Normal People Research Articles

Comparative analysis of paraspinal structures between patients with degenerative adult spinal deformity and normal people using artificial intelligence

Comparative analysis of paraspinal structures between patients with degenerative adult spinal deformity and normal people using artificial intelligence

Analysis of the difference between Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and normal people by using fractal dimensions and small-world network.

This research examined the distinctions in brain network characteristics among individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and a control group. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) data were retrieved from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ANDI) database, comprising 40 subjects in each group. Correlation maps for evaluating brain network connectivity were generated using fractal dimension (FD) analysis, a method capable of quantifying morphological changes in cortical and cerebral regions. Employing graph theory, each parcellated brain region was represented as a node, and edges between nodes were utilized to compute small-world network properties for each group. In the comparison between control and AD demonstrated the significantly lower FD values (P<0.05) in temporal lobe, motor cortex, part of occipital and parietal, hippocampus, amygdala, and entorhinal cortex, which present the atrophy. Similarly, comparing control group to MCIs, regions closely associated with memory, such as the hippocampus, showed significantly lower FD values. Furthermore, both AD and MCI groups displayed diminished connectivity and decreased network efficiency. In conclusion, fractal dimension (FD) analysis illustrate the progression of structural declination from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Additionally, structural small-world network analysis presents itself as a potential method for assessing network efficiency and the progression of AD. Moving forward, further clinical assessments are warranted to validate the findings observed in this study.

Analysis of training and visualization of proposed mathematical symbols for blind students

The present life has become challenging. In this highly competitive world, it has become very difficult for normal people to compete. If normal people are to struggle in extreme, then it’s really difficult to imagine what complications the visually impaired face. The hardships and struggles faced by the visually impaired are in learning mathematics. In this study, effort is made to lessen the challenges faced by the students to learn advance level of mathematics. In this research, the focus is given to the mathematical symbols which have been categorized based on the functionality. An effort is made to present the symbol in a shape very close to the actual shape of the symbol. This will align the conceptual and advance learning without any variation for the blind students. To make this research effective, the research was implemented in two blind schools, one in Punjab and one in Chandigarh. A new framework is designed for training purposes based on the system followed in both blind schools. Training was imparted in both the schools and analysis was done on the outcome to show how much the new framework will be effective for the visually impaired students. To comprehend the effectiveness of the research, analysis was done on blind students, the teachers, and the parents.

Correlation between Body Mass Index and Body Fat Percentage in Patients Suffering from Diabetes Mellitus with Normal Healthy People

Correlation between Body Mass Index and Body Fat Percentage in Patients Suffering from Diabetes Mellitus with Normal Healthy People

Predicting the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele carrier status based on gray matter volumes and cognitive function.

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ε4 carriers have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) and show brain atrophy and cognitive decline even before diagnosis. To predict ApoE ε4 status using gray matter volume (GMV) obtained from magnetic resonance imaging images and demographic data with machine learning (ML) methods. We recruited 74 participants (25 probable AD, 24 amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and 25 cognitively normalolder people) with known ApoE genotype (22 ApoE ε4 carriers and 52 noncarriers) and scanned them with three-dimensional (3D) T1-weighted (T1W) and 3D double inversion recovery (DIR) sequences. We extracted GMV from regions of interestrelated to AD pathology and used them as features along with age and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores to train different ML models. We performed both receiver operating characteristiccurve analysis and the prediction analysis of the ApoE ε4 carrier with different ML models. The best model of ML analyses was a cubic support vector machine (SVM3) that used age, the MMSE score, and DIR GMVs at the amygdala, hippocampus, and precuneus as features (AUC=.88). This model outperformed models using T1W GMV or demographic data alone. Our results suggest that brain atrophy with DIR GMV and cognitive decline with aging can be useful biomarkers for predicting ApoE ε4 status and identifying individuals at risk of AD progression.

