data is in the form of qualitative data and quantitative data. Qualitative data is presented in comparative descriptive form and presented in the form of photographs. Quantitative data was tabulated with different concentration factors and analyzed using Analysis of Variance then further tested with the Honestly Significant Difference Test (BNJ) at the 5% level. The research results showed that there was a missing protein band, namely a band at a molecular weight of 115, and there was also the appearance of a new band, namely a molecular weight of 85 kDa, as well as an increase in the reducing sugar content in cassava plants along with increasing salicylic acid concentrations.

CS: GO Skins Market Impact Factors Analysis

Video games have become an indispensable part of some young people's lives over the years. This article will focus on the analysis of a game that is very popular all over the world: CS: GO. One of the main features of this game is the traceability of skins. One of the main features of this game is the traceability of the game skins, and because of this feature, the CS: GO Skin Market has been created. The market has many features similar to those of the financial market. The most important one is the volatility of the skin prices. Based on this, this article presents and analyzes the factors influencing the price of CS: GO skins.

Exploration of the Changes in Facial Microbiota of Maskne Patients and Healthy Controls Before and After Wearing Masks Using 16S rRNA Analysis.

Whether in the field of medical care, or in people's daily life and health protection, the importance of masks has been paid more and more attention. Acne, the most common complication after wearing masks, which is also called maskne, has been successfully introduced into the common language as a common topic of dermatologist consultations. This study aims to study the changes of microflora in maskne patients and healthy controls before and after wearing masks. In the summer of 2023, we collected a total of 50 samples from 15 maskne patients and 10 healthy controls before and after wearing surgical masks for a long time. 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing and identification technology with V3-V4 variable region were adopted to explore the microbiome changes caused by mask wearing, analyze the changes in microbial diversity, and make interaction network. LDA effect size analysis was used to identify which bacteria showed significant changes in their relative abundance from phylum to genus. After wearing a mask, the microbiome of the maskne patients changed significantly more than that of the healthy controls, with both α diversity and β diversity lower than those of maskne patients before wearing masks and those of healthy controls after wearing masks. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that compared with other groups, the network of maskne patients after wearing masks for a long time had the lowest connectivity and complexity, but the highest clustering property, while the opposite was true for healthy controls. Many microbes that are potentially beneficial to the skin decreased significantly after wearing a mask. There was almost no difference in healthy controls before and after wearing a mask.

EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE STIMULATION THERAPY(CST) AMONG PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA - A NARRATIVE REVIEW

OBJECTIVE: This study explores the effectiveness of cognitive stimulation therapy to improve cognition in people with dementia. SELECTION METHOD: PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Cochrane from these databases, articles were searched using keywords. SELECTION CRITERIA: The articles were collected based on the inclusion criteria focusing on the cognition in people with dementia. RESULTS: The preliminary results suggested that the tasks like measuring attention, memory, speed processing, executive functions, and speed processing following the cognitive stimulation treatment (CST). Evidence shows that CST promisingly improves people’s cognitive functions as measured by the (MMSE) mini-mental state examination. This test investigates memory, orientation, language, and visuospatial abilities. CST has led to significant improvements in quality of life, along with care givers. Analyses suggests CST is equally effective as many dementia drugs. CONCLUSION: Cognitive stimulation therapy improves cognition in people with dementia and benefits the quality of life. Evidence from several studies indicates that cognitive stimulation therapy along with multiple component interventions improves not only cognition but also the language, behavior, and quality of life of people with dementia. Results from interviews of CST sessions found key themes, including positivity being in the groups, due to a supportive and good environment, improvements in confidence, mood, and concentration. KEY WORDS: Non-Pharmacological intervention, Cognitive stimulation therapy (CST), People with Dementia (PwD), Cognition, Older adults, assessment scales, Quality of life (QoL).

