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Sammy the Conqueror is a slasher like game where the player character is a slug who navigates a simple city setting to eat civilians and military units. The intended goal of the game is for the player to try and get a high score by eliminating the military and civilian units. The game was made with construct 3.

Background: Digital health tools to bridge gaps in managing infectious pandemics was a proposition grounded until recently more in the hypothetical than in reality. The last two years have exposed the extraordinary global need for robust digital solutions. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the ability of remote patient monitoring (RPM) during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve clinical outcomes and assure continuity of care in patients with asthma. Methods and Findings: Design: The intervention combined health coaching telephone calls and remote telemonitoring. Participants: 102 patients with asthma were enrolled in a telemonitoring protocol at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Setting: A private, university affiliated, outpatient clinical adult and pediatric allergy/immunology and pulmonary practice. Intervention: Patients were enrolled with the primary rationale of maintaining continuity of care in the face of uncertain clinical care options. Enrollment and data collection proceeded in a fashion to allow detailed retrospective analysis. Telemonitoring included a pulse oximeter linked to a smart phone using the software platform Plan-it Med (PIM)®. A healthcare professional monitored data daily, and patients were contacted by providers due to vital sign abnormalities and treatment plan alterations. Patients were encouraged to remain on the platform daily during the first three months of the pandemic. After respiratory and or clinical stability was achieved and clinic visit opportunities were resumed, patients were encouraged to maintain engagement with the platform but were not expected to use the platform daily. Main Outcome measures: Asthma Control Test (ACT) scores were recorded before and after 6 months. Paired Wilcoxon signed-rank tests (dependent groups, before vs. after) and Wilcoxon rank-sum (Mann-Whitney) tests were performed for unpaired results (independent groups, RPM vs. Control). Results: 19 of 102 patients had physiological abnormalities detected (18.6%). Eight of these 19 patients had actionable changes in prescription regimens based on RPM findings (42.1%). In patients utilizing RPM, there was a reported decrease in shortness of breath episodes and a decreased need for rescue inhalers/nebulizer medications (P=0.005). Daily engagement in the first three months of the protocol was 61%. In a subset analysis, 48 study participants (47.1%) chose to continue to actively use the program for at least 14 months. 54 RPM patients were 99.1% compliant with RPM after 110 patient months. Of the patients that chose to discontinue the RPM program the reasons included: (1) symptom alleviation (41.7%); (2) out-of-pocket costs to patients (38.9%), and (3) difficulty using the RPM program (16.7%). Conclusions: A novel RPM technology positively impacted continuity of care, asthma outcomes, quality of life, and self-care.

In this study, we present three ‘embodiments’ of post-reform footballing China. Starting in 2015, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) initiated a series of reforms to advance player development,...

On January 26, 2020, former Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant passed away suddenly in a helicopter crash. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of racial and gender politics in the U.S. context, and media framing, we conducted a textual analysis of mainstream news media’s framing of “Mamba Mentality” in the immediate aftermath of Bryant’s death. Across the 119 articles retrieved for analysis, we found Mamba Mentality consistently framed in four ways: a performance standard, both mental and physical; a symbol for overcoming adversity; a commodity; and a legacy/ethos. While mainstream media was complicit in absolving Bryant of his 2003 sexual assault allegation, the allegation was folded into his complex celebrity identity, which ultimately legitimized his Mamba Mentality persona as strong, tough, and able to overcome any obstacle that stood in the way—regardless of the cost. Our findings implicate how a celebrity athlete’s life is valued by contemporary media, and how media portrayals represent historical underpinnings of identity politics and oppressive practices, in line with structural and systemic violence in American society.

Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has become an emerging component of soccer. Prior inquiries have explored its impact on various game-related foci, but there remains a research gap surrounding partici...

Recently, private and State actors within the Chinese economy have increasingly taken ownership of (or established other financial relationships with) major football clubs across Asia and Europe. I...

