Suicide and mortality following self-harm in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities in Victoria, Australia: insights from a data linkage study.

Background: While cultural backgrounds are well-documented to be relevant to intentional self-harm, little is known about how cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds affect mortality outcomes following self-harm. Aim: This study aimed to compare the risk of all-cause mortality and suicide after intentional hospital admissions for self-harm among people from CALD (vs. non-CALD) backgrounds. Method: Linked hospital and mortality data in Victoria, Australia, was used to assess suicide and all-cause death after hospital admissions for self-harm among patients aged 15+ years. All-cause death was identified by following up on 42,122 self-harm patients (hospitalized between 01 July 2007 and 30 June 2019) until death or 15 February 2021. Suicide death was evaluated in 16,928 self-harm inpatients (01 January 2013 and 31 December 2017) until death or 28 March 2018. Cox regression models were fitted to compare mortality outcomes in self-harm patients from CALD vs. non-CALD backgrounds. Outcomes: During the follow-up periods, 3,716 of 42,122 (8.8%) participants died by any cause (by 15 February 2021), and 304 of 16,928 (1.8%) people died by suicide (by 28 March 2018). Compared to the non-CALD group, CALD intentional self-harm inpatients had a 20% lower risk of all-cause mortality (HR: 0.8, 95% CI: 0.7-0.9) and a 30% lower risk of suicide (HR: 0.7, 95% CI: 049-0.97). Specifically, being from North Africa/Middle East and Asian backgrounds lowered the all-cause mortality risk; however, the suicide risk in Asians was as high as in non-CALD people. Conclusion: Overall, people from CALD backgrounds exhibited lower risks of all-cause mortality and suicide following hospital admission for self-harm compared to the non-CALD group. However, when comparing risks based on regions of birth, significant variations were observed. These findings underscore the importance of implementing culturally tailored background-specific suicide preventive actions. The study focussed on outcomes following hospital admission for self-harm and did not capture outcomes for cases of self-harm that did not result in hospital admission. This limits generalisability, as some CALD people might avoid accessing healthcare after self-harm due to cultural factors. Future research that not limited to hospital data is suggested to build on the results.

Electromagnetic Energy Harvester Targeting Wearable and Biomedical Applications.

This work presents a miniaturized electromagnetic energy harvester (EMEH) based on two coils moving in a head-to-head permanent magnet tower. The two coils are separated by a set distance so that the applied force moves the EMEH from one equilibrium position to another. In this configuration, the harvester produces energy in two different working modes: when a force is applied to the moving part or when an external random acceleration is applied to the whole system. A custom test bench has been designed to characterize the behavior of this energy harvester under a variety of conditions encountered in wearable applications. Notably, at 10 Hz and 1.32 g RMS acceleration, our inertial EMEH demonstrates its capability to sustain a consistent output power of 1696 µW within a total volume of 22.39 cm3, showcasing its efficiency in environments with erratic stimuli typical of wearable and biomedical applications. The presented EMEH is compared with reported inertial EMEH structures to extract its design limitations as well as future improvements, situating the present work in a comprehensive state-of-the-art and defining a generic performance target for biomedical and wearable applications.

Manifestations, social impact, and decay of conceptual beliefs: A cultural perspective.

INTRODUCTION: Believing comprises multifaceted processes that integrate information from the outside world through meaning-making processes with personal relevance. METHODS: Qualitative Review of the current literature in social cognitive neuroscience. RESULTS: Although believing develops rapidly outside an individual's conscious awareness, it results in the formation of beliefs that are stored in memory and play an important role in determining an individual's behavior. Primal beliefs reflect an individual's experience of objects and events, whereas conceptual beliefs are based on narratives that are held in social groups. Conceptual beliefs can be about autobiographical, political, religious, and other aspects of life and may be encouraged by participation in group rituals. We hypothesize that assertions of future gains and rewards that transcend but are inherent in these codices provide incentives to follow the norms and rules of social groups. CONCLUSION: The power of conceptual beliefs to provide cultural orientation is likely to fade when circumstances and evidence make it clear that what was asserted no longer applies.

