Grandparenting, health, and well-being: a systematic literature review

Whether grandparenting is associated with improved health or well-being among older adults is a salient question in present-day aging societies. This systematic review compiles studies that consider the health or well-being outcomes of grandparenting, concerning (1) custodial grandparent families, where grandparents are raising grandchildren without parental presence; (2) three-generation households, where grandparents are living with adult children and grandchildren; and (3) non-coresiding grandparents, who are involved in the lives of their grandchildren. Review was based on literature searches conducted in September 2019 via Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Ebsco. We screened 3868 abstracts across four databases, and by following the PRISMA guidelines, we identified 92 relevant articles (117 studies) that were published between 1978 and 2019. In 68% of cases, custodial grandparenting was associated with decreased health or well-being of grandparents. The few studies considering the health or well-being of grandparents living in three-generation households provided mixed findings (39% positive; 39% negative). Finally, in 69% of cases, involvement of non-coresiding grandparents was associated with improved grandparental outcomes; however, there was only limited support for the prediction that involved grandparenting being causally associated with grandparental health or well-being. Despite this, after different robustness checks (counting all nonsignificant results, taking into account the representativeness of the data and causal methodology), the main finding remains the same: the most negative results are found among custodial grandparents and three-generation households and most positive results among non-coresiding grandparents.

Assistive Technology based Solution for Hearing Impairment using Smartphone

Developing a system for sign language recognition becomes essential for the deaf as well as a mute person. The recognition system acts as a translator between a disabled and an able person. This eliminates the hindrances in the exchange of ideas. Most of the existing systems are very poorly designed with limited support for the needs of their day to day facilities. The proposed system embedded with gesture recognition capability has been introduced here which extracts signs from a video sequence and displays them on screen. On the other hand, a speech to text as well as text to speech system is also introduced to further facilitate the grieved people. To get the best out of a human-computer relationship, the proposed solution consists of various cutting-edge technologies and Machine Learning based sign recognition models that have been trained by using TensorFlow and Keras library. The proposed architecture works better than several gesture recognition techniques like background elimination and conversion to HSV

Respon Negara-negara Asia Pasifik atas Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan pada Masa Pandemi Covid-19

Non-traditional security issues are increasingly relevant in international relations discussions nowadays. Threats do not only come from the military aspect but could also come from the climate crisis, terrorism and global pandemic. As happened recently, countries in the Asia Pacific are facing a non-traditional threat, namely Covid-19, which threatens all aspects of human security, especially health security. At the same time, several countries have implemented lockdown, but this policy has resulted in violence against women. This is certainly an issue that must be resolved by countries in the Asia Pacific region, as well as UN Women as an international organization that is responsible for issues concerning basic rights for women. In this study, the authors analysed the response that shown by countries in the Asia Pacific. The results of this study indicate that violence against women in the Asia Pacific was triggered by, among others: (1) the increasing interaction between victims and perpetrators, (2) environments that trigger acts of violence, and (3) limited support services. Thus, the authors examined how the policy responses of Asia Pacific countries in resolving the violence against women that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.

TAE-Net: Task-Adaptive Embedding Network for Few-Shot Remote Sensing Scene Classification

Recently, approaches based on deep learning are quite prevalent in the area of remote sensing scene classification. Though significant success has been achieved, these approaches are still subject to an excess of parameters and extremely dependent on a large quantity of labeled data. In this study, few-shot learning is used for remote sensing scene classification tasks. The goal of few-shot learning is to recognize unseen scene categories given extremely limited labeled samples. For this purpose, a novel task-adaptive embedding network is proposed to facilitate few-shot scene classification of remote sensing images, referred to as TAE-Net. A feature encoder is first trained on the base set to learn embedding features of input images in the pre-training phase. Then in the meta-training phase, a new task-adaptive attention module is designed to yield the task-specific attention, which can adaptively select informative embedding features among the whole task. In the end, in the meta-testing phase, the query image derived from the novel set is predicted by the meta-trained model with limited support images. Extensive experiments are carried out on three public remote sensing scene datasets: UC Merced, WHU-RS19, and NWPU-RESISC45. The experimental results illustrate that our proposed TAE-Net achieves new state-of-the-art performance for few-shot remote sensing scene classification.