A Systematic Review of Thought Control Strategies in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Among all the neurotic conditions obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) considered as a debilitating one. Obsessive thoughts are categorized as unwanted, repetitive and intrusive thoughts, impulses or images that lead a sufferer to an unpleasant sate, called anxiety. In order to get relief from the unpleasant state caused by the obsessive thoughts, some repetitive behaviors or rituals performed by the sufferers which are regarded as compulsions. Basically, these rituals are performed with the intent to alleviate the anxiety stemming from obsessive thoughts. These obsessive thoughts are also common among people without having OCD (Clark &amp; De Silva, 1985). The cognitive formulations of OCD have proposed theories regarding how “normal” Intrusive thoughts have the potential to evolve into diagnosed obsessions (Clark, 2004; Rachman, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2003; Salkovskis, 1985, 1999). The ego-dystonic thought contents, such as aggressiveness, blasphemy, and infection, in the first instance, encourages frightening interpretations of their appearance. These unhelpful interpretations lead individuals to consciously try to manage or ignore intrusive thoughts in an attempt to lessen the discomfort they feel or to avoid anticipated negative outcomes. (Rachman, 1998). Therefore, it is thought that efforts to suppress and/or control intrusive thoughts are crucial in the development and/or upkeep of clinical obsessions. However, it has been found that intrusive thoughts are less distressing in case of normal people compared to those having OCD (Rachman&amp; De Silva, 1978; Salkoskis&amp;Harrison 1984). If obsessive thoughts are experienced by both people having OCD and without having OCD then why do these thoughts are distressing among former than the latter?

A NOVEL TRANSFORMER METHOD PRETRAINED WITH MASKED AUTOENCODERS AND FRACTAL DIMENSION FOR DIABETIC RETINOPATHY CLASSIFICATION

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the leading causes of blindness in a significant portion of the working population, and its damage on vision is irreversible. Therefore, rapid diagnosis on DR is crucial for saving the patient’s eyesight. Since Transformer shows superior performance in the field of computer vision compared with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), it has been proposed and applied in computer aided diagnosis of DR. However, a large number of images should be used for training due to the lack of inductive bias in Transformers. It has been demonstrated that the retinal vessels follow self-similar fractal scaling law, and the fractal dimension of DR patients shows an evident difference from that of normal people. Based on this, the fractal dimension is introduced as a prior into Transformers to mitigate the adverse influence of lack of inductive bias on model performance. A new Transformer method pretrained with Masked Autoencoders and fractal dimension (MAEFD) is developed and proposed in this paper. The experiments on the APTOS dataset show that the classification performance for DR by the proposed MAEFD can be substantially improved. Additionally, the present model pretrained with 100,000 retinal images outperforms that pretrained with 1 million natural images in terms of DR classification performance.

Research of branched retinal vein occlusion with arteriovenous crossing site

Aims/Purpose: The study was designed to analyse the incidence of branch retinal vein occlusion with characteristics of arteriovenous crossing.Methods: Patients diagnosed with branch retinal vein occlusion from January 2012 to January 2017 were enrolled. We selected 117 patients with recognizable arteriovenous crossing on fundus photography. The control group consisted of 120 patients who had no eye disorders and normal fundus photography. To analyse the characteristics of BRVO arteriovenous crossing, the sites were compared with arteriovenous crossing sites in similar locations in the contralateral vascular arcade of the BRVO site. Second, the numbers of arteriovenous crossings and crossings in which the positions of an artery and a vein alternated in the main venous pathways were studied. Last, distances between arteriovenous crossings at the main venous pathway were analysed.Results: Of branch retinal vein occlusion patients, 75.2% showed an artery anterior to the vein at arteriovenous crossing sites. In the control group, 61.5% of arteriovenous crossing sites showed artery anterior to the vein. The total number of arteriovenous crossing sites was not different from that of the contralateral arcade in the same eye, but the number of arteries anterior to veins was significantly different. The total number of arteriovenous crossing sites was statistically different from that of the control group of normal people. Distance between arteriovenous crossings were measured by the ImageJ program. Group A showed a 2.619 ± 0.859 DD (Disc Diameter) and group C was 3.505 ± 0.859 DD, a significant difference.Conclusions: The study shows that arteriovenous crossing sites play an important role in branch retinal vein occlusion, and an artery anterior to a vein is more important at such crossing sites. Moreover, the distance between arteriovenous crossing sites can affect the incidence of BRVO.

The Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer and Macular Thickness in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus without Retinopathy Using Optical Coherence Tomography: A Comparative Study.

