Exploring the benefits and challenges of Internet of Things (IoT) during Covid-19: a case study of Bangladesh

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to have a huge impact, especially during the pandemic period. The study reveals that people are using the IoT mostly for education purposes (as students and educators), office work, banks and medical purposes during the pandemic. The topmost benefit of using IoT services experienced by people during pandemic situations is that it helps to strictly maintain physical distance. However, the greatest challenge faced by people is that the use of the IoT increases social distancing and reduces personal communication. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed online and using a convenient random sampling method. A total of 260 participants’ properly completed responses were analyzed after conducting Three-fold validation. Research method was quantitative and empirical. Although, some studies have been found about IoT prospects in Bangladesh, no study has specifically explored the benefits and challenges of IoT services in diverse fields of Bangladesh during this new normal COVID-19 situation. The results can be beneficial to academic scholars, business professionals and organizations in different sectors and any other parties interested in determining the impact of IoT services on pandemic.

Development of and Preliminary Evidence for a Psychological Service Barriers Measure Among College Sexual Assault Survivors

Sexual assault is a widespread problem on college campuses, and survivors rarely use campus supports. However, there is no established measure of service barriers for this population. This study develops and provides preliminary evidence for a measure of psychological service barriers. Data were collected from 100 college sexual assault survivors. Results provide evidence for three factors: social-emotional barriers, negative treatment barriers, and minimization barriers. Additional tests offer evidence for consistency and reliability in these factors over time and across campus supports. This work offers preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of this measure and lays the groundwork for future validation research.

Validation Research on the Application of Depth-wise Separable Convolutional AI Facial Expression Recognition in Non-pharmacological Treatment of BPSD

One of the most obvious clinical reasons of dementia or The Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) are the lack of emotional expression, the increased frequency of negative emotions, and the impermanence of emotions. Observing the reduction of BPSD in dementia through emotions can be considered effective and widely used in the field of non-pharmacological therapy. At present, this article will verify whether the image recognition artificial intelligence (AI) system can correctly reflect the emotional performance of the elderly with dementia through a questionnaire survey of three professional elderly nursing staff. The ANOVA (sig.=0.50) is used to determine that the judgment given by the nursing staff has no obvious deviation, and then Kendall’s test (0.722**) and spearman’s test (0.863**) are used to verify the judgment severity of the emotion recognition system and the nursing staff unanimously. This implies the usability of the tool. Additionally, it can be expected to be further applied in the research related to BPSD elderly emotion detection.

Validation of the Social Media Disorder Scale in Adolescents: Findings From a Large-Scale Nationally Representative Sample

Large-scale validation research on instruments measuring problematic social media use (SMU) is scarce. Using a nationally representative sample of 6,626 Dutch adolescents aged 12 to 16 years, the present study examined the psychometric properties of the nine-item Social Media Disorder scale. The structural validity was solid, because one underlying factor was identified, with adequate factor loadings. The internal consistency was good, but the test information was most reliable at moderate to high scores on the scale’s continuum. The factor structure was measurement invariant across different subpopulations. Three subgroups were identified, distinguished by low, medium, and high probabilities of endorsing the criteria. Higher levels of problematic SMU were associated with higher probabilities of mental, school, and sleep problems, confirming adequate criterion validity. Girls, lower educated adolescents, 15-year-olds, and non-Western adolescents were most likely to report problematic SMU. Given its good psychometric properties, the scale is suitable for research on problematic SMU among adolescents.

DNA Damage as a Potential Non-Invasive Indicator of Welfare: A Preliminary Study in Zoo-Housed Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos horribilis)