Working conditions and health status of employees of individual law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation

Introduction. The health of employees of the Russian law enforcement agencies is one of the factors of the success of their professional activities. The activities of law enforcement officers often take place in an extreme situation, due to the suddenness of emergency situations, lack of time to make decisions, a high degree of responsibility for the lives of other people, and the intensity of physical and psycho-emotional overloads. Therefore, at present, the problem of professional health of employees of law enforcement agencies is attracting attention. The study aims to assess the factors of professional activity and health status of employees of individual law enforcement agencies of the Kaliningrad region. Materials and methods. Using the random sampling method, the researchers formed three groups from among employees Using the random sampling method, the researchers formed three groups from among employees of the internal affairs bodies and the Federal Service of the National Guard Troops who are on medical care at the Federal Medical Institution "Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Kaliningrad region." The experts analyzed the registration form No. 025/u (medical card of a patient receiving outpatient medical care) of these groups of employees of individual law enforcement agencies of the Kaliningrad region. Results. Chronic diseases of the musculoskeletal system and injuries are the dominant pathology of employees of the law enforcement agencies of the Kaliningrad region who are on medical care at the Federal Medical Institution "Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Kaliningrad region." Along with acute respiratory diseases, which most often lead to temporary disability, the above pathology causes a prolonged absence of employees in the relevant units, which makes it difficult to fulfill the assigned service and combat tasks to ensure law and order. Conclusion. Extreme factors of service in the vast majority of cases have a negative impact on the health of persons performing service and combat missions. The dominant pathology of employees is chronic diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue and injuries.

The impact of basic pension for urban and rural residents on the subjective well-being of the older adult in Chinese rural areas

IntroductionAs an important component of the social security system, basic pension insurance for urban and rural residents is expected to improve the quality of life of rural older adult people and make their lives better and happier. This article mainly studies the relationship between the basic pension for urban and rural residents and the subjective well-being of older adult people in rural China.MethodsThis paper uses data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) for the years 2018 and 2020. It selected samples of rural older adult people aged 60 and above, ultimately obtaining 9,310 samples. The impact of the basic pension for urban and rural residents on the subjective well-being of rural older adult people was estimated by constructing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation methods and ordered logistic regression models. The robustness of the results was verified by changing the regression methods, and the samples were divided into different groups for heterogeneity analysis according to three different standards.ResultsThe results show that the basic pension for urban and rural residents significantly improves the life satisfaction of rural older adult, reduces their degrees of depression, and thereby enhances their subjective well-being. The impact of the basic pension for urban and rural residents is more significant for older adult individuals in areas with a higher gender ratio, those suffering from chronic diseases, and those in the eastern regions of the country. Further verification indicates that the basic pension for urban and rural residents enhances the subjective well-being of the rural older adult by improving their health status and reducing their labor supply.DiscussionMost of the existing research on basic pension insurance for urban and rural residents and subjective well-being has been conducted from the perspective of whether individuals are enrolled in the pension scheme or whether they received a pension. However, there are few studies analyzing from the perspective of the amount of pension benefits received by residents. The results of this study help to enrich the research perspective on the basic pension insurance system for urban and rural residents in China and expand the understanding of the impact and value of the basic pension for urban and rural residents.

Family influence on stigma internalisation in people with severe mental illness: A grounded theory study.

The internalisation of stigma has adverse effects on the recovery and quality of life of people with severe mental illnesses. Studies have shown that life experiences in one's close environment are highly relevant in explaining the onset and development of self-stigma. Families play a critical role in the daily care of people with severe mental illness and have a profound impact on patient recovery. This qualitative study explored the influence of family on stigma internalisation among people with severe mental illness in the context of Chinese culture. A grounded theory design was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 patients with severe mental illness and 10 family members, and observations were carried out among five of the families. The data analysis followed three steps (open, axial and selective coding) and involved the use of a constant comparative method and memo writing. The COREQ reporting checklist was used to report the results. Our findings revealed that families can facilitate and impede stigma internalisation in people with severe mental illness via negative or positive daily interactions. A theoretical framework was developed to present the potential effects of the identified family factors on stigma internalisation. Three major family factors influencing patients' internalised stigma were identified, namely, "beliefs of family members" at the individual level, "responses within the family" at the intrafamilial level and "differentiated family environment" at the level of the whole family system, in which "biased beliefs of family members" could bring about "negative responses within the family" and further result in patients' internalised stigma. Our findings suggested that mental health stigma internalised by ill people should be viewed within the broad context of the family. Family-based programs aimed at improving positive interactions and support within the family need to be developed and launched, with particular attention given to interventions for affiliate stigma, coping with stigma and families' negative responses towards people with severe mental illness to prevent the internalisation of stigma by patients.

