Functional Connectivity Analysis in Multi-channel EEG for Emotion Detection with Phase Locking Value and 3D CNN.

The noise-assisted multivariate Empirical mode decomposition (NA-MEMD) is applied to multi-channel EEG signals to obtain narrow-band scale-aligned intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) upon which functional connectivity analysis is performed. The connectivity pattern in relation to inherent functional activity of brain is estimated with the phase locking value (PLV). Instantaneous phase difference among different EEG channels gives PLV that is used to build the functional connectivity map. The connectivity map yields spatial-temporal feature representation which is taken as input of the proposed emotion detection system. The spatial-temporal features can be learned with a 3D convolutional neural network for classifying emotion states. The proposed system is evaluated on two publicly available DEAP and SEED dataset for binary and multi-class emotion classification. On detecting low versus high level in the valence and arousal dimensions, the attained accuracy values are 97.37% and 96.26% respectively. Meanwhile, this system yields 94.78% and 99.54% accuracy on multi-class task on DEAP and SEED, which outperform previously reported systems with other deep learning models and conventional EEG features.

A curvilinear association between therapists' use of discourse particles and therapist empathy in psychotherapy.

This study investigates the relationships between therapists' use of discourse particles and therapist empathy. Discourse particles, commonly found in non-English languages, are verbal elements that constitute metacommunication by encoding speakers' emotions and attitudes, which are typically expressed by nonverbal behaviors (e.g., intonation, tone, facial expression, nodding). We hypothesize an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between therapists' use of discourse particles and therapist empathy, given the notion that an optimal level of therapists' emotion in psychotherapy can facilitate clients' inner experiencing and self-expression. Four psychotherapy sessions each from 39 therapist-client dyads were analyzed. After each session, therapist empathy was rated by trained observers using the Therapist Empathy Scale (TES) and by clients using the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (BLRI). Multilevel modeling shows that both the person-level negative quadratic term and positive linear term for therapists' usage of discourse particles are significant in predicting mean TES with large effect sizes. The same predictors do not yield significant results in predicting mean BLRI but they trend in similar directions of associations with medium effect sizes. Our results suggest the optimal usage of discourse particles by therapists is around 20.3% (out of all utterances). The nonsignificant results in BLRI may be attributed to the relatively small sample size of our data and the noncommunication orientation of the client-rated measure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

On the removal efficiency of copper ions in wastewater using calcined waste eggshells as natural adsorbents.

Eggshells offer many advantages as adsorbents, such as affordability without special preparations other than pulverization and calcination. However, the manufacturing industry generally has a severe problem with high concentrations of heavy metals in wastewater. The purpose of this study was to use eggshell byproducts and calcined eggshell treatment for the adsorption of copper in an aqueous solution. The reaction time, metal concentration, adsorbent dose, temperature, and pH were evaluated using primary factors followed by the response surface method (RSM) to investigate the optimum conditions for eggshell byproducts and calcined eggshell adsorption treatment. The results of the one-factor-at-a-time experiment showed that the optimal adsorption rate was obtained from treatment at 24 h, 25 mg/L, 10 mg, and 25 °C. In addition, the effect of pH on the adsorption rates of eggshells and eggshells with membrane were detected at pH values of 5 and 5.9 and found to be 95.2, 90.5, and 73.3%. The reaction surface experiment showed that the best adsorption rate reached 99.3% after calcination at 900 °C for 2 h and a 20 min reaction. The results showed that eggshells, eggshell membranes, eggshells with membrane, and calcined eggshells could be applied to remove copper ions from industrial wastewater. The adsorption capacity of the calcined eggshell is better than that of the non-calcined eggshell and has good neutrality in acidic industrial wastewater. Therefore, it is convenient and practical for practical production and application. Likewise, this study conveys promising findings in the context of improving wastewater treatment based on a circular economy approach to waste reuse in the food industry and represents a valuable direction for future research.

MEMD-HHT based Emotion Detection from EEG using 3D CNN.

In this study, the Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition (MEMD) is applied to multichannel EEG to obtain scale-aligned intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) as input features for emotion detection. The IMFs capture local signal variation related to emotion changes. Among the extracted IMFs, the high oscillatory ones are found to be significant for the intended task. The Marginal Hilbert spectrum (MHS) is computed from the selected IMFs. A 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) is adopted to perform emotion detection with spatial-temporal-spectral feature representations that are constructed by stacking the multi-channel MHS over consecutive signal segments. The proposed approach is evaluated on the publicly available DEAP database. On binary classification of valence and arousal level (high versus low), the attained accuracies are 89.25% and 86.23% respectively, which significantly outperform previously reported systems with 2D CNN and/or conventional temporal and spectral features.

Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition of EEG for Mental State Detection at Localized Brain Lobes.

In this study, the Multivariate Empirical Mode Decomposition (MEMD) approach is applied to extract features from multi-channel EEG signals for mental state classification. MEMD is a data-adaptive analysis approach which is suitable particularly for multi-dimensional non-linear signals like EEG. Applying MEMD results in a set of oscillatory modes called intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). As the decomposition process is data-dependent, the IMFs vary in accordance with signal variation caused by functional brain activity. Among the extracted IMFs, it is found that those corresponding to high-oscillation modes are most useful for detecting different mental states. Non-linear features are computed from the IMFs that contribute most to mental state detection. These MEMD features show a significant performance gain over the conventional tempo-spectral features obtained by Fourier transform and Wavelet transform. The dominance of specific brain region is observed by analysing the MEMD features extracted from associated EEG channels. The frontal region is found to be most significant with a classification accuracy of 98.06%. This multi-dimensional decomposition approach upholds joint channel properties and produces most discriminative features for EEG based mental state detection.

Influence of an Edible Oil-Medium-Chain Triglyceride Blend on the Physicochemical Properties of Low-Fat Mayonnaise.

Mayonnaise is a semisolid oil-in-water emulsion comprised of egg yolk, oil, and vinegar. One main problem with mayonnaise is its high fat content, so efforts have been made to develop low-fat sauces with similar characteristics to real mayonnaise. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) blended with edible oil (soybean and olive oil) on the rheological, physicochemical, and sensory properties of low-fat mayonnaise. The results revealed that the shear viscosity decreased with the increase in medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) contents and decreased with an increasing shear rate. Tan δ was <1, and a semisolid fluid with shear-thinning behavior was formed. The oscillation frequency test showed that the MCFA-containing mayonnaise was viscoelastic. The particle size and oil droplet analyses revealed that the emulsion droplet size and distribution were not significantly different in the MCT group compared to the control. The sensory evaluation demonstrated that the MCFA-containing mayonnaise was acceptable. This study illustrates that MCTs are a good substitute to produce the proper physicochemical properties of mayonnaise.

Validation of a Speech Database for Assessing College Students' Physical Competence under the Concept of Physical Literacy.

This study developed a speech database for assessing one of the elements of physical literacy-physical competence. Thirty-one healthy and native Cantonese speakers were instructed to read a material aloud after various exercises. The speech database contained four types of speech, which were collected at rest and after three exercises of the Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy 2nd Edition. To show the possibility of detecting each exercise state, a support vector machine (SVM) was trained on the acoustic features. Two speech feature sets, the extended Geneva Minimalistic Acoustic Parameter Set (eGeMAPS) and Computational Paralinguistics Challenge (ComParE), were utilized to perform speech signal processing. The results showed that the two stage four-class SVM were better than the stage one. The performances of both feature sets could achieve 70% accuracy (unweighted average recall (UAR)) in the three-class model after five-fold cross-validation. The UAR result of the resting and vigorous state on the two-class model running with the ComParE feature set was 97%, and the UAR of the resting and moderate state was 74%. This study introduced the process of constructing a speech database and a method that can achieve the short-time automatic classification of physical states. Future work on this corpus, including the prediction of the physical competence of young people, comparison of speech features with other age groups and further spectral analysis, are suggested.

Thermal Processing of Liquid Egg Yolks Modulates Physio-Chemical Properties of Mayonnaise.

In this study, the effect of various heating temperatures (61−70 °C) and times (1−10 min) on physical and chemical properties of liquid egg yolk (LEY) and mayonnaise were investigated. Initially, we found that the increase of LEY protein denaturation was highly correlated with the increase of temperature and time, without causing either protein degradation or aggregation. In addition, the viscosity and particle size of LEY were significantly increased with greater heating temperature and time. Furthermore, the emulsification stability of mayonnaise prepared from thermally processed LEY were significantly better than that of the unheated control group, in particular, the emulsion stability of mayonnaise was higher at a temperature ranging from 62 °C to 68 °C, whereas the emulsion stability decreased above 69 °C. A rheological analysis showed that mayonnaise prepared from thermally processed LEY has higher shear stress when compared with the control group. Indeed, a sharp increase in the shear stress was observed when LEY was heated above 67 °C. Results from storage behavior analysis suggest that mayonnaise prepared from thermally processed LEY failed to affect the chemical qualities of mayonnaise, as evidenced by the fact that acid values and TBA values were not statistically significant with the unheated control group. Microscopic observation indicates that the number of complete oil droplets were significantly reduced at higher heating (70 °C/5 and 10 min) conditions. Finally, the sensory evaluation results suggest that mayonnaise prepared from thermally processed LEY does not influence the appearance, aroma, taste, greasy feeling, and overall acceptance of mayonnaise, as indicated by there being no significant differences between the experimental group and the control group (p > 0.05). We conclude from our study that a combination of heating conditions over 67 °C/5 min can allow the mayonnaise to retain better quality in terms of stability.

