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.

Direct Support Professionals: Diversity, Disparities, and Deepening Crisis.

In the United States, direct support professionals (DSPs) support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) so they can live in the community. Thirty years of deinstitutionalization and the development of community living options would not have been possible without DSPs. Although life for people with IDD improved greatly, working conditions, wages/benefits, demands, stress/burnout, and trauma experienced by DSPs have worsened. Turnover and vacancy rates threaten the availability of community supports for too many people with IDD. DSPs from diverse racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds face significant workplace disparities. These issues were discussed during the Research and Training Center on Community Living's 2022 State of the Science Conference. We propose important research questions needing solutions to continue constructively addressing these critical issues.

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.

An Equity-Based Research Agenda to Promote Social Inclusion and Belonging for People With IDD.

Having a sense of social inclusion and belonging, typically characterized by our personal relationships and community participation, is the central essence of life for most people, yet it remains elusive for many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). This article summarizes the work of a diverse group of researchers and advocates to propose 6 big-picture, equity-based goals to drive future research in the field: (1) understanding the role of intersectionality, (2) understanding intimate relationships, (3) promoting formation of communities of care to support social inclusion, (4) understanding life course trajectories of social inclusion, (5) understanding social inclusion in virtual spaces, and (6) understanding how to promote social inclusion in the entire research process.

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.

Law Grit - One Stop Legal Solution

Law Grit is an inventive online lawful rights benefit stage, revolutionizing the way individuals get to and lock in with legitimate rights administrations. This theoretical gives a diagram of how Law Grit rearranges the lives of both people and rustic communities. Law Grit acts as a bridge interfacing client with a assorted cluster of neighbourhood administrations, counting crucial rights, crucial obligations, lawful data, most recent upgrades, community gatherings, chatbot and Intuitively Instruments. The platform's centre mission is to give a consistent, helpful, and dependable way for people to discover and investigate fundamental lawful administrations. One of the standout highlights of Law Grit is its user-friendly interface. With fair a few clicks or taps, clients can easily explore through a registry of nearby administrations, perused bona fide and upgraded data from the coordinated page and select the substance that absolutely matches with their needs. This natural approach has made Law grit a favoured choice for clients looking for dependable and proficient lawful administrations. In the world of online administrations, believe is foremost, and Law Grit recognizes this significance. The stage utilizes a computerized collaborator that can give legitimate data and direction to individuals in a user-friendly way.

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.

Figurative Language of Song Lyrics in Akimoto Yasushi’s Works Sung by Keyakizaka46

The language used in song lyrics generally has an aesthetic, poetic style of language that contains meaning to entertain the audience. Song lyrics are a place for an author to express feelings about his experiences or the other people's lives. In a song lyric, the words are selected and adjusted so that the meaning and message of the song lyrics reaches the audience directly or indirectly. Indirectly conveying song content usually uses figurative language or figurative words such as conceptual metaphors. This study aims to describe the meaning and types of conceptual metaphors found in 3 song lyrics by Akimoto Yasushi performed by the idol group Keyakizaka46. Most of the songs created by Akimoto performed by Keyakizaka46 have the theme of differences and disputes, they performed the song without showing a smile, this is one of the uniqueness of Keyakizaka46. The method used is descriptive qualitative method. The theory used is Lakoff & Johnson's conceptual metaphor theory. The results of the study found 13 metaphors, consisting of 6 types of structural metaphors, 1 type of orientational metaphor, and 6 types of ontological metaphors. The metaphors in these 3 song lyrics by Akimoto Yasushi have meaning, namely an invitation for poets to dare to speak out and have an opinion in choosing, not to be afraid of disputes and differences, and to invite them to live life according to their own will and not be controlled by others. The use of metaphors in Akimoto's song lyrics shows the uniqueness and characteristics of the Keyakizaka46 idol group.

Accelerating COVID-19 Vaccination Among People Living With HIV and Health Care Workers in Tanzania: A Case Study.

There is limited evidence on COVID-19 vaccination uptake among people living with HIV (PLHIV) and health care workers (HCWs), with the current evidence concentrated in high-income countries. There is also limited documentation in the published literature regarding the feasibility and lessons from implementing targeted vaccination strategies to reach PLHIV and HCWs in low- and middle-income countries. We designed and implemented multifaceted strategies to scale up targeted COVID-19 vaccination among PLHIV and HCWs in 11 administrative regions on the mainland of Tanzania plus Zanzibar. An initial 6-week intensification strategy was implemented using a diverse partnership model comprising key stakeholders at the national- and subnational levels. A layered package of strategies included expanding the number of certified vaccinators, creating vaccination points within HIV clinics, engaging HCWs to address their concerns, and building the capacity of HCWs as "champions" to promote and facilitate vaccination. We then closely monitored COVID-19 vaccination uptake in 562 high-volume HIV clinics. Between September 2021 and September 2022, the proportion of fully vaccinated adult PLHIV increased from <1% to 97% and fully vaccinated HCWs increased from 23% to 80%. Our intra-action review highlighted the importance of leveraging a strong foundation of existing partnerships and platforms, integrating COVID-19 vaccination points within HIV clinics, and refining strategies to increase vaccination demand while ensuring continuity of vaccine supply to meet the increased demand. Lessons from Tanzania can inform targeted vaccination of vulnerable groups in future health emergencies.

Pulmonary rehabilitation in Iranian outpatients with mustard gas lung disease: a randomised controlled trial

ObjectivePeople with mustard gas lung disease experience cough, sputum, breathlessness and exercise limitation. We hypothesised that pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) would be beneficial in this condition.DesignAn assessor-blind, two-armed, parallel-design randomised controlled...