Analysis of addiction craving onset through natural language processing of the online forum Reddit.

Alcohol cravings are considered a major factor in relapse among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). This study aims to investigate the frequency and triggers of cravings in the daily lives of people with alcohol-related issues. Large amounts of data are analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to identify possible groupings and patterns. For the analysis, posts from the online forum "stopdrinking" on the Reddit platform were used as the dataset from April 2017 to April 2022. The posts were filtered for craving content and processed using the word2vec method to map them into a multi-dimensional vector space. Statistical analyses were conducted to calculate the nature and frequency of craving contexts and triggers (location, time, social environment, and emotions) using word similarity scores. Additionally, the themes of the craving-related posts were semantically grouped using a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model. The accuracy of the results was evaluated using two manually created test datasets. Approximately 16% of the forum posts discuss cravings. The number of craving-related posts decreases exponentially with the number of days since the author's last alcoholic drink. The topic model confirms that the majority of posts involve individual factors and triggers of cravings. The context analysis aligns with previous craving trigger findings related to the social environment, locations and emotions. Strong semantic craving similarities were found for the emotions boredom, stress and the location airport. The results for each method were successfully validated on test datasets. This exploratory approach is the first to analyze alcohol cravings in the daily lives of over 24,000 individuals, providing a foundation for further AI-based craving analyses. The analysis confirms commonly known craving triggers and even discovers new important craving contexts.

A Case Study for Teaching Urban Politics: Examining Residential Racial Segregation through Historic Significance of Black Neighborhood

Moving students out of the classroom and into the community provides promising outcomes for teaching residential racial segregation and understanding of historical context of preservation. This class provides an exploratory case study of students in political science and art studio who worked in teams to develop digital stories for an historically black neighborhood in a large urban city. Through examination of archival data, conducting interviews, and experiencing places within the neighborhood, students gained insight into the politics that work to promote some history over others. Students became more aware of the importance of neighborhoods and gained an understanding of the importance of history to the lives of people living in particular communities. Students learned to work as a team, to overcome challenges of working in a community, and gained an understanding of political processes that work to hide or bury significant history of marginalized groups and neighborhoods.

The Role of the Human-Canine Bond in Recovery from Substance Use Disorder (Criminal Justice Abstracts).

Abstract Recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) can be conceptualized as a personal journey that includes connection with self and others, as well as animals - known as the human-animal bond (HAB). Research shows that canines are the most common type of animal integrated into animal-assisted interventions to support people with SUD and that there is growing acknowledgement of companion animals in the lives of people with SUD. To address this gap, the objective of this scoping review was to examine the literature on the role of the human-canine bond with respect to recovery from SUD among adolescents and adults, including how the bond may help or hinder recovery.

The Role of the Human-Canine Bond in Recovery from Substance Use Disorder (Academic Search Complete).

Abstract Recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) can be conceptualized as a personal journey that includes connection with self and others, as well as animals - known as the human-animal bond (HAB). Research shows that canines are the most common type of animal integrated into animal-assisted interventions to support people with SUD and that there is growing acknowledgement of companion animals in the lives of people with SUD. To address this gap, the objective of this scoping review was to examine the literature on the role of the human-canine bond with respect to recovery from SUD among adolescents and adults, including how the bond may help or hinder recovery.

The Role of the Human-Canine Bond in Recovery from Substance Use Disorder (CAB Abstracts).

Abstract Recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) can be conceptualized as a personal journey that includes connection with self and others, as well as animals - known as the human-animal bond (HAB). Research shows that canines are the most common type of animal integrated into animal-assisted interventions to support people with SUD and that there is growing acknowledgement of companion animals in the lives of people with SUD. To address this gap, the objective of this scoping review was to examine the literature on the role of the human-canine bond with respect to recovery from SUD among adolescents and adults, including how the bond may help or hinder recovery.