Lake Surface Water Temperature (LSWT) is recognized as a critical climate change indicator. The changes in surface water temperature and the temperature of the surrounding land may have a climate change signature if there is consistency between changes in both temperatures. This proj ect focuses on the application of remote sensing to investigate the changes in lake surface water temperatures and their relationship with the surrounding land cover type to identify the main driving factors of these changes. In this study, 507 major global lakes have been investigated. An analysis of temperature variation over these lakes has been conducted using daily observations of Aqua MODIS from 2002 to 2018. Preliminary results show that 43.15% of the studied lakes are warming and about 51.00% of lakes are cooling. Furthermore, 62.53% of the lakes are shrinking, while 28.35% of them are expanding.

Caregivers of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder commonly experience stigma. However, how stigma influences social interactions of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder is unclear. We aimed to explore the impact of caregiver stigma on real-life social experiences of Taiwanese adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. In the context of everyday activities, 76 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder who were not intellectually disabled (69 males, aged 10–16 years) carried a mobile device that prompted them 7 times, randomly, each day for 7 days to record with whom they were interacting, what they perceived, and how they felt about the interactions. Caregivers completed the Affiliate Stigma Scale to measure caregiver stigma. Multilevel analyses revealed that participants whose caregivers perceived high levels of stigma were more likely than those whose caregivers experienced less stigma to interact with family members and less likely to be interested in interacting with people at school. However, those participants also experienced more anxiety while interacting with family members. The findings shed light on ways that caregiver stigma impacted the social experiences of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and suggest that, in promoting social participation for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, researchers and service providers must support caregivers to manage stigma. Lay abstract Caregivers of people with autism spectrum disorder commonly experience stigma. As a result, they may avoid contact with others, in turn, influencing their child’s social participation. This study aimed to explore the impact of stigma perceived by the caregivers on the everyday social experience of Taiwanese adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. We asked 76 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder who did not have intellectual disability (69 males, aged 10–16 years) to carry a mobile device for 7 days. The device prompted them 7 times each day to record who they were interacting with, what they perceived, and how they felt about their social interactions. In addition, we asked their caregivers to complete the Affiliate Stigma Scale to measure their experience of stigma. We found that participants whose caregivers perceived high levels of stigma were more likely to spend time with family members and less likely to be interested in interacting with people at school. Those participants also were more likely to experience anxiety while interacting with family. Our study suggests that it is important for clinicians to implement support services for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and help caregivers in managing stigma to promote their child’s social participation.

Much like the nation as a whole, the development of football in China has accelerated at unprecedented rates in recent years. The investment toward, participation in, and consumption of the sport has surged in the years following the Chinese Communist Party’s implementation of major 2015 reforms intended to (1) develop the domestic professional football league, (2) grow the sport’s popularity among the country’s 1.4 billion population, (3) increase youth participation, (4) develop the national team to be the best team in Asia, and (5) aggressively bid for a men’s FIFA World Cup. Despite these significant levels of State and private investment theretoward, there are still significant concerns within the Chinese and international media publics about the footballing nation—specifically as related to the performance of the Chinese men’s national team. In this article, we present a comparative analysis of Chinese- and English-language news media representations that frame how east and west media publics might “read” various aspects of Chinese football (commercial, cultural, ideological, etc.). In so doing, we identify and analyze major themes which, as popularized in different popular media contexts, articulate the men’s national team’s performance to broader (inter)national anxieties about the state of football and the geopolitical trajectories of the People’s Republic.