Diabetes leads to an alteration in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness and macular thickness which can easily be detected with optical coherence tomography (OCT). This study was done to compare the RNFL and macular thickness between diabetic patients without retinopathy and non-diabetic patients so that it would be useful in the early detection of retinal changes if present. The correlation between the RNFL and macular thickness with metabolic blood parameters of diabetic subjects was also studied. This is an observational, cross-sectional, hospital-based study including 120 subjects who were further divided into two groups. Group A consisted of 60 diabetic patients without retinopathy and group B consisted of 60 non-diabetic patients. The blood parameters were recorded and the RNFL thickness and macular thickness were compared between the two groups after evaluation by OCT. The average central macular thickness was found to be more in group A but was statistically insignificant (p=0.29). Macular thickness in the superior quadrant was significantly higher among group A when compared with group B (p=0.01). Whereas RNFL thickness difference between the two groups was statistically insignificant (p=0.53). Blood urea showed significant positive correlation (r=0.269) with central macular thickness (p=0.03). Our study showed that diabetic patients without retinopathy could have increased macular thickness in the superior quadrant when compared with normal people whereas RNFL thickness may not alter. The blood urea levels of the diabetic patients can provide us clues regarding possible retinal changes.

Identification of oxidative stress-related genes associated with immune cells in Aortic Valve Stenosis based on bioinformatics analysis.

Aortic valve stenosis (AS) is the most common clinical valvular heart disease. Without effective pharmaceutical therapy at present, identifying effective therapeutic targets is critical. However, the pathological and molecular mechanisms of aortic stenosis are complex, including inflammatory infiltration, oxidative stress and so on. In this study, we investigated how oxidative stress interacts with immune cell infiltration in aortic stenosis using bioinformatics analysis, and provide a better understanding of aortic valve stenosis at the pathophysiologic level. After obtaining the datasets, including GSE153555, GSE51472 and GSE12644, from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, the package 'limma' was applied to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in GSE153555. The GeneCards database searched for oxidative stress-related genes. We evaluated the expression of 22 immune cells using Cibersort. Clustering differentially expressed genes into different modules via Weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) and exploring the relationship among modules and immune cell types. The genes in modules intersected with oxidative stress-related genes to find oxidative stress genes related to immune infiltration. Finally, the GSE51472 and GSE12644 datasets were used to initially verify oxidative stress-related genes in aortic valve stenosis. A total of 1213 differentially expressed genes were identified in the GSE153555 dataset, and 279 of them were oxidative stress-related genes. Increased infiltration of B cell navie and Macrophages M1 in aortic stenosis was found. Using WGCNA, we clustered 15 modules. The brown module was identified as the most significant template positively correlated with T-cell regulatory Treg, and the magenta module was identified as a critical module associated with M1 macrophages with the highest negative correlation coefficient. The results verified by other datasets showed that in comparison to normal people, the aortic stenosis patients exhibited dramatically high IGFBP2 and SPHK1 expression. Both IGFBP2 and SPHK1 may be significantly involved in the mechanism of aortic stenosis pathophysiologically and can be used for aortic stenosis early detection, therapy, and therapeutic targets.

Pengaturan Perlindungan Hukum bagi Penyandang Disabilitas dalam Rekruitmen Calon Pegawai Negeri Sipil Dari Perspektif Hak Asasi Manusia

Indonesia is a country based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia which respects and upholds human dignity. Article 53 of Law Number 8 of 2016 concerning Persons with Disabilities provides high expectations for persons with disabilities that they have the same opportunities as other normal people to get a job when in reality not all employment opportunities provide equal opportunities for persons with disabilities, so this article only provide facultative justice, the impact of which is that it is difficult for persons with disabilities to find work and even if they do find work, it is not uncommon for persons with disabilities to be discriminated against in the workplace. The recruitment of candidates for civil servants (CPNS) for persons with disabilities is a manifestation that every citizen has the right to have equal opportunities in government to implement the principle of equality. Although there are already formations for people with disabilities, they have not provided equal space and justice for all types of disabilities. There are a number of requirements for applicants with disabilities in certain institutions where the criteria for disabilities that can apply are being able to see, hear and speak well, then also be able to move using a walking aid other than a wheelchair. This discriminatory requirement will clearly close the opportunity for the blind, deaf, speech impaired and physically disabled to participate in the selection of CPNS admissions. Article 45 of Law Number 8 of 2016 concerning Persons with Disabilities, which stipulates that the Government and Regional Governments are required to ensure a fair and non-discriminatory process of recruitment, acceptance, job training, job placement, work continuity, and career development and without discrimination to Persons with Disabilities. discrimination, all persons with disabilities have equal opportunities, what will determine later is the competence and capability of each during the selection process. Therefore, it is necessary to interpret the laws and regulations on future concepts and ideas related to legal protection for persons with disabilities in the recruitment system for prospective civil servants from a human rights perspective.