Psychobiography in sociocultural context: the application of culture-based theories of psychology on a culturally diverse historic subject pool.

In recent years the historical subject base in psychobiography has expanded from a traditional focus on White (Caucasian) subjects to a broader more culturally inclusive population of significant personalities throughout history. A critical component of strong multicultural psychobiography is the inclusion of anchoring theories of psychology that are rooted in socio-cultural-political context. To psychologically profile culturally diverse individuals with only traditional Western theories of psychology and psychiatry (e.g. medical models, psychodynamic, existential, cognitive-behavioral) limits the ability of the research to accurately capture the erlebnis (lived experience) of extraordinary individuals in proper cultural context. This article reviews specific psychological theories that have recently set a foundation for more nuanced and culturally contextualised psychological profiles of historic personalities who represent diverse racial/ethnic/cultural backgrounds. Among the theories covered are the Integrated African Psychology Perspective (IAPP), an Indigenous (Native American) model of psychobiography, as well as theories and models on Psychological Nigrescence (Black racial identity development), Intersectionality, Politicised Collective Identity (PCI), Queered Black Racial Identity Development (QBRID), and Adultification of Black Children, among others. Examples of applications of these culture-centered theories to psychobiography, drawn from the present authors recently completed psychobiographies, as well as from other researchers internationally, are presented.

A Passive Ankle Dorsiflexion Testing System for an In Vivo Model of Overuse-induced Tendinopathy.

Tendinopathy is a chronic tendon condition that results in pain and loss of function and is caused by repeated overload of the tendon and limited recovery time. This protocol describes a testing system that cyclically applies mechanical loads via passive dorsiflexion to the rat Achilles tendon. The custom-written code consists of pre- and post-cyclic loading measurements to assess the effects of the loading protocol along with the feedback control-based cyclic fatigue loading regimen. We used 25 Sprague-Dawley rats for this study, with 5 rats per group receiving either 500, 1,000, 2,000, 3,600, or 7,200 cycles of fatigue loads. The percentage differences between the pre- and post-cyclic loading measurements of the hysteresis, peak stress, and loading and unloading moduli were calculated. The results demonstrate that the system can induce varying degrees of damage to the Achilles tendon based on the number of loads applied. This system offers an innovative approach to apply quantified and physiological varying degrees of cyclic loads to the Achilles tendon for an in vivo model of fatigue-induced overuse tendon injury.

An open-source, high-resolution, automated fluorescence microscope.

Fluorescence microscopy is a fundamental tool in the life sciences, but the availability of sophisticated equipment required to yield high-quality, quantitative data is a major bottleneck in data production in many laboratories worldwide. This problem has long been recognized and the abundancy of low-cost electronics and the simplification of fabrication through 3D-printing have led to the emergence of open-source scientific hardware as a research field. Cost effective fluorescence microscopes can be assembled from cheaply mass-produced components, but lag behind commercial solutions in image quality. On the other hand, blueprints of sophisticated microscopes such as light-sheet or super-resolution systems, custom-assembled from high quality parts, are available, but require a high level of expertise from the user. Here, we combine the UC2 microscopy toolbox with high-quality components and integrated electronics and software to assemble an automated high-resolution fluorescence microscope. Using this microscope, we demonstrate high resolution fluorescence imaging for fixed and live samples. When operated inside an incubator, long-term live-cell imaging over several days was possible. Our microscope reaches single molecule sensitivity, and we performed single particle tracking and SMLM super-resolution microscopy experiments in cells. Our setup costs a fraction of its commercially available counterparts but still provides a maximum of capabilities and image quality. We thus provide a proof of concept that high quality scientific data can be generated by lay users with a low-budget system and open-source software. Our system can be used for routine imaging in laboratories that do not have the means to acquire commercial systems and through its affordability can serve as teaching material to students.

