The Effects of Group Sand play on the Psychological Health and Resilience of Street Children and Adolescents in Uganda*

Alice Kolawole Olaniyi,Shallon Atuheire,Lesley Lally,Ruá,n Kane,Iryna Danilova,Claudia Walker,Lynda Earls,Eimí,le Holton 한국임상모래놀이치료학회 2021 상징과 모래놀이치료 Vol.12 No.1

The authors analysed the effects of group Sandplay therapy on adolescents psychological health and resilience in a mixed-method research. They explored and categorized the themes these adolescents expressed during therapy. Fifteen children (n=15) were recruited for the study; (Boarding school children = 5; Day school children = 5; Street children = 5). The selection process was conducted in cooperation with an orphanage in Kabale, Uganda. The children who participated in the study underwent a forty-five-minute sand play therapy every week for nine weeks. The SDQ and RCADS were administered to the groups both pre- and post-intervention, with the data entered and analysed using SPSS. Group sandplay was found to significantly decrease the adolescents internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression, while their resilience had also significantly improved. The narrative analysis, in turn, yielded seven themes: basic needs; community-love-celebration; giving help-leadership-empowerment; security-danger, recreation-self-development-self-nurturance, education, and seeking help-faith.

Transcription Factors Tec1 and Tec2 Play Key Roles in the Hyphal Growth and Virulence of Mucor lusitanicus Through Increased Mitochondrial Oxidative Metabolism

Alejandre-Castañeda Viridiana,Patiño-Medina J. Alberto,Valle-Maldonado Marco I.,García Alexis,Ortiz-Alvarado Rafael,Ruíz-Herrera León F.,Castro-Cerritos Karla Viridiana,Ramírez-Emiliano Joel,Ramírez-D 한국미생물학회 2023 The journal of microbiology Vol.61 No.12

Mucormycosis is a lethal and difficult-to-treat fungal infection caused by fungi of the order Mucorales. Mucor lusitanicus, a member of Mucorales, is commonly used as a model to understand disease pathogenesis. However, transcriptional control of hyphal growth and virulence in Mucorales is poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the role of Tec proteins, which belong to the TEA/ATTS transcription factor family, in the hyphal development and virulence of M. lusitanicus. Unlike in the genome of Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes, which have a single Tec homologue, in the genome of Mucorales, two Tec homologues, Tec1 and Tec2, were found, except in that of Phycomyces blakesleeanus, with only one Tec homologue. tec1 and tec2 overexpression in M. lusitanicus increased mycelial growth, mitochondrial content and activity, expression of the rhizoferrin synthetase-encoding gene rfs, and virulence in nematodes and wax moth larvae but decreased cAMP levels and protein kinase A (PKA) activity. Furthermore, tec1- and tec2-overexpressing strains required adequate mitochondrial metabolism to promote the virulent phenotype. The heterotrimeric G beta subunit 1-encoding gene deletant strain (Δgpb1) increased cAMP-PKA activity, downregulation of both tec genes, decreased both virulence and hyphal development, but tec1 and tec2 overexpression restored these defects. Overexpression of allele-mutated variants of Tec1(S332A) and Tec2(S168A) in the putative phosphorylation sites for PKA increased both virulence and hyphal growth of Δgpb1. These findings suggest that Tec homologues promote mycelial development and virulence by enhancing mitochondrial metabolism and rhizoferrin accumulation, providing new information for the rational control of the virulent phenotype of M. lusitanicus.

Plasmon resonances of silver colloids studied by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

E.C. Le Ru,M. Dalley,P.G. Etchegoin 한국물리학회 2006 Current Applied Physics Vol.6 No.3

It is shown that surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) average signals and fluctuations can be used to characterize the spectral dependence of plasmon resonances, and are particularly sensitive to the local fields, as opposed to other optical techniques. SERS can be used to probe both the plasmon resonances and the mechanisms of optical amplification.

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy on nanolithography-prepared substrates

E.C. Le Ru,P.G. Etchegoin,J. Grand,J. Aubard,G. Levi,A. Hohenau,J.R. Krenn,N. Felidj 한국물리학회 2008 Current Applied Physics Vol.8 No.3,4

In this work, we demonstrate that surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals allow to track down the localized surface plas-mon local eld spectral prole of lithographically-designed gold nano-structures. To this purpose, we used rhodamine 6G deposited onvarious gold nano-particle arrays. The local eld spectral proles obtained are discussed and compared to the far eld extinction spectraof the particle arrays. Thus, we show that the normalized relative SERS intensities follow remarkably well the surface plasmon reso-nances for all the arrays we investigated.