Some immune system cells express type A and/or type B γ-aminobutyric acid receptors (GABAA-Rs and/or GABAB-Rs). Treatment with GABA, which activates both GABAA-Rs and GABAB-Rs), and/or a GABAA-R-specific agonist inhibits disease progression in mouse models of type 1 diabetes (T1D), multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and COVID-19. Little is known about the clinical potential of specifically modulating GABAB-Rs. Here, we tested lesogaberan, a peripherally restricted GABAB-R agonist, as an interventive therapy in diabetic NOD mice. Lesogaberan treatment temporarily restored normoglycemia in most newly diabetic NOD mice. Combined treatment with a suboptimal dose of lesogaberan and proinsulin/alum immunization in newly diabetic NOD mice or a low-dose anti-CD3 in severely hyperglycemic NOD mice greatly increased T1D remission rates relative to each monotherapy. Mice receiving combined lesogaberan and anti-CD3 displayed improved glucose tolerance and, unlike mice that received anti-CD3 alone, had some islets with many insulin+ cells, suggesting that lesogaberan helped to rapidly inhibit β-cell destruction. Hence, GABAB-R-specific agonists may provide adjunct therapies for T1D. Finally, the analysis of microarray and RNA-Seq databases suggested that the expression of GABAB-Rs and GABAA-Rs, as well as GABA production/secretion-related genes, may be a more common feature of immune cells than currently recognized.

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, transmitted through mosquito bites. Symptoms include fever, headache, and vomiting, and in severe cases, seizures and coma. The World Health Organization reports that there were 228 million cases and 405,000 deaths in 2018, with Africa representing 93% of total cases and 94% of total deaths. Rapid diagnosis and subsequent treatment are the most effective means to mitigate the progression into serious symptoms. However, many fatal cases have been attributed to poor access to healthcare resources for malaria screenings. In these low-resource settings, the use of light microscopy on a thin blood smear with Giemsa stain is used to examine the severity of infection, requiring tedious and manual counting by a trained technician. To address the malaria endemic in Africa and its coexisting socioeconomic constraints, we propose an automated, mobile phone-based screening process that takes advantage of already existing resources. Through the use of convolutional neural networks (CNNs), we utilize a SSD multibox object detection architecture that rapidly processes thin blood smears acquired via light microscopy to isolate images of individual red blood cells with 90.4% average precision. Then we implement a FSRCNN model that upscales 32 × 32 low-resolution images to 128 × 128 high-resolution images with a PSNR of 30.2, compared to a baseline PSNR of 24.2 through traditional bicubic interpolation. Lastly, we utilize a modified VGG16 CNN that classifies red blood cells as either infected or uninfected with an accuracy of 96.5% in a balanced class dataset. These sequential models create a streamlined screening platform, giving the healthcare provider the number of malaria-infected red blood cells in a given sample. Our deep learning platform is efficient enough to operate exclusively on low-tier smartphone hardware, eliminating the need for high-speed internet connection.

Board level drop impact tests to evaluate electronic package mounts on printed circuit board (PCB) solder joint reliability is critical, especially for handheld and mobile consumer products. Standard drop tests refer the JEDEC specification (JESD22-B111) for PCB design and testing conditions. There are several studies about the board level drop reliability of electronic products to focus on the solder joint failure mechanism (e.g., the crack location and characteristics) under the JEDEC standard. However, the literatures lack a study of the correlation of the PCB dynamic strain and solder joint stress during the board level drop impact and real product system level shock test. In this work, a 15x15 mm2 Quad Flat No Leads (QFN) package which is Wi-Fi module function used in industry scanner product was chosen to measure the peak acceleration and PCB strain under 1.2 meter height system level free drop. The maximum PCB strain would be used to correlate with standard board level drop tests to measure and calculate acceleration response. From the result, it shows that at similar PCB strain response the system level free drop tests peak acceleration is about 2900G and the board level drop tests peak acceleration is about 325G.Besides, the 3D transient numerical model based on the support excitation scheme was also performed to obtain thorough understanding of structural responses of the test vehicle and reliability of its solder joints under different test conditions. This model would be used to compute solder joint maximum interfacial normal and shear stresses. A fatigue reliability model that predicts the drop counts for different drop test conditions of JEDEC drop test condition: B (1500 G; 0.5 ms) and system-like condition: (325 G; 0.576 ms) was established. This study provides an accurate and reliable way to understand the correlation between system level and board level drop tests solder joint stress and to help to achieve service life improvements in early development stage.