Dual Extracellular Recordings in the Mouse Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex.

The technique of recording local field potentials (LFPs) is an electrophysiological method used to measure the electrical activity of localized neuronal populations. It serves as a crucial tool in cognitive research, particularly in brain regions like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Dual LFP recordings between these areas are of particular interest as they allow the exploration of interregional signal communication. However, methods for performing these recordings are rarely described, and most commercial recording devices are either expensive or lack adaptability to accommodate specific experimental designs. This study presents a comprehensive protocol for performing dual-electrode LFP recordings in the mouse hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex to investigate the effects of antipsychotic drugs and potassium channel modulators on LFP properties in these areas. The technique enables the measurement of LFP properties, including power spectra within each brain region and coherence between the two. Additionally, a low-cost, custom-designed recording device has been developed for these experiments. In summary, this protocol provides a means to record signals with high signal-to-noise ratios in different brain regions, facilitating the investigation of interregional information communication within the brain.

Retracted memories in the general population: are there differences between eastern and western countries?

The main purpose of the current studies was to examine retracted experiences in the general population from various cultural backgrounds. More specifically, in two studies, we examined the details of memory retraction experiences, the reasons for retraction, and the outcomes of retraction in participants from China and other countries, mainly the United States of America. It was found that memory retraction experiences appeared to be quite common. In the sample of Chinese participants (Study 1: N = 1380), 50.58% reported at least one such an experience, whereas in respondents from other countries (Study 2; N = 425), a significantly lower but still substantial prevalence rate of 35% was found. In general, the retracted memories predominantly involved positive events and some respondents experienced pressure during the withdrawal. Social feedback and event plausibility were the two main reasons for the withdrawal. Compared to recollection scores, belief scores decreased significantly after withdrawal, and some respondents even formed nonbelieved memories. After retracting the memories, most respondents felt they gained benefits (e.g., they had resolved a psychological problem that had bothered them for years). These studies give us a more general understanding of retracted memory experiences in the general population.

The mnemonic effect of central and peripheral misinformation on social media.

The increasing use of social media has amplified the spread of false information. Yet little is known about the mnemonic consequences associated with exposure to different types of false information online. In two studies, we examined in a simulated online context how exposure to false information either central or peripheral in events affected memory. European American and Asian/Asian American college students (Study 1 N = 200; Study 2 N = 225) were presented with GIFs of daily life events and read tweets about the events that included four types of information: central true information, central false information, peripheral true information, and peripheral false information. They then took a True/False recognition test that included tweeted and untweeted true and false information and indicated how confident they were in their responses. Regardless of cultural background, participants in both studies demonstrated the misinformation effect, whereby they falsely recognised more and resisted less tweeted than untweeted false information. Furthermore, they showed higher susceptibility to peripheral than central false information exposed via tweets. Asian participants were less influenced by misinformation than European Americans in Study 2. These findings have important implications to combat misinformation in online environments.

Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone.

Culture refers to behaviours that are socially learned and persist within a population over time. Increasing evidence suggests that animal culture can, like human culture, be cumulative: characterized by sequential innovations that build on previous ones1. However, human cumulative culture involves behaviours so complex that they lie beyond the capacity of any individual to independently discover during their lifetime1-3. To our knowledge, no study has so far demonstrated this phenomenon in an invertebrate. Here we show that bumblebees can learn from trained demonstrator bees to open a novel two-step puzzle box to obtain food rewards, even though they fail to do so independently. Experimenters were unable to train demonstrator bees to perform the unrewarded first step without providing a temporary reward linked to this action, which was removed during later stages of training. However, a third of naive observer bees learned to open the two-step box from these demonstrators, without ever being rewarded after the first step. This suggests that social learning might permit the acquisition of behaviours too complex to 're-innovate' through individual learning. Furthermore, naive bees failed to open the box despite extended exposure for up to 24 days. This finding challenges a common opinion in the field: that the capacity to socially learn behaviours that cannot be innovated through individual trial and error is unique to humans.

