Characteristics and impact of environmental shaking in the Taipei metropolitan area

Examining continuous seismic data recorded by a dense broadband seismic network throughout Taipei shows for the first time, the nature of seismic noise in this highly populated metropolitan area. Using 140 broadband stations in a 50 km × 69 km area, three different recurring, strong noise signals characterized by dominant frequencies of 2–20 Hz, 0.25–1 Hz, and < 0.2 Hz are explored. At frequencies of 2–20 Hz, the seismic noise exhibits daily and weekly variations, and a quiescence during the Chinese New Year holidays. The largest amplitude occurred at a station located only 400 m from a traffic-roundabout, one of the busiest intersections in Taipei, suggesting a possible correlation between large amplitude and traffic flow. The median daily amplitude for the < 0.2 Hz and 0.2–1.0 Hz frequency bands is mostly synchronized with high similarity between stations, indicating that the sources are persistent oceanic or atmospheric perturbations across a large area. The daily amplitude for the > 2 Hz band, however, is low, indicating a local source that changes on shorter length scales. Human activities responsible for the 2–40 Hz energy in the city, we discovered, are able to produce amplitudes approximately 2 to 1500 times larger than natural sources. Using the building array deployed in TAIPEI 101, the tallest building in Taiwan, we found the small but repetitive ground vibration induced by traffic has considerable effect on the vibration behavior of the high-rise building. This finding urges further investigation not only on the dynamic and continuous interaction between vehicles, roads, and buildings, but also the role of soft sediment on such interaction.

Evaluating a Social Media Campaign for a Parent Educational Video on Bronchiolitis

Bronchiolitis, or lower airway swelling, is a common cause of pediatric hospital admissions. Parents have expressed wishes for more information regarding bronchiolitis but had difficulty finding reliable information, suggesting the need for more effective and easily accessible information resources. Knowledge translation (KT) tools like videos provide research-based information and may be conveniently disseminated to large audiences through social media. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a social media campaign to promote a video on bronchiolitis. A social media campaign was conducted from 14 October to 30 November 2019. User interactions were recorded for the Facebook and Twitter accounts, website, and YouTube of Evidence in Child Health to Enhance Outcomes (ECHO), Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence (ARCHE), and Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK). Baseline metrics were collected from 1 August to 30 September 2019 and post-campaign metrics were collected from 1 December 2019 to 31 March 2020. Mean monthly changes, standard deviations, and percent changes between periods were generated for the baseline, campaign, and post-campaign periods. Overall, there was a visible increase in user interactions throughout the campaign period. There was an overall downward trend in user interactions following the campaign. These findings suggest that social media may be a useful method of KT tool dissemination when consistently used. The downward trend post-campaign highlights the need for further research to investigate methods to maintain continuous interaction following a campaign.

Music Listening and Homeostatic Regulation: Surviving and Flourishing in a Sonic World

This paper argues for a biological conception of music listening as an evolutionary achievement that is related to a long history of cognitive and affective-emotional functions, which are grounded in basic homeostatic regulation. Starting from the three levels of description, the acoustic description of sounds, the neurological level of processing, and the psychological correlates of neural stimulation, it conceives of listeners as open systems that are in continuous interaction with the sonic world. By monitoring and altering their current state, they can try to stay within the limits of operating set points in the pursuit of a controlled state of dynamic equilibrium, which is fueled by interoceptive and exteroceptive sources of information. Listening, in this homeostatic view, can be adaptive and goal-directed with the aim of maintaining the internal physiology and directing behavior towards conditions that make it possible to thrive by seeking out stimuli that are valued as beneficial and worthy, or by attempting to avoid those that are annoying and harmful. This calls forth the mechanisms of pleasure and reward, the distinction between pleasure and enjoyment, the twin notions of valence and arousal, the affect-related consequences of music listening, the role of affective regulation and visceral reactions to the sounds, and the distinction between adaptive and maladaptive listening.