Climate Change-induced Livelihood Insecurity in Narayani-Gandak Basin of Nepal

Nepal is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. Nepal is highly vulnerable to climate risks and disasters. It ranks 4th, 11th, and 13th in terms of vulnerability to climate change, earthquake, and flood risks, respectively. Due to intensive, concentrated, and erratic precipitation, climate change-induced disasters such as 'too much water and too little water' are rapidly increasing in Nepal and the ‘too much water’ has been affecting riverine communities, significantly, in the Terai region of Nepal. The communities of the Narayani basin have been forced to encounter floods every year due to the perennial Narayani and Rapti including other local seasonal rivers. While these rivers seem to b e providing services for irrigation to nurture agricultural products, to some extent, the riparian communities have also been forced to encounter extensive amounts of losses and damages to lives, livestock, crops, and property, which have resulted in losses of livelihoods, and generated serious concerns for communities due to surmounting risks of flood like natural hazards turning into disasters. Employing a mixed-method research approach, we investigated how climate change-induced hazards such as floods turning into disasters have affected the livelihoods of people living in the riverine communities of Chitwan. The two research objectives we explored were i) to examine the impacts of climate change and floods on agriculture and the livelihoods of community people, and ii) to investigate the adaptive methods adopted by local communities to combat climate change-induced flooding for building climate/flood resilient communities. The findings of the research demonstrated that climatic changes have interacted with socio-economic and agricultural practices and significantly affecting livelihood of the communities in Chitwan. In response to changing climatic conditions and unanticipated weather patterns, people in the communities are gradually adjusting their agricultural practices, covering the losses and damages through insurance policies and diversifying the income generating sources.

Research progress and application of liver organoids for disease modeling and regenerative therapy.

The liver is a major metabolic organ of the human body and has a high incidence of diseases. In recent years, the annual incidence of liver disease has increased, seriously endangering human life and health. The study of the occurrence and development mechanism of liver diseases, discovery of new therapeutic targets, and establishment of new methods of medical treatment are major issues related to the national economy and people's livelihood. The development of stable and effective research models is expected to provide new insights into the pathogenesis of liver diseases and the search for more effective treatment options. Organoid technology is a new in vitro culture system, and organoids constructed by human cells can simulate the morphological structure, gene expression, and glucose and lipid metabolism of organs in vivo, providing a new model for related research on liver diseases. This paper reviews the latest research progress on liver organoids from the establishment of cell sources and application of liver organoids and discusses their application potential in the field of liver disease research.

Islamic Law and Ethics: The Role and Obligations of Marriage for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

This article examines Islamic law and ethics used to analyze the position and ethics of persons with intellectual disabilities in marriage. They have the same right to marry without discrimination or stigma. Literary and descriptive methods were used in this study, as well as document comparison. The study found that Islamic scholars of various schools expressed their opinions about the marriages of people with intellectual disabilities and their legal responsibilities. Although the majority of madhhabs recognize that their marriages are valid, there are questions about their responsibilities after the marriage. This issue is addressed in several edicts of scholars; Some of them allow marriage if there is sexual attraction. However, the question of how they can take responsibility and consent in the context of sexuality is still the subject of discussion. To determine whether people with intellectual disabilities can fulfill their marital obligations, the concept of responsibility, both etymological and terminological, is discussed. Studies show that a person's ability to take responsibility is affected by their level of disability. This perspective discusses the impact of Islamic law and the daily lives of people with intellectual disabilities, such as the possibility of guardianship or representation in decisions about marriage and sexuality. According to this study, the personal responsibilities and rights of people with intellectual disabilities should be carefully considered.

Revolutionizing crowd surveillance through voice-driven face recognition empowering rapid identification: towards development of sustainable smart cities

Recent global efforts to create sustainable smart cities have significantly transformed society and improved the lives of people. Nowadays, crowd surveillance (CS) has become essential in sustainable smart cities and society to protect public safety and security. In this regard, the face-based human detection system has received considerable attention because it is recognized as an emerging method in crowd surveillance applications. Thus, in this work, a new method for real-time identification of people for a crowd surveillance system (CSS) that uses facial and speech recognition technology has been introduced. In traditional CS systems, human operators are frequently used by crowd surveillance systems to watch and evaluate video feeds. Human error and operator weariness may result in lost opportunities or slow replies, which reduce the system’s efficacy. Certain procedures, including the initial identification and monitoring of people in video feeds, can be automated using a voice-activated system. To address the issues with the present CSS, a new framework Voice-Activated Face Recognition (VAFR) is proposed in this work. The proposed framework combines the speech and face recognition models for crowd surveillance. Experimental and simulation studies have been performed to analyze the performance of the proposed VAFR framework. The proposed framework uses the Viola-Jones algorithm for face identification and the Conformer architecture for speech analysis, reaching a noteworthy 99.8% accuracy rate in live video feeds. In addition, the ethical and safety aspect of the proposed VAFR system is presented.

A Review of Connecting Bioinformatic Techniques to Rheumatoid Arthritis and its Associated Comorbidities.

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a progressive autoimmune condition inflicting serious threats to people's life and health by causing severe pain and joint destruction. It affects not only bones and joints but also causes comorbid conditions and shortens the lifetime. The interactions and synergistic effects of comorbid disease with RA are not yet well studied. Hence, understanding how these conditions will collectively affect the progression and outcome of RA is the current area of research. Identification of RA and comorbidities associated with target genes may uncover diagnosis and treatment methodologies. This review is to provide an overview of the interlinking approach of Rheumatoid Arthritis with its comorbid conditions and its systemic complications using bioinformatic techniques which would be useful to identify the genes and pathways that are in common for both RA and comorbid diseases. It would also emphasize the significance of bioinformatics in comparing the pathological features of RA and comorbid diseases. With the help of bioinformatics, valuable insights into the mechanism underlying Rheumatoid arthritis and comorbid diseases would be better understood.