CUSCO: An Unobtrusive Custom Secure Audio-Visual Recording System for Ambient Assisted Living.

The ubiquity of digital technology has facilitated detailed recording of human behaviour. Ambient technology has been used to capture behaviours in a broad range of applications ranging from healthcare and monitoring to assessment of cooperative work. However, existing systems often face challenges in terms of autonomy, usability, and privacy. This paper presents a portable, easy-to-use and privacy-preserving system for capturing behavioural signals unobtrusively in home or in office settings. The system focuses on the capture of audio, video, and depth imaging. It is based on a device built on a small-factor platform that incorporates ambient sensors which can be integrated with the audio and depth video hardware for multimodal behaviour tracking. The system can be accessed remotely and integrated into a network of sensors. Data are encrypted in real time to ensure safety and privacy. We illustrate uses of the device in two different settings, namely, a healthy-ageing IoT application, where the device is used in conjunction with a range of IoT sensors to monitor an older person's mental well-being at home, and a healthcare communication quality assessment application, where the device is used to capture a patient-clinician interaction for consultation quality appraisal. CUSCO can automatically detect active speakers, extract acoustic features, record video and depth streams, and recognise emotions and cognitive impairment with promising accuracy.

Public Stigma and Continuum Beliefs Across Personality Disorder Severity Levels.

Stigmatizing attitudes toward persons with personality disorders are common. Preliminary evidence suggests that continuum beliefs (the view that presented symptoms lie on a continuum with normality) are associated with reduced personality disorder stigma. This study aimed to evaluate whether this association holds across the entire spectrum of personality disorder severity and whether greater personality disorder severity is linked to higher stigma. A general population sample (N = 848) completed questions about a vignette depicting mild, moderate, or severe personality disorder severity. Higher continuum beliefs were associated with a lower desire for social distance from persons with mild, moderate, or severe personality disorder. In addition, continuum beliefs were higher, and the desired social distance was lower toward a person with mild than a person with moderate or severe personality disorder. Thus, fostering continuum beliefs might aid in combating personality disorder stigma, including toward severely affected persons who experience strong stigmatization.

"Until death do us part". A multidisciplinary study on human- Animal co- burials from the Late Iron Age necropolis of Seminario Vescovile in Verona (Northern Italy, 3rd-1st c. BCE).

Animal remains are a common find in prehistoric and protohistoric funerary contexts. While taphonomic and osteological data provide insights about the proximate (depositional) factors responsible for these findings, the ultimate cultural causes leading to this observed mortuary behavior are obscured by the opacity of the archaeological record and the lack of written sources. Here, we apply an interdisciplinary suite of analytical approaches (zooarchaeological, anthropological, archaeological, paleogenetic, and isotopic) to explore the funerary deposition of animal remains and the nature of joint human-animal burials at Seminario Vescovile (Verona, Northern Italy 3rd-1st c. BCE). This context, culturally attributed to the Cenomane culture, features 161 inhumations, of which only 16 included animal remains in the form of full skeletons, isolated skeletal parts, or food offerings. Of these, four are of particular interest as they contain either horses (Equus caballus) or dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)-animals that did not play a dietary role. Analyses show no demographic, dietary, funerary similarities, or genetic relatedness between individuals buried with animals. Isotopic data from two analyzed dogs suggest differing management strategies for these animals, possibly linked to economic and/or ritual factors. Overall, our results point to the unsuitability of simple, straightforward explanations for the observed funerary variability. At the same time, they connect the evidence from Seminario Vescovile with documented Transalpine cultural traditions possibly influenced by local and Roman customs.

Ecological sound loudness in environmental sound representations.

Listeners recognizing environmental sounds must contend with variations in level due to the source level and the environment. Nonetheless, variations in level disrupt short-term sound recognition [Susini, Houix, Seropian, and Lemaitre (2019). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 146(2), EL172-EL176] suggesting that loudness is encoded. We asked whether the experimental custom of setting sounds to equal levels disrupts long-term recognition, especially if it creates a mismatch with ecological loudness. Environmental sounds were played at equalized or ecological levels. Although recognition improved with increased loudness and familiarity, this relationship was unaffected by equalization or real-life experience with the source. However, sound pleasantness was altered by deviations from the ecological level.