Prescribed Performance Adaptive Neural Tracking Control for Strict-feedback Markovian Jump Nonlinear Systems with Time-varying Delay

Ru Chang,Yi-ming Fang,Le Liu,Ke-song Kang 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2017 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.15 No.3

A prescribed performance adaptive neural tracking control problem is investigated for strict-feedbackMarkovian jump nonlinear systems with time-varying delay. First, a new prescribed performance constraint variableis proposed to generate the virtual control that forces the tracking error to fall within prescribed boundaries. Combining with the approximation capability of neural networks and backstepping design, the adaptive trackingcontroller is designed. The designed controller is independent on time delay by constructing appropriate Lyapunovfunctions to offset the unknown time-varying delays. It is proved that the closed-loop system is uniformly ultimatelybounded in probability, and that both steady-state and transient-state performances are guaranteed. Finally,simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Human Action Recognition Based on 3D Human Modeling and Cyclic HMMs

Shian-Ru Ke,Hoang Le Uyen Thuc,황젝넹,유장희,최경호 한국전자통신연구원 2014 ETRI Journal Vol.36 No.4

Human action recognition is used in areas such assurveillance, entertainment, and healthcare. This paperproposes a system to recognize both single and continuoushuman actions from monocular video sequences, based on3D human modeling and cyclic hidden Markov models(CHMMs). First, for each frame in a monocular videosequence, the 3D coordinates of joints belonging to ahuman object, through actions of multiple cycles, areextracted using 3D human modeling techniques. The 3Dcoordinates are then converted into a set of geometricalrelational features (GRFs) for dimensionality reductionand discrimination increase. For further dimensionalityreduction, k-means clustering is applied to the GRFs togenerate clustered feature vectors. These vectors are usedto train CHMMs separately for different types of actions,based on the Baum–Welch re-estimation algorithm. Forrecognition of continuous actions that are concatenatedfrom several distinct types of actions, a designed graphicalmodel is used to systematically concatenate differentseparately trained CHMMs. The experimental resultsshow the effective performance of our proposed system inboth single and continuous action recognition problems.

Nested Case-control Study of Occupational Radiation Exposure and Breast and Esophagus Cancer Risk among Medical Diagnostic X Ray Workers in Jiangsu of China

Wang, Fu-Ru,Fang, Qiao-Qiao,Tang, Wei-Ming,Xu, Xiao-San,Mahapatra, Tanmay,Mahapatra, Sanchita,Liu, Yu-Fei,Yu, Ning-Le,Sun, Quan-Fu Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.11

Medical diagnostic X-ray workers are one occupational group that expose to the long-term low-dose external radiation over their working lifetime, and they may under risk of different cancers. This study aims to determine the relationship between the occupational X-ray radiation exposure and cancer risk among these workers in Jiangsu, China. We conducted Nested case-control study to investigate the occupational X-ray radiation exposure and cancer risk. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaire, which includes but not limits to demographic data, personal behaviors and family history of cancer. Retrospective dose reconstruction was conducted to estimate the cumulative doses of the x-ray workers. Inferential statistics, t-test and 2 tests were used to compare the differences between each group. We used the logistic regression model to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of cancer by adjusting the age, gender. All 34 breast cancer cases and 45 esophageal cancer cases that detected in a cohort conducted among health workers between 1950~2011 were included in this presented study, and 158 cancer-free controls were selected by frequency-matched (1:2). Our study found that the occupational radiation exposure was associated with a significantly increased cancer risk compared with the control, especially in breast cancer and esophageal cancer (adjusted OR=2.90, 95% CI: 1.19-7.04 for breast cancer; OR=4.19, 95% CI: 1.87-9.38 for esophageal cancer, and OR=3.43, 95% CI: 1.92-6.12 for total cancer, respectively). The occupational X-ray radiation exposure was associated with increasing cancer risk, which indicates that proper intervention and prevention strategies may be needed in order to bring down the occupational cancer risk.