The League of Matteo Salvini: Fostering and Exporting a Modern Mass-Party Grounded on “Phygital” Activism

The Lega Nord (LN) has undergone a profound process of transformation since 2013, by replacing its historical regionalist populism with a new state-wide populist radical right outlook. However, very little is known about how such transformation impacted its organizational model, particularly the mass-party features that characterized it under its founding leader, Umberto Bossi. This article explores the organizational evolution of the party under Matteo Salvini by means of a qualitative in-depth analysis of 41 semi-structured interviews with representatives of the LN from four regions (Calabria, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, and Veneto) and primary documents. It underlines that the LN was turned into a disempowered and politically inactive “bad company,” charged with the task of paying the debts of the old party, while its structure, resources, and personnel were poured into a new state-wide organization called Lega per Salvini Premier (LSP). The LSP has not simply maintained the key features of the mass-party in the LN’s historical strongholds, but also pioneered a modern form of this organizational model grounded on the continuous interaction between digital and physical activism, i.e., “phygital activism,” which boosts the party’s ability to reach out to the electorate by delivering the image that the League is constantly on the ground. The LSP has sought to export this modern interpretation of the mass-party in the South; however, in that area its organizational development remains at an embryonic stage, and the party’s nationalization strategy has so far produced a “quasi-colonial” structure dominated by, and dependent on, the Northern elite.

Social Media and COVID-19: a global study of digital crisis interaction among Gen Z and millennials

The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing that global big tech platforms and social media are core sites for continuous engagement with crisis content for young citizens. This study included twenty-four countries from all continents at the time of the heightened COVID-19 crisis, and our survey targeted 18-40 year olds, Millennials and Gen Zs – overall n = 23,483 respondents. Outcomes show that for young citizens across continents, crisis communication is not just about press briefings. Instead, crisis communication is continuous interaction and engagement across their multiple source environments. Young citizens navigate social media, national media, search sites and messaging apps, they engage with peer communities, science and health experts and – across all countries – substantially with the social media content of the World Health Organization (WHO). Overall, they create their own individual crisis narrative based on the sources they use and the insights they select. This report outlines these new crisis communication dimensions within a transnational social media space and offers numerous suggestions for incorporating social media in crisis response strategies.

Clinical Neurotology

Normal balance is the consequence of continuous interaction between visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive mechanisms. The vestibular system is a system in which head movements and positions cause mechanical forces to be transduced into electrochemical signals that are relayed to the central nervous system for the purpose of maintaining clear stable vision and equilibrium. With a basic understanding of physiology, common disease processes, and examination techniques, a correct diagnosis can generally be made at the bedside.

Assessment of the appropriateness of the i-CONSENT guidelines recommendations for improving understanding of the informed consent process in clinical studies

Background The H2020 i-CONSENT project has developed a set of guidelines that offer ethical recommendations and practical tools aimed at making the informed consent process in clinical studies more comprehensive, tailored, and inclusive. An analysis of the appropriateness of some of its novel recommendations was carried out by a group of experts representing different stakeholders. Methods An adaptation of the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method was used to assess the level of agreement on the recommendations among 14 representatives of different stakeholders, including patients, regulators, investigators, ethics experts, and the pharmaceutical industry. The process included two rounds of rating and a virtual meeting. Results Fifty-three recommendations were evaluated. After the first round, 34 recommendations were judged “appropriate”; 19 were judged “uncertain”; and none was judged “inappropriate”. After the second round, 9 “uncertains” changed to “appropriate”. All recommendations rated medians of 6.5–9 on a 1–9 scale (1 = “extremely inappropriate”, 5 = “uncertain”, 9 = “extremely appropriate”). The sections “General recommendations” and “Gender perspective during the consent process for clinical studies” showed the highest “uncertainty” rating. The four keys to improving the understanding of the ICP in clinical studies are to: (1) consider consent a two-way continuous interaction that begins at the first contact with the potential participant and continues until the end of the study; (2) improve investigators’ communication skills; (3) co-create the information; and (4) use a layered approach, including information to compensate for the potential participant’s possible lack of health literacy and a glossary of terms. Conclusions The RAND/UCLA method has demonstrated validity for assessing the appropriateness of recommendations in ethical guidelines. The recommendations of the i-CONSENT guidelines were mostly judged “appropriate” by all stakeholders involved in the informed consent process.