Public Health in the Crosshairs of Culture Wars.

This JAMA Forum discusses the topics of reproductive rights, transgender care, firearm safety, and COVID-19 vaccines in the context of public health and the political climate in the US.

Examining the pedagogical practices that support cultural proficiency development in graduate health science students.

BACKGROUND: Health disparities are often a function of systemic discrimination and healthcare providers' biases. In recognition of this, health science programs have begun to offer training to foster cultural proficiency (CP) in future professionals. However, there is not yet consensus about the best ways to integrate CP into didactic and clinical education, and little is known about the role of clinical rotations in fostering CP. METHODS: Here, a mixed-methods approach was used to survey students (n = 131) from a private all-graduate level osteopathic health sciences university to gain insight into the training approaches students encountered related to CP and how these may vary as a function of academic progression. The research survey included instruments designed to quantify students' implicit associations, beliefs, and experiences related to the CP training they encountered through the use of validated instruments, including Implicit Association Tests and the Ethnocultural Empathy Inventory, and custom-designed questions. RESULTS: The data revealed that most students (73%) had received CP training during graduate school which primarily occurred via discussions, lectures, and readings; however, the duration and students' perception of the training varied substantially (e.g., training range = 1-100 hours). In addition, while students largely indicated that they valued CP and sought to provide empathetic care to their patients, they also expressed personal understandings of CP that often fell short of advocacy and addressing personal and societal biases. The results further suggested that clinical rotations may help students attenuate implicit biases but did not appear to be synergistic with pre-clinical courses in fostering other CP knowledge, skills, and attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the need to utilize evidence-based pedagogical practices to design intentional, integrated, and holistic CP training throughout health science programs that employ an intersectional lens and empowers learners to serve as advocates for their patients and address systemic challenges.

Intrarow Uncut Weed Detection Using You-Only-Look-Once Instance Segmentation for Orchard Plantations.

Mechanical weed management is a drudging task that requires manpower and has risks when conducted within rows of orchards. However, intrarow weeding must still be conducted by manual labor due to the restricted movements of riding mowers within the rows of orchards due to their confined structures with nets and poles. However, autonomous robotic weeders still face challenges identifying uncut weeds due to the obstruction of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals caused by poles and tree canopies. A properly designed intelligent vision system would have the potential to achieve the desired outcome by utilizing an autonomous weeder to perform operations in uncut sections. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop a vision module using a custom-trained dataset on YOLO instance segmentation algorithms to support autonomous robotic weeders in recognizing uncut weeds and obstacles (i.e., fruit tree trunks, fixed poles) within rows. The training dataset was acquired from a pear orchard located at the Tsukuba Plant Innovation Research Center (T-PIRC) at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. In total, 5000 images were preprocessed and labeled for training and testing using YOLO models. Four versions of edge-device-dedicated YOLO instance segmentation were utilized in this research-YOLOv5n-seg, YOLOv5s-seg, YOLOv8n-seg, and YOLOv8s-seg-for real-time application with an autonomous weeder. A comparison study was conducted to evaluate all YOLO models in terms of detection accuracy, model complexity, and inference speed. The smaller YOLOv5-based and YOLOv8-based models were found to be more efficient than the larger models, and YOLOv8n-seg was selected as the vision module for the autonomous weeder. In the evaluation process, YOLOv8n-seg had better segmentation accuracy than YOLOv5n-seg, while the latter had the fastest inference time. The performance of YOLOv8n-seg was also acceptable when it was deployed on a resource-constrained device that is appropriate for robotic weeders. The results indicated that the proposed deep learning-based detection accuracy and inference speed can be used for object recognition via edge devices for robotic operation during intrarow weeding operations in orchards.