Pemberdayaan Penyandang Disabilitas oleh Sheltered Workshop Peduli “Sambung Roso” di Desa Simbatan Kecamatan Nguntoronadi Kabupaten Magetan

People with disabilities are people who have privileges that make them different from normal people. Even though they are different, persons with disabilities have the right to receive empowerment like other citizens. Magetan Regency is one of the areas that has shelter for persons with disabilities, namely the Sheltered Workshop Peduli (SWP) “Sambung Roso”. Empowerment is carried out by providing training to make splashed batik to persons with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to find out how the empowerment of persons with disabilities by SWP "Sambung Roso" in Simbatan Village, Nguntoronadi District, Magetan Regency. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The focus of this research uses the theory of community empowerment from Dedeh Maryani which consists of five principles, namely (i) the principle of equality, (ii) the principle of participation, (iii) the principle of self-sufficiency or independence and (iv) the principle of sustainability. The results of this study indicate that SWP "Sambung Roso" has achieved success in empowering persons with disabilities in Simbatan Village, Nguntoronadi District, Magetan Regency.

GENDER AND CLASS IN SALLY ROONEY’S NORMAL PEOPLE

Normal People (2018), a novel by Sally Rooney, presents issues of gender and class through its description of two different perspectives of the main characters, Connell and Marianne. This article examines how this novel depicts issues of gender and class which are portrayed through Connell and Marianne’s relationship as a couple. Using narrative theories by Bal and Genette, as well as Haslanger’s and Raewyn Connell’s theory on gender and Bourdieu’s theory on social class, this article focuses on how the discrimination of gender and class affects Connell’s and Marianne’s relationship. The findings and discussion show the oppression that Marianne experiences is associated with the internalization of oppression, sexism, and misogyny. The discussion also shows that hegemonic masculinity has a role in the matter of how the difference of Connell’s and Marianne’s gender and class is presented. Despite being superior in term of class, Marianne is inferior in term of gender than Connell who comes from a working class society. However, the novel presents how the main characters’ perception changes as in the end they no longer problematize their gender and class. We argue that the novel disagrees with the inferior feeling caused by different gender and class.

Design and Development of Indian Sign Language Character Recognition System

The purpose of this study is to look into the challenges involved in categorizing Indian Sign Language (ISL) characters. While a lot of research has been done in the related field of American Sign Language (ASL), not as much has been done with ISL. Lack of standard datasets, obscured traits, and variance in language with geography are the key barriers that have hindered much ISL research. Our study aims to progress this field by collecting a dataset from a deaf school and applying various feature extraction techniques to extract useful information, which is then input into a range of supervised learning algorithms. Our current results for each approach include four fold cross-validation. What sets our work apart from earlier research is that the validation set in our four-fold cross-validation contains photographs of people who are not the same people as those in the training set. Hand gestures and signs are used by those with speech impairments to communicate. Understanding what they're trying to say is challenging for the average person. Though extremely uncommon, there are many systems that convert data to Hindi. Therefore, it is imperative to implement a system that enables the general public to understand and interpret all signals, gestures, and communications. It will close the communication gap that exists between normal people and those who have speech difficulty. The two primary research approaches centered on human-computer interaction are sign language recognition and learning. Multiple sensors are required in order for data flow to be understood in sign language. This research paper focuses on the development of a Hindi-language training tool that can detect images and interpret what someone else is trying to say to persons who have speech impairments. Keywords: Indian Sign Language (ISL), American Sign Language (ASL), Feature Extraction, Supervised learning, Sign Language, etc.

Alat Penerjemah Bahasa Isyarat Huruf Hijaiyah Menggunakan Sensor Fleksibel dan Mpu 6050 Berbasis Arduino

In this era of development, communication is important to convey information to avoid misunderstandings. In several community groups, there are people with disabilities, especially speech impairments. People with speech impairments can only communicate using sign language in their daily lives. People with speech impairments learn the Hijaiyah letters as the basis for forming words and sentences in Arabic, guided by Arabic Sign Language. They use sign language to understand what each other says, whereas it would be difficult for normal people to understand. The method that the author used to create a Hijaiyah sign language translation tool was the experimental method and literature review. This translation tool is based on Arduino Nano with display results using a smartphone consisting of an Arduino Nano circuit equipped with a flexible sensor, MPU 6050 sensor, battery and application on the smartphone. For communication needs, a Bluetooth HC 05 series is used. The results of the Hijaiyah letter translator tool will be displayed on the smartphone application. From the experimental results of this research, an accuracy result of 91% was obtained

Meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials on the speed of pulse wave propagation

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the literature on the speed of pulse wave propagation using a combination of ECG and PPG signals. The diagnostic value of pulse wave velocity in medical practice is use of this indicator for non-invasive measurement of blood pressure and also for determination of arterial stiffness. Some studies have shown an association of pulse wave velocity with risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The speed of pulse wave propagation is an early marker and predictor of cardiovascular risk both in individuals with normal blood pressure and people with hypertension and is used as the "gold standard" for assessing arterial stiffness; however, the question about accuracy and automation of the measurement of the speed of pulse wave propagation still remains to be answered.