Memory cells and access structures consume a large percentage of area in embedded devices so there is a high return from shrinking the cell area as much as possible. This aggressive scaling leads to very difficult resolution, 2D CD control and process window requirements. As the scaling drives lithography even deeper into the low-k1 regime, cooptimization of design layout, mask, and lithography is critical to deliver a production-worthy patterning solution. Computational lithography like Inverse Lithography Technology (ILT) has demonstrated it is an enabling technology to derive improved solutions over traditional OPC as reported in multiple prior publications. In this paper, we will present results of a study on advanced memory cell design optimization with Cell-Level ILT (CL-ILT) where significant design hierarchy can be retained during ILT optimization. Large numbers of cell design variations are explored with automatically generated patterns from ProteusTM Test Pattern Generator (TPG). Fully automated flows from pattern generation to mask synthesis with ILT, data analysis and results visualization are built on ProteusTM Work Flow (PWF) for exploring a fully parameterized design space of interest. Mask complexity including assist features (AF) types, rule or model based, and main feature segmentation are also studied to understand the impact on wafer lithographic performance. A heatmap view of results generated from this design exploration provides a clear and intuitive way to identify maximum design limits of memory cells. Comparison of results from ILT and traditional OPC will be presented as well with both wafer and simulation data.

The last two decades have witnessed a tremendous global growth in Islamic finance and banking, mainly prompted by the global financial crisis. This growth has been accompanied by an increasing interest among researchers, policymakers, managers of financial institutions, and the public about the functionalities of the Islamic banking system and how it differs from conventional banking. Against this backdrop, we start this chapter with an overview and assessment of the practice of Islamic banking around the world. Then, we discuss its primary characteristics, including its underlying principles and common financial products. Next, we review the key findings in the empirical literature on the differences between Islamic and conventional banking at the micro and macro levels. We conclude with a discussion of avenues for future research.

The package structural System-in-Package (SiP) has been widely applied for many years. A substrate-based platform integrates heterogeneous components such as RF front-end module, WiFi module and passives into one package. The main strategy and advantages of SiP are small form factor, flexible design, low cost and time to market. To reduce module area and increase mounted components, the advanced technology of dual side molding module is developed to integrate effectively both sides of the substrate. However, dual side molding module face the challenge of the board level reliability, especially drop performance. In this work, both experiment and numerical model were investigated to analyze board level drop reliability of the package. The board level drop experiment was followed JEDEC JESD22-B111 with profile 1500G & 0.5ms and analyzed by Weibull method to calculate the solder fatigue life of dual side molding module. Solder joint performance between module and PCB was focused with different dimensions and materials. Moreover, a three-dimension finite element method (FEM) was used to find the stress level comparison and comes out design guideline for solder joints shape study of the dual side molding module under drop test. The preliminary result shows that without laser ablation gets better characteristic life performance. The numerical analysis will correlate with the actual results to the further investigation of dual side module package.

Objective Weakness of the hand is a major impairment which limits independent living. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is a common approach to help restore muscle strength. Traditional NMES directly over the muscle often leads to a rapid onset of muscle fatigue. In this study, we investigated the force sustainability of finger flexor muscles using a transcutaneous nerve stimulation approach. Approach Finger flexion forces and high-density electromyogram (HD EMG) signals were obtained while electrical stimulation was applied to the ulnar and median nerve bundles through a stimulation grid on the proximal arm segment. Stimulation was also applied to the finger flexor muscle belly targeting the motor point, serving as a control condition. The force produced from the two stimulation approaches were initially matched, and muscle fatigue was subsequently induced with 5 min of continuous stimulation. The rate of decay of the force and EMG amplitude were quantified, and the spatial distribution of the muscle activation during the sustained contraction was also evaluated. Main results The proximal nerve stimulation approach induced a slower decay in both force and EMG, compared with the stimulation at the motor point. The spatial distribution of the elicited muscle activation showed that the proximal nerve stimulation led to a distributed activation across the intrinsic and extrinsic finger flexor muscles and also activated a wider area within the extrinsic muscle. Significance Our findings demonstrated that the stimulation of the proximal nerve bundles can elicit sustained force output and delayed decrease in the rate of force decline. This is potentially due to a spatially distributed activation of the muscle fibers, compared with the traditional motor point stimulation. Future development of our nerve stimulation approach may enable prolonged usage during rehabilitation or assistance for better functional outcomes.