超人類主義的“人與天一”式審度

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. Professor Wang Jue reflects on transhumanism through the Confucian idea of harmony between man and nature and proposes from a Confucian perspective that we should supervise the formation of our posthuman future. I agree with this suggestion. Here, I discuss transhumanism using Zhuangzi's idea of “Harmony between Man and Nature” and the concept of immortality. My conclusion is that from Zhuangzi's point of view, it would be wrong to use technology solely to plan and control the future of mankind; however, this does not mean that Zhuangzi is an anti-technologist. I think Zhuangzi's ideas offer limited support for the Confucian suggestion that we should supervise the formation of our post-human future.

Big Data Workflows: Locality-Aware Orchestration Using Software Containers

The emergence of the edge computing paradigm has shifted data processing from centralised infrastructures to heterogeneous and geographically distributed infrastructures. Therefore, data processing solutions must consider data locality to reduce the performance penalties from data transfers among remote data centres. Existing big data processing solutions provide limited support for handling data locality and are inefficient in processing small and frequent events specific to the edge environments. This article proposes a novel architecture and a proof-of-concept implementation for software container-centric big data workflow orchestration that puts data locality at the forefront. The proposed solution considers the available data locality information, leverages long-lived containers to execute workflow steps, and handles the interaction with different data sources through containers. We compare the proposed solution with Argo workflows and demonstrate a significant performance improvement in the execution speed for processing the same data units. Finally, we carry out experiments with the proposed solution under different configurations and analyze individual aspects affecting the performance of the overall solution.

An exploration of hydration care for nursing home residents living with dementia

Background/aims Older adults residing in nursing homes are vulnerable to dehydration. Residents living with dementia can experience additional challenges, making it difficult to independently consume sufficient fluids. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of hydration care for nursing home residents living with dementia. Methods Observations of hydration care were conducted between 06:00 and 22:45 on one care home unit. Twenty-two residents with dementia were eligible for observation. Conversations with staff and relatives provided further insights. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings Hydration care provision was highly routinised with little flexibility. Residents received limited support to express individual choices, and staff missed opportunities to provide drinks. More fluid was consumed when care staff developed strategies to encourage fluid intake. Conclusions Key factors to optimise hydration care include providing individual support to encourage fluid intake and expression of choice, flexible care routines, and focus on communication and teamworking.

Penerapan PSAK 109 Pada BAZNAS Kota Magelang Dan Faktor-Faktor Yang Memengaruhinya