Formality in psychotherapy: How are therapists' and clients' use of discourse particles related to therapist empathy?

Introduction: Previous studies explored the preferences for therapists' attire and office setting based on initial impressions as a reference for the formality in psychotherapy. This study examines the formality of psychotherapy by investigating therapists' and clients' use of discourse particles, the linguistic marker and quantifier of the formality in speech, in relation to therapist empathy in different stages of psychotherapy. Methods: Four psychotherapy sessions (representing early, mid, and late stages) each from 39 therapist-client dyads were analyzed. Trained observers rated therapist empathy in each session using the Therapist Empathy Scale. Results: Results of multilevel modeling show that synchrony in particle usage, hence synchrony in formality, between clients and therapists is not associated with therapist empathy. Therapists' use of particles (i.e., absolute formality of therapists) was also not associated with therapist empathy. In contrast, the relative formality of therapists plays significant roles: therapist empathy is generally observed when therapists are relatively more formal than the clients (i.e., lower relative usage of particles by the therapists when compared to the clients). However, for clients who speak formally with few particles, therapist casualness (i.e., higher relative usage of particles than the clients) at the beginning of therapy may be interpreted as therapist empathy as therapists help these clients ease into the therapeutic relationships. Discussion: Our results suggest that the examination of therapists' and clients' use of particles across different stages of treatment may illuminate dynamic interactional styles that facilitate or hinder the psychotherapy process.

Recommendations to promote breast milk feeding and enhance nutritional care for preterm infants in the Asia-Pacific region: highlights from a roundtable discussion of key opinion leaders

@#Introduction: Preterm infants are vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies, thus optimal nutrition is crucial in promoting growth among these infants. However, socio-cultural complexities and limited resources in the Asia-Pacific demands a judicious approach in implementing nutritional care that is pragmatic to align with current evidence-based recommendations. Methods: A roundtable meeting was held in Jakarta in 2017 for key opinion leaders in neonatology from the Asia- Pacific to discuss issues when delivering nutritional care in this region and the unique circumstances encountered. Results: Priority areas discussed include: (i) breast milk feeding, (ii) donor milk bank/sharing, (iii) human milk fortification, and (iv) nutrient-enriched breast milk substitutes. Socio-cultural practices impeding breastfeeding, insufficient maternity leave, the religious issue of milk kinship, and limited availability of specialty nutritional care products were among the most challenging factors. Conclusion: The group proposed recommendations to enhance breastfeeding uptake, accessibility to a complete portfolio of specialty nutritional care products, and encouraging more active collaborations to engage policy makers in addressing these contemporary issues.

Mental Capacity Assessment, LPA, Court Appointed Deputy Application, and Ethical Issues related to Mental Capacity Act – 2021 UPDATE

@#The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) addresses the need for authorised individuals (donees) to act on behalf of persons who are unable to make decisions for themselves. One of the consequences of Singapore’s rapidly ageing population is the rise in the number of patients suffering from stroke and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. As their cognitive function deteriorates, they also lose their ability to make independent decisions, which makes them at risk of potentially detrimental decisions made by them or others. Conflicts and uncertainty may come about because of a lack of clarity concerning the individual's wishes with mental incapacity. There is a growing concern amongst individuals that, on losing their mental capacity, they also lose their right to make decisions based on. The MCA has two mechanisms to address such issues, namely, (1) Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Certification and (2) Court-appointed Deputy Application for Patients. The former allows for cognitively intact persons to appoint one or more persons to act on their behalf should they lose their mental capacity in the future. The Court-appointed Deputy Application for Patients is required for persons who have not made an LPA before losing mental capacity. The court-appointed deputy can make certain decisions on their behalf. A deputy can be an individual or a licensed trust company under the Trust Companies Act (Cap.336). There are also five ethical issues related to the MCA of 2008 to be discussed.