Carrier is considered a good tool for process warpage control in wafer/panel level packaging technology. Glass is the most common carrier material. Its rigid, strong property makes it have the high potential for recycle in assembly. And its adjustable CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion) also have the advantage for warpage control. Thus glass strength and warpage must be investigated for the developing advanced technology, such as panel level fan-out package. Glass is tested by 4PB (4-point bending) which follows ASTM C158-02 to come out strength. Two kinds of standard glass sample (around 50×50 mm2) are chosen to compare with glass supplier’s datasheet for benchmark. The standard sample has the same material, dimension and test condition with supplier. 3 types of standard glass sample with different CTE are tested for strength. Those samples have similar average strength and strength range. Two kinds of panel glass (300×300 mm2) with different CTE are tested by 4PB to benchmark with standard sample using the same material. The panel glass strength is within the database of standard sample. For 12″ wafer glass, there is no equation to transfer breaking load into glass strength. A standard glass is chosen as the base to build modeling, so that the wafer load can be converted into strength by simulation. And the simulation by finite element method result shows a liner relationship between load and strength which is the same with strength equation from ASTM. Three dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) theory developed equipment named aMA (advanced metrology analyzer) is used for warpage measurement. For standard sample, its warpage is very small, approximately 6 um. But warpage of wafer, panel glass are much bigger than standard sample due to those large sizes. 12″ wafer glass samples, CTE ranges from 3.0 to 8.7, have similar warpage behavior, and the CTE can also be calculated by aMA. The CTE from aMA is similar with that from datasheet. For A-supplier 12″ wafer glass, it shows a saddle warpage shape if the glass is attached a PI film. For B-supplier 12″ wafer glass, the warpage becomes much large if the glass CTE is large than 9.6. And the warpage shape behaves a concentric circle. To control process warpage, glass is added some material such as PI film and jig. The glass with PI film or jig also shows a concentric circle warpage shape at 30°C.

The human haptic perceptual system respects a bodywide organization that responds to local stimulation through full-bodied coordination of nested tensions and compressions across multiple nonoverlapping scales. Under such an organization, the suprapostural task of manually hefting objects to perceive their heaviness and length should depend on roots extending into the postural control for maintaining upright balance on the ground surface. Postural sway of the whole body should thus carry signatures predicting what the hand can extract by hefting an object. We found that fractal fluctuations in Euclidean displacement in the participants' center of pressure (CoP) contributed to perceptual judgments by moderating how the participants' hand picked up the informational variable of the moment of inertia. The role of fractality in CoP displacement in supporting heaviness and length judgments increased across trials, indicating that the participants progressively implicate their fractal scaling in their perception of heaviness and length. Traditionally, we had to measure fractality in hand movements to predict perceptual judgments by manual hefting. However, our findings suggest that we can observe what is happening at hand in the relatively distant-from-hand measure of CoP. Our findings reveal the complex relationship through which posture supports manual exploration, entailing perception of the intended properties of hefted objects (heaviness or length) putatively through the redistribution of forces throughout the body.

In recent years, Fan-Out (FO) packages have become widely used in handheld, mobile consumer and internet of things (IoT) devices. FO packaging enables a greater I/O density as well as multiple components in the same package. Several types of FO packaging are offered in the market today, for example; embedded wafer level BGA (eWLB), M-Series™ as well as a flip chip based structure referred to as Fan-out Chip-Last Package (FOCLP) The work compares the mechanical and thermal performance of the three types of FO packages. Finite element analyses were carried out to examine mechanical performance metrics, including warpage, stress in the extreme low-k (ELK) interconnect and board level solder joint reliability. Thermal simulations were completed to compare the thermal dissipation differences among the FO package types. The paper concludes with a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the different FO structures studied.