A Signal Characteristic Based Cluster Scheme for Aeronautical Ad Hoc Networks

( Yu Tian ),( Linhua Ma ),( Le Ru ),( Hong Tang ),( Bo Song ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2014 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.8 No.10

Clustering is an effective method for improving the performance of large scale mobile ad hoc networks. However, when the moving speed is very fast, the topology changes quickly, which leads to frequent cluster topology updates. The drastically increasing control overheads severely threaten the throughput of the network. SCBCS (Signal Characteristic Based Cluster Scheme) is proposed as a method to potentially reduce the control overheads caused by cluster formation and maintenance in aeronautical ad hoc networks. Each node periodically broadcasts Hello packets. The Hello packets can be replaced by data packets, which preserve bandwidth. The characteristics of the received packets, such as the Doppler shift and the power of two successive Hello packets, help to calculate the relative speed and direction of motion. Then, the link connection lifetime is estimated by the relative speed and direction of motion. In the clustering formation procedure, the node with the longest estimated link connection time to its one-hop neighbors is chosen as the cluster head. In the cluster maintenance procedure, re-affiliation and re-clustering schemes are designed to keep the clusters more stable. The re-clustering phenomenon is reduced by limiting the ripple effect. Simulations have shown that SCBCS prolongs the link connection lifetime and the cluster lifetime, which can reduce the topology update overheads in highly dynamic aeronautical ad hoc networks.

Chinese patent herbal medicine (Shufeng Jiedu capsule) for acute upper respiratory tract infections: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Ying-ying Zhang,Ru-yu Xia,Shi-bing Liang,Xiao-yang Hu,Meng-yuan Dai,Yi-lin Li,Le-yi Zhao,Michael Moore,Yu-tong Fei,Jian-ping Liu 한국한의학연구원 2021 Integrative Medicine Research Vol.10 No.3

Background: Shufeng Jiedu capsule has been widely used in China for acute upper respiratory tract infections (AURTIs). The aim of this study was to evaluate its effectiveness and safety for AURTIs. Methods: Randomized controlled trials comparing SFJD with conventional drug for patients with AURTIs were included. Eight databases were searched from their inceptions to February 2021. Data was synthesized using risk ration (RR) or mean difference (MD) with their 95% confidence interval (CI). The primary outcome was resolution time of typical symptoms. Results: Twenty-five RCTs involving 3410 patients were included. SFJD in combination with conventional drug was associated with; in common cold shortening the duration of fever (MD −1.54 days, 95% CI [−2.15,−0.92], I2 = 80%, n = 385, 3 trials) and cough (MD −1.22 days, 95% CI [−1.52, −0.93]); in herpangina, shortening the duration of fever (MD -0.68 days, 95% CI [−1.15, −0.21], I2 = 68%, n = 140, 2 trials) and blistering (MD −0.99 days, 95% CI [−1.23, −0.76], n = 386, 3 trials); in acute tonsillitis and acute pharyngitis shortening the duration of fever (MD −1.13 days, 95% CI [−1.36, −0.90], I2 = 33%, n = 688, 7 trials) and sore throat (MD −1.13 days, 95% CI [−1.40, −0.86], I2 = 84.1%, n = 1194, 10 trials). SFJD also improving their cure rate with a range (1–5 days). No serious adverse events were reported. Conclusion: Low certainty evidence suggests that SFJD appears to shorten the duration of symptoms in AURTIs, improve cure rate and seems safe for application. However, high quality placebo controlled trials are warranted to confirm its benefit.

Establishing a Nomogram for Stage IA-IIB Cervical Cancer Patients after Complete Resection

Zhou, Hang,Li, Xiong,Zhang, Yuan,Jia, Yao,Hu, Ting,Yang, Ru,Huang, Ke-Cheng,Chen, Zhi-Lan,Wang, Shao-Shuai,Tang, Fang-Xu,Zhou, Jin,Chen, Yi-Le,Wu, Li,Han, Xiao-Bing,Lin, Zhong-Qiu,Lu, Xiao-Mei,Xing, H Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.9

Background: This study aimed to establish a nomogram by combining clinicopathologic factors with overall survival of stage IA-IIB cervical cancer patients after complete resection with pelvic lymphadenectomy. Materials and Methods: This nomogram was based on a retrospective study on 1,563 stage IA-IIB cervical cancer patients who underwent complete resection and lymphadenectomy from 2002 to 2008. The nomogram was constructed based on multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazard regression. The accuracy and discriminative ability of the nomogram were measured by concordance index (C-index) and calibration curve. Results: Multivariate analysis identified lymph node metastasis (LNM), lymph-vascular space invasion (LVSI), stromal invasion, parametrial invasion, tumor diameter and histology as independent prognostic factors associated with cervical cancer survival. These factors were selected for construction of the nomogram. The C-index of the nomogram was 0.71 (95% CI, 0.65 to 0.77), and calibration of the nomogram showed good agreement between the 5-year predicted survival and the actual observation. Conclusions: We developed a nomogram predicting 5-year overall survival of surgically treated stage IA-IIB cervical cancer patients. More comprehensive information that is provided by this nomogram could provide further insight into personalized therapy selection.