The AsthmaID Tool in Singapore: Four Simple Questions to Detect Patients in need of an Asthma Review by a Specialist

@#A rising prevalence of asthma in Singapore translates to a more considerable patient care burden for general practitioners. Along with diagnosing and managing the treatment of asthma, general practitioners must recognise when referral to a respiratory specialist is necessary. Although mild to moderate asthma is generally manageable in the primary care setting, patients with poorly controlled, difficult-to-treat, or severe asthma may benefit from referral to a specialist. Currently, many of these patients are not receiving optimal care, which places them at risk of asthma exacerbations and unnecessary systemic corticosteroid use. AsthmaID was developed as a tool for general practitioners to identify patients with asthma for whom a specialist evaluation could help improve asthma symptom control and optimise treatment strategies. Using four questions developed by asthma experts and rooted in the Global Initiative for Asthma report, AsthmaID quickly identifies patients who may benefit from a specialist referral without requiring additional patient assessments or testing modalities. Implementation of AsthmaID in clinical practice has the potential to transform the patient care pathway, thereby improving the quality of care for patients with asthma.

Automatic Assessment of Speech Impairment in Cantonese-speaking People with Aphasia.

Aphasia is a common type of acquired language impairment resulting from dysfunction in specific brain regions. Analysis of narrative spontaneous speech, e.g., story-telling, is an essential component of standardized clinical assessment on people with aphasia (PWA). Subjective assessment by trained speech-language pathologists (SLP) have many limitations in efficiency, effectiveness and practicality. This paper describes a fully automated system for speech assessment of Cantonese-speaking PWA. A deep neural network (DNN) based automatic speech recognition (ASR) system is developed for aphasic speech by multi-task training with both in-domain and out-of-domain speech data. Story-level embedding and Siamese network are applied to derive robust text features, which can be used to quantify the difference between aphasic speech and unimpaired one. The proposed text features are combined with conventional acoustic features to cover different aspects of speech and language impairment in PWA. Experimental results show a high correlation between predicted scores and subject assessment scores. The best correlation value achieved with ASR-generated transcription is .827, as compared with .844 achieved with manual transcription. The Siamese network significantly outperforms story-level embedding in generating text features for automatic assessment.

A descriptive study of the effect of a disciplinary proceeding decision on medical practitioners' practice behaviour in the context of providing a hydrocortisone and lignocaine injection

INTRODUCTION@#We conducted a descriptive study to evaluate any changes in practice behaviour regarding the provision of hydrocortisone and lignocaine (H&L) injections among doctors and how an H&L injection is priced following a disciplinary proceeding decision. A doctor had been fined SGD 100,000 for failing to obtain informed consent before an H&L injection.@*METHODS@#We performed a survey shortly after the disciplinary decision to ascertain: (a) the category of the respondent; (b) whether the respondent provided H&L injections and how much he charged before the decision; and (c) after the decision. All members of the Singapore Medical Association and College of Family Physicians Singapore are doctors and were invited to participate.@*RESULTS@#1,927 doctors responded to the survey. Prior to the decision, 804 doctors did not perform H&L injections; this increased by 20.4% to 968 after the decision. The number of doctors who gave H&L injections decreased by 164 (14.6%), from the previous 1,123. Pre-decision, doctors who determined their own price for H&L injections charged a median pricing ≤ SGD 100. Post-decision, the median charge rose to > SGD 100 to SGD 200. At higher price bands, the number of doctors who charged > SGD 1,000 increased eight-fold, from eight to 65.@*CONCLUSION@#The study demonstrated how a disciplinary decision can affect practice behaviour, and specifically how doctors may choose to not offer a service, an example of defensive medicine through avoidance behaviour. It also showed how prices for a service can rise following such a decision, which demonstrates the concept of negative general deterrence in sentencing.

Postoperative outcomes of patients with severe obesity who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy: Case series

@#Globally, especially in the Asian and African regions, there has been a rising burden of obesity due to high consumption of energy-dense foods and the increase of physical inactivity caused by urbanization and sedentary lifestyle changes.1 Bariatric surgery, or weight-loss surgery, remains to be the most effective treatment for morbid obesity, and it also has resulted in a substantial improvement of obesity-related comorbidities, especially type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Ursolic acid: An overview on its cytotoxic activities against breast and colorectal cancer cells / 中西医结合学报

Ursolic acid (UA) is a pentacyclic triterpene of the ursane type. As a common chemical constituent among species of the family Lamiaceae, UA possesses a broad spectrum of pharmacological properties. This overview focuses on the anticancer properties of UA against breast cancer (BC) and colorectal cancer (CRC) that are most common among women and men, respectively. In vitro studies have shown that UA inhibited the growth of BC and CRC cell lines through various molecular targets and signaling pathways. There are several in vivo studies on the cytotoxic activity of UA against BC and CRC. UA also inhibits the growth of other types of cancer. Studies on structural modifications of UA have shown that the -OH groups at C3 and at C28 are critical factors influencing the cytotoxic activity of UA and its derivatives. Some needs for future research are suggested. Sources of information were from ScienceDirect, Google Scholar and PubMed.