This study aims to analyze the implementation of PSAK 109 and the factors that influence it at BAZNAS Magelang City. This research was conducted in Magelang in February-April 2021. This research is a qualitative research with interview method to obtain primary data and literature study method to obtain secondary data. The results of this study indicate that BAZNAS Magelang City is still doing traditional zakat and infaq/alms accounting records and has not yet fully implemented PSAK 109, particularly related to the measurement, presentation, reporting, and disclosure of ZIS funds. As for the factors that influence the implementation of PSAK 109 at BAZNAS Magelang City, there are four factors that can be identified, namely differences in perceptions of the urgency of PSAK 109, limitations of information technology systems, limited human resources, and limited support from local governments. This study indicates that local governments need to provide adequate support for the implementation of PSAK 109, both policy support and financial support, which can accommodate the needs of information technology systems and human resource competencies. In addition, this study indicates that the central BAZNAS and the Indonesian Institute of Accountants (IAI) need to increase socialization and assistance to regional BAZNAS regarding the application of PSAK 109. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis penerapan PSAK 109 dan faktor-faktor yang memengaruhinya pada BAZNAS Kota Magelang. Penelitian ini dilakukan di Magelang pada bulan Februari-April 2021. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif dengan metode wawancara untuk memperoleh data primer dan metode studi pustaka untuk memperoleh data sekunder. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa BAZNAS Kota Magelang masih melakukan pencatatan akuntansi zakat dan infak/sedekah secara tradisional dan belum sepenuhnya menerapkan PSAK 109, khususnya terkait pengukuran, penyajian, pelaporan, dan pengungkapan dana ZIS. Adapun terkait faktor-faktor yang memengaruhi penerapan PSAK 109 pada BAZNAS Kota Magelang, terdapat empat faktor yang dapat diidentifikasi, yaitu perbedaan persepsi terhadap urgensi PSAK 109, keterbatasan sistem teknologi informasi, keterbatasan sumber daya manusia, dan keterbatasan dukungan dari pemerintah daerah. Penelitian ini mengindikasikan bahwa pemerintah daerah perlu memberikan dukungan secara memadai terhadap penerapan PSAK 109, baik dukungan kebijakan maupun dukungan dana, yang dapat mengakomodasi kebutuhan sistem teknologi informasi dan kompetensi sumber daya manusia. Selain itu, penelitian ini mengindikasikan bahwa BAZNAS pusat dan Ikatan Akuntan Indonesia (IAI) perlu meningkatkan sosialisasi dan asistensi kepada BAZNAS daerah terkait penerapan PSAK 109.

The Benefit of Autonomy and Control: A Positive Characteristic of the Home Health Aide Position

Home Health Aides’ (HHAs) are one of the fastest growing workforces in the country, yet the industry struggles to recruit new aides into the field and retain current workers. This study explored HHAs’ experiences with the level of autonomy and control granted to them within their day-to-day work. Findings from six focus groups with 37 HHAs showed that many aides select home care because of the control and independence the positions offer. Interacting one-on-one with clients and being able to self-structure their daily tasks were major benefits that drew HHAs to the field. Additionally, the HHAs highlighted the control they have over their schedule and the flexibility the position offers to enable them to accommodate other responsibilities, like childcare or other jobs. Being able to decline a client because of travel distance, the hours required, or not feeling that it is a “good fit” was also a welcomed aspect of the position. Despite complaints about the job, such as low pay, lack of benefits, and limited support, many of the HHAs admitted staying on in their positions because of the flexibility, autonomy, and control provided. Findings highlight the value that HHAs place on autonomy and control and the potential benefit that these job qualities have for promoting greater recruitment and retention of the home care workforce. Amplifying opportunities for these aspects of the job may thus entice new individuals to pursue a career as an HHA, as well as help to maintain those individuals currently in the position.

SORA Methodology for Multi-UAS Airframe Inspections in an Airport

Deploying Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in safety- and business-critical operations requires demonstrating compliance with applicable regulations and a comprehensive understanding of the residual risk associated with the UAS operation. To support these activities and enable the safe deployment of UAS into civil airspace, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has established a UAS regulatory framework that mandates the execution of safety risk assessment for UAS operations in order to gain authorization to carry out certain types of operations. Driven by this framework, the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS) released the Specific Operation Risk Assessment (SORA) methodology that guides the systematic risk assessment for UAS operations. However, existing work on SORA and its applications focuses mainly on single UAS operations, offering limited support for assuring operations conducted with multiple UAS and with autonomous features. Therefore, the work presented in this paper analyzes the application of SORA for a Multi-UAS airframe inspection (AFI) operation, that involves deploying multiple UAS with autonomous features inside an airport. We present the decision-making process of each SORA step and its application to a multiple UAS scenario. The results shows that the procedures and safety features included in the Multi-AFI operation such as workspace segmentation, the independent multi-UAS AFI crew proposed, and the mitigation actions provide confidence that the operation can be conducted safely and can receive a positive evaluation from the competent authorities. We also present our key findings from the application of SORA and discuss how it can be extended to better support multi-UAS operations.