Altered metabolism in right basal ganglia associated with asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment in HIV-infected individuals

BackgroundOnly few studies have focused on the metabolite differences between asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment (ANI) and cognitively normal people living with HIV (PLWH). The current study aims to examine whether brain metabolisms in basal ganglia (BG) by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) were potential to discriminate ANI from cognitively normal PLWH. MethodsAccording to neuropsychological (NP) test, 80 PLWH (37.4 ± 10.2 years) were divided into ANI group (HIV-ANI, n = 31) and NP normal group (HIV-normal, n = 49). Brain metabolisms by MRS from right BG were compared between groups, including N-acetylaspartate and N-acetyl aspartylglutamate (tNAA), creatine and phosphocreatine (tCr), and choline-containing compounds (tCho). A total value of three metabolites were introduced. All brain metabolisms were evaluated as its percentage of total. Furthermore, correlations between MRS and NP and clinical measures were evaluated. A logistic regression model was applied, and the AUC values for the model and the continuous factors were compared using receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis. ResultsCompared to HIV-normal group, tNAA/total was lower and tCr/total was higher in the HIV-ANI group (P < 0.05). Both tNAA/total and tCr/total values were correlated with NP score (P < 0.05), especially in verbal fluency, speed of information processing, learning, and recall (P < 0.05). The logistic model included BG-tCr/total, current CD4 and infection years of PLWH. The AUC value for the BG-tCr/total was 0.696 and was not significantly lower than that for logistic model (P < 0.01). ConclusionThe altered brain metabolites in the right BG were found in the ANI group compared to PLWH with normal cognition, and further associated with NP deficits. The current findings indicated that brain metabolites assessed by MRS has the potential to discriminate ANI from cognitively normal PLWH.

Automated procedure for demographic adjustments on cognitive test scores

Performances of normal people on cognitive tests are known to vary by demographic characteristics, such as age, education, and sex. Thus, cognitive test scores should be corrected for demographic influences when they are used to detect below-expected results due to disease or injury involving the central nervous system (CNS). Normative corrections, if estimated from a large, diverse, and well-characterized cohort of controls, help to remove expected differences in cognitive performance associated with normal demographic characteristics and associated socio-economic disadvantages. In this paper, we (1) describe in detail the process of generating regression-based normative standards, and its advantages and limitations, (2) provide recommendations for applying these normative standards to data from individuals and populations at risk for CNS dysfunction, and (3) introduce an R package, test2norm, that contains functions for producing and applying normative formulas to generate demographically corrected scores for measuring deviations from expected, normal cognitive performances.

Sign Language Recognition and Video Generation Using Deep Learning

The proposed system aims to help normal people understand the communication of speech impaired individuals through hand gestures recognition and generating animation gestures. The system focuses on recognizing different hand gestures and converting them into information that is understandable by normal people. YOLOv8 model, a state-of-the-art object detection algorithm, is being employed in this system to detect and classify sign language gestures. Sign language video generation can act as a guide for anyone who is in the process of learning sign language, by providing them with expressive sign language videos using avatars that can translate the user inputs to sign language videos. CWASA Package and SiGML files are used for this process. The project contributes to the advancement of assistive technologies for the hearing-impaired community, offering innovative solutions for sign language recognition and video generation.

Princesses, Bad Little Boys, and Normal People

Abstract Adventure Time is an animated series and bildungsroman, centered on the primary protagonist, Finn, and the normative prescriptions of identity as represented in his growth. The series evolves to offer nuanced and alternative representations of fluidity and the queer body, and the current research investigates queer potentiality in this speculative fiction/fantasy text. By weaving together extant understandings of bodies and animation with theories of the queer body, this analysis uses fluidity to examine queerness in Adventure Time. Further, it proposes that the body is one site—along with constructs of family, gender, and time—where fluidity may represent queerness.