Measures of oxidative stress have potential for integrating positive and negative life experiences into comprehensive cellular indicators of animal welfare. We explored this possibility when three adult grizzly bear brothers at the Detroit Zoo were temporarily moved to a smaller habitat while their primary home was expanded. We expected that the spatial compression and construction activity might be sources of stress. We observed increased social play and other affiliative behavior in the smaller habitat, and we used daily fecal samples (17 to 24 per bear) to examine whether concentrations of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG, a by-product of DNA damage) were correlated with social behavior. Our overall aim was to explore 8-OHdG as a potential indicator of welfare based on the prediction that 8-OHdG would be lower when more positive social interactions occurred. Concentrations of fecal 8-OHdG increased significantly with higher FGM concentrations, supporting a potential relationship between adrenal activity and rates of DNA damage. However, we found that on days when they engaged in higher rates of affiliative interactions, there were trends for 8-OHdG concentrations to increase for one bear and decrease for another, and no relationship for the third bear. These preliminary results should be interpreted with caution, but suggest a potential relationship between social behavior and 8-OHdG that is modulated by health, personality, or other individual factors. Further validation research is needed, but 8-OHdG may have promise as a non-invasive, cumulative indicator of animal welfare.

iTRAQ-Based Proteomics Reveals Gu-Ben-Fang-Xiao Decoction Alleviates Airway Remodeling via Reducing Extracellular Matrix Deposition in a Murine Model of Chronic Remission Asthma

Airway remodeling is a primary pathological feature of asthma. The current therapy for asthma mainly targets reducing inflammation but not particularly airway remodeling. Therefore, it is worthwhile to develop alternative and more effective therapies to attenuate remodeling. Gu-Ben-Fang-Xiao Decoction (GBFXD) has been used to effectively and safely treat asthma for decades. In this study, GBFXD regulated airway inflammation, collagen deposition, and the molecules relevant to airway remodeling such as Vimentin, α-SMA, hydroxyproline, and E-cadherin in chronic remission asthma (CRA) murine model. Proteomic analysis indicated that the overlapping differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) (Model/Control and GBFXD/Model) were mainly collagens and laminins, which were extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. In addition, the KEGG analysis showed that GBFXD could regulate pathways related to airway remodeling including ECM-receptor interactions, focal adhesion, and the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, which were the top three significantly enriched pathways containing the most DEPs for both Model/Control and GBFXD/Model. Further validation research showed that GBFXD regulated reticulon-4 (RTN4) and suppressed the activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway to alleviate ECM proteins deposition. In conclusion, our findings indicate that GBFXD possibly regulate the PI3K/AKT pathway via RTN4 to improve airway remodeling, which provides a new insight into the molecular mechanism of GBFXD for the treatment of CRA.

A systematic mapping study of security, trust and privacy in clouds

Cloud computing thrives around trust and security in the relationship between cloud providers and users of their services. The objective was the conduct of a systematic mapping study of cloud computing security, trust and privacy. The research was executed using three classes of facets, namely topic, contribution, and research based on the systematic mapping process. The result shows that privacy issues and challenges on metric had 4.76% of the publications. On cloud trust in the domain of tool, the publications were 8.75%. The publications on design within the domain of model stood at 12.38%, and publications on privacy issues and challenges in the area of process were 8.57%. Furthermore, there were more articles published on privacy issues and challenges within the domain of evaluation research with 10.43%. The publications on design based on validation research made up 7.83% of the study. More papers were also published on frameworks and techniques within the domain of solution research with 5.22% each. There were more articles published on privacy issues and challenges with regards to philosophical research with 4.35%. Shortcomings in the fields of security, trust and privacy in the cloud, were identified through this study, which should motivate further research.

EVALUATION AND VALIDATION OF STABILITY INDICATING RP-HPLC METHOD FOR THE USE OF BERBERINE FROM COPTIS TEETA BARK AS ANTI-CANCER PHYTOCHEMICAL

Objective: A new method of analysis using high-performance liquid reverse chromatography (HPLC) to calculate berberine in Coptis teeta bark was created in addition to the validation research. Methods: Berberine was analyzed with potassium hydrogen phosphate and acetonitrile using the SunFire C18 column at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min; 5μ (4.6 × 250 mm) was detected at 347 nm. Results: For precision, selectivity, and linearity, the technique was tested. The quantification of berberine did not conflict with the existence of other chemical components. Between concentrations of 60 and 180 ppm, the calibration curve was linear. The precision ranged from 9.0% to 102.0% and 2% was the relative standard deviation. Conclusion: Finally, this method of HPLC enhancement is simple, effective and has been used to classify and quantify berberine successfully. This can be useful for the study of different berberine-containing plant extracts and can also be used to measure berberine from formulation to herbal formulation.