MENTAL CAPACITY ASSESSMENT (AN UPDATE): LASTING POWER OF ATTORNEY CERTIFICATION

@#The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) addresses the need to act on behalf of persons who are unable to make decisions for themselves.One of the consequences of Singapore’s rapidly aging population is the rise in the number of patients suffering from stroke and age-related neuro-degenerative diseases. As their cognitive function deteriorates, they also lose their ability to make independent decisions, and this makes them at risk of potentially detrimental decisions made by them or others. Conflicts and uncertainty may come about because of a lack of clarity concerning the wishes of the individual with mental incapacity. There is a growing concern amongst individuals that, on losing their mental capacity, they also lose their right to determine their preferences to choose. The MCA has mechanisms in place to address such issues.The Singapore Family Physician first published an article on the Mental Capacity Act in 2009, and its lessons and messages hold for family physicians today. This article further updates on two provisions of the MCA:1.Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Certification2.Court-appointed Deputy Application for PatientsThe former allows for persons who are cognitively intact to appoint one or more persons to act on their behalf should they lose their mental capacity in the future.Should a person not have made an LPA before losing mental capacity, a deputy is appointed by the court to make certain decisions on their behalf. A deputy can be an individual or a licensed trust company under the Trust Companies Act (Cap.336).This paper will explore the processes involved in certifying the LPA as well as the court-appointed deputies.

Image-guided system endoscopic drainage of orbital abscess caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in an infant.

INTRODUCTION: The management of orbital abscesses in neonates and infants is very challenging. Surgical drainage of the abscess is aimed at removing the pus and preventing blindness. We describe a case of orbital abscess in an infant that was caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and that was successfully drained with image-guided endoscopic surgery. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 39-day-old infant presented with progressive right maxillary swelling complicated by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus orbital abscess. Tooth bud abscess was the most likely primary cause and a combination of intravenous antibiotics was initially prescribed. The collection of intra-orbital pus was removed using image-guided system-aided endoscopic surgical drainage. DISCUSSION: Prompt diagnosis and management are very crucial. Endoscopic drainage of these abscesses in children has been described. Image-guided drainage of the orbital abscess is a newer technique that has been reported in a teenager and in adult patients. This is the first reported case of endoscopic orbital drainage surgery in an infant. The procedure was performed successfully. This approach provides for better identification of the anatomical structures in a very young patient. Injuries to the medial rectus, globe and optic nerve can be avoided with this technique. CONCLUSION: Aggressive management of orbital abscesses in infants is mandatory. Image-guided endoscopic orbital drainage offers precise visualization and a safer technique in a relatively smaller orbit.

Improving Mobile Phone Speech Recognition by Personalized Amplification: Application in People with Normal Hearing and Mild-to-Moderate Hearing Loss.

PURPOSE: In this study, the authors evaluated the effect of personalized amplification on mobile phone speech recognition in people with and without hearing loss. METHODS: This prospective study used double-blind, within-subjects, repeated measures, controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of applying personalized amplification based on the hearing level captured on the mobile device. The personalized amplification settings were created using modified one-third gain targets. The participants in this study included 100 adults of age between 20 and 78 years (60 with age-adjusted normal hearing and 40 with hearing loss). The performance of the participants with personalized amplification and standard settings was compared using both subjective and speech-perception measures. Speech recognition was measured in quiet and in noise using Cantonese disyllabic words. Subjective ratings on the quality, clarity, and comfortableness of the mobile signals were measured with an 11-point visual analog scale. Subjective preferences of the settings were also obtained by a paired-comparison procedure. RESULTS: The personalized amplification application provided better speech recognition via the mobile phone both in quiet and in noise for people with hearing impairment (improved 8 to 10%) and people with normal hearing (improved 1 to 4%). The improvement in speech recognition was significantly better for people with hearing impairment. When the average device output level was matched, more participants preferred to have the individualized gain than not to have it. CONCLUSIONS: The personalized amplification application has the potential to improve speech recognition for people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, as well as people with normal hearing, in particular when listening in noisy environments.