YOLO-IHD: Improved Real-Time Human Detection System for Indoor Drones.

In the field of unmanned systems, the combination of artificial intelligence with self-operating functionalities is becoming increasingly important. This study introduces a new method for autonomously detecting humans in indoor environments using unmanned aerial vehicles, utilizing the advanced techniques of a deep learning framework commonly known as "You Only Look Once" (YOLO). The key contribution of this research is the development of a new model (YOLO-IHD), specifically designed for human detection in indoor using drones. This model is created using a unique dataset gathered from aerial vehicle footage in various indoor environments. It significantly improves the accuracy of detecting people in these complex environments. The model achieves a notable advancement in autonomous monitoring and search-and-rescue operations, highlighting its importance for tasks that require precise human detection. The improved performance of the new model is due to its optimized convolutional layers and an attention mechanism that process complex visual data from indoor environments. This results in more dependable operation in critical situations like disaster response and indoor rescue missions. Moreover, when combined with an accelerating processing library, the model shows enhanced real-time detection capabilities and operates effectively in a real-world environment with a custom designed indoor drone. This research lays the groundwork for future enhancements designed to significantly increase the model's accuracy and the reliability of indoor human detection in real-time drone applications.

High-resolution kinetics of herbivore-induced plant volatile transfer reveal clocked response patterns in neighboring plants.

Volatiles emitted by herbivore-attacked plants (senders) can enhance defenses in neighboring plants (receivers), however, the temporal dynamics of this phenomenon remain poorly studied. Using a custom-built, high-throughput proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS) system, we explored temporal patterns of volatile transfer and responses between herbivore-attacked and undamaged maize plants. We found that continuous exposure to natural blends of herbivore-induced volatiles results in clocked temporal response patterns in neighboring plants, characterized by an induced terpene burst at the onset of the second day of exposure. This delayed burst is not explained by terpene accumulation during the night, but coincides with delayed jasmonate accumulation in receiver plants. The delayed burst occurs independent of day:night light transitions and cannot be fully explained by sender volatile dynamics. Instead, it is the result of a stress memory from volatile exposure during the first day and secondary exposure to bioactive volatiles on the second day. Our study reveals that prolonged exposure to natural blends of stress-induced volatiles results in a response that integrates priming and direct induction into a distinct and predictable temporal response pattern. This provides an answer to the long-standing question of whether stress volatiles predominantly induce or prime plant defenses in neighboring plants, by revealing that they can do both in sequence.

Most plants are anchored to the soil by roots and need to be able to defend themselves from insects and other animal pests while remaining stationary. One way plants achieve this is to emit chemicals known as herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) into the air when they are under attack to attract other animals that are natural enemies of the pest. Certain HIPVs also prime other nearby plants (known as 'receivers') to be ready for an attack, or even pre-emptively activate defense responses in the plant before they encounter the pest. However, it remains unclear how the temporal patterns of HIPVs emitted from attacked plants affect how receiver plants respond to these chemicals, and how day-to-night light fluctuations impact this transfer of chemical information. To investigate this question, Waterman et al. exposed maize plants to a common pest caterpillar called Spodoptera exigua. Individual infested maize plants (referred to as 'senders') were placed in transparent glass chambers that were linked by a narrow tube to a second glass chamber containing a receiver plant that had not encountered caterpillars. The team used a mass spectrometry approach to measure the HIPVs emitted by the sender plants and the responses of the receivers in real-time. The experiments found that within the first few hours of exposure to HIPVs, receiver plants had a small burst of defense activity that was followed by a far stronger burst several hours later. The second burst coincided with the accumulation of plant hormones called jasmonates in the receiver plants, and was not controlled by fluctuations in light levels. This suggests that HIPVs first prime and then subsequently induce defense responses in other plants in a manner that is independent of the patterns of day and night. In the future, these findings may be used to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of pest outbreaks in crop fields. They will also help us to better understand how plants communicate and the impact of this communication on their environment.