Catestatin selects for the colonization of antimicrobial-resistant gut bacterial communities

The gut microbiota is in continuous interaction with the innermost layer of the gut, namely the epithelium. Among the various functions of the gut epithelium, is to keep the microbes at bay to avoid overstimulation of the underlying mucosa immune cells. To do so, the gut epithelia secrete a variety of antimicrobial peptides, such as catestatin (CST). As a defense mechanism, gut microbes have evolved antimicrobial resistance mechanisms to counteract the killing effect of the secreted peptides. To this end, we treated wild-type mice and mice with a knockout in the CST coding region of the chromogranin-A gene (CST-KO) with CST for 15 consecutive days. CST treatment was associated with a shift in the diversity and composition of the microbiota in the CST-KO mice. This effect was less prominent in WT mice. Levels of the microbiota-produced short-chain fatty acids, in particular, butyrate and acetate were significantly increased in CST-treated CST-KO mice but not the WT group. Remarkably, both CST-treated CST-KO and WT mice showed a significant increase in microbiota-harboring phosphoethanolamine transferase-encoding genes, which facilitate their antimicrobial resistance. Finally, we show that CST was degraded by Escherichia coli via an omptin-protease and that the abundance of this gene was significantly higher in metagenomic datasets collected from patients with Crohn's disease but not with ulcerative colitis. Overall, this study illustrates how the endogenous antimicrobial peptide, CST, shapes the microbiota composition in the gut and primes further research to uncover the role of bacterial resistance to CST in disease states such as inflammatory bowel disease.

The vital importance of a web of prevention for effective biosafety and biosecurity in the twenty-first century

Biological threats are complex and multifaceted, as evidenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Their effective prevention and countering require multiple lines of collaborative action and sustained cross-sectorial coordination. This paper reviews the conclusions of Graham Pearson’s 1997 JAMA article titled ‘The Complementary Role of Environmental and Security Biological Control Regimes in the 21st Century’, taking into account the international policy developments that have occurred over the past two decades. The paper underscores the utility of the concept of a ‘web of prevention’ for elucidating the need for continuous interaction between the international biosafety and international biosecurity regimes, in order to ensure that the life sciences are used only for peaceful purposes. The terms ‘biosafety’ and ‘biosecurity’ are used to denote the primary purpose of the two regimes: the international biosafety regime seeks to prevent the unintentional (accidental) release of pathogens and toxins, including naturally occurring disease, whereas the biosecurity regime seeks to prevent the deliberate release and misuse of pathogens and toxins. The paper concludes by recommending practical steps for strengthening the implementation of all elements of the web of prevention and upholding the norms against the hostile misuse of life sciences.

How interaction experience enhances customer engagement in smart speaker devices? The moderation of gendered voice and product smartness

PurposeWith the advancements of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years, smart objects (SOs) have been widely applied in the lives of consumers to fulfill a variety of functions. This research aims to explore the new interaction experience between consumers and a smart speaker that can create the effect of customer engagement by enhancing the gendered voice and product smartness.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject experiment to validate the research model and the hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that a high level of interaction experience between the users and smart speaker devices increases customer engagement. Smart speaker devices that present female voices have a high product smartness, whereas high levels of interaction experience are more effective in customer engagement. Furthermore, the results also show a moderate effect of gendered voice and product smartness between the interaction experience levels and customer engagement.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the assemblage theory and the interaction experience levels between users and smart speaker devices in IoT. Based on the results, suggestions on enhancing the smartness ability and application services of new smart speaker devices are proposed. The findings of this study can promote a more continuous interaction between users and smart speakers.