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Objective.To measure the EEG signals of the people with chronic stroke in eyes-closed and eyes-open condition and study their relationship with the cognitive function and mental wellbeing. Methods.The investigators would conduct cognitive and mental wellbeing tests on recruited subjects. Their EEG signal was acquired by the 16-channel EEG system. The absolute power under different frequency bands and EEG indices (delta alpha ratio and pairwise derived brain symmetry index) in different eye conditions was calculated. Pearson's correlation was conducted to investigate the association between the clinical tests and the EEG index. Results.32 subjects were recruited for the study. There was a significant correlation between the pairwise derived brain symmetry index (pdBSI) in eyes-open condition with the Stroop Test (p = .002), Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test-3 s (p = .008)/2 s (p = .002) and WHO-5 well-being scale (p = .023). Conclusions.There is a significant correlation between the brain symmetry index and the cognitive and wellbeing assessment. Brain symmetry index over the delta frequency has been found to be the most useful parameter relating to the clinical score.Significance:It is recommended to use EEG as an adjunctive neuropsychological assessment in clinics for people with chronic stroke, especially for clients who could not undertake conventional assessments (eg aphasia, attention problem).Highlights: There is a significant correlation between the EEG index and the clinical neuropsychological assessmentPairwise Derived Brain Symmetry index in delta frequency range correlated with most of the neuropsychological outcome.It is feasible for us to adopt EEG as an adjunctive assessment in clinical settings.

This article considers potential impacts the study of language, including ecolinguistics, can have on important real-world issues, and how linguists and others can involve themselves in addressing these issues for a sustainable future. The article is divided into two parts. The first part provides an illustrative study in which computer tools were utilized to investigate media reporting. The study examined the relative coverage of issues of basic human needs (food, clean water, and sanitation), which are part of the focus of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, in four major newspapers from Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and the US. Data were collected between November 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was in its early days in terms of worldwide attention. During that time period, the pandemic received far more coverage in those newspapers than did the other issues, even though basic human needs greatly outweighed the COVID-19 pandemic as to deaths and other forms of suffering at the time of data collection, not to mention the toll on human life in the many years before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Reasons for this severe discrepancy were explored with insights from professionals working in the media and related sectors. The skewed distribution of media coverage, we argue, reflects a crisis of responsibility and values. The second part of the article serves to highlight how those of us in language studies can make a contribution to the wider discussion about, among other important concerns, the role and responsibility of media in shaping the public’s views and actions on issues that are at the heart of sustainable development, and how we can be more socially engaged. We conclude by arguing that ecolinguists have much to contribute to the sustainability of the world, which ultimately requires a respect for the entire ecological community.

AbstractUncertainty about the future rises in recessions. But is uncertainty a source of business cycles or an endogenous response to them, and does the type of uncertainty matter? We propose a novel SVAR identification strategy to address these questions via inequality constraints on the structural shocks. We find that sharply higher macroeconomic uncertainty in recessions is often an endogenous response to output shocks, while uncertainty about financial markets is a likely source of output fluctuations. (JEL D81, E23, E32, E44, G14)

Promotion of wellbeing programs seldom described in psychiatric service locally. Through the Five Ways to Wellbeing program (NEF, 2008), including the actions to Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give, clients were encouraged to make choices according to their wants and better their health. To document the applicability of the Five Ways to Wellbeing program in acute psychiatric settings. Prospective cohort analysis of patients admitted to In-patient Psychiatric wards within 12 months period. Clients are free to choose the seven sessions of intervention from topics of ‘Five ways to wellbeing program’ or ‘Illness Management Recovery program’. Measurements include Pre- and post-intervention assessment of subjective well-being (C-SWEMWBS) and hope perception (Hope Scale), number of clinics visits and readmission rate 6 months post discharge. 623 admitted patients were recruited with 333 elected for Wellbeing Program. 79 within the group completed the five Ways of Wellbeing while the rest attended a mix of Wellbeing & Recovery program. The change of SWEMWBS score and Hope score is found correlated significantly with number of sessions of the Wellbeing Program attended, age, diagnostic group, onset years and employment status upon admission. The change of SWEMWBS score and the Hope score is significant across all participants of various diagnosis (p< 0.05). Stepwise regression confirmed five sessions of Five Ways to Wellbeing Program was strong predictor for change in SWEMWBS score (R = 0.169; Sig. = 0.001; F= 10.338) and Hope score (R = 0.115; Sig. = 0.031, F= 4.702). Multivariate Test of between subject effect (n= 357) also showed significant mixed effect of Wellbeing and Hope scores on Clinic visits (R2= 0.933; p= 0.000; F= 7.42; power = 1, alpha = 0.025), and Readmission rate to psychiatric wards (R2= 0.908; p= 0.000; F= 5.285; power = 1; alpha = 0.025) within 6 month after discharge. The five ways of wellbeing program so developed has shown statistically effective in promotion of Mental Wellbeing state and personal Hope among the clients with severe mental illness during their acute admission phase. More extensive research on their protective effects on clinic visits and readmission in severe mental illness population is warranted.

This paper extends the Competitive Storage Model by incorporating prominent features of the production process and financial markets. This extension seems necessary since the basic model does not successfully explain the degree of serial correlation observed in actual data. To generate a high degree of price persistence, the model must incorporate agents that are willing to hold stocks more often than predicted by the basic model, so we include characteristics of the production and trading mechanisms to provide the required incentives. Specifically, we introduce (i) gestation lags in production with heteroskedastic supply shocks, (ii) multiperiod forward contracts, and (iii) a convenience return to inventory holding. Rational expectations solutions for twelve commodities are solved numerically. Simulations are then used to assess the effects of these extensions on the time-series properties of commodity prices. The results indicate that each feature accounts partly for the persistence as well as the occasional spikes observed in actual data. Evidence is also presented that the precautionary demand for stocks might play a substantial role in the dynamics of commodity prices.

Background:Biopsy forceps are widely used in gastrointestinal endoscopy, and yet few data exist on the usage and costs associated with disposable versus reusable forceps. Methods:We prospectively measured the costs and operational performance of disposable and reusable forceps in 200 biopsy sessions; 100 sessions were performed using disposable forceps and 100 sessions were performed using reusable forceps. Total cost per use of the reusable forceps, including acquisition costs plus the costs of reprocessing per established guidelines, was determined. At the end of the study, the reusable forceps were disassembled to determine the cause of mechanical failures. Results:The total cost per use of the disposable forceps was $38. For the reusable forceps, the acquisition cost per forceps was $415 and the total reprocessing cost was $16.56 ± 0.07 per forceps. For 10, 15 and 20 uses, reusable forceps costs were $58.06, $44.23, and $37.31, respectively. Reusable forceps malfunction at 11 to 15 uses was 5%; at 16 to 20 uses was 25%; and at 21 to 25 uses reached 80% (p< 0.001). Dismantling of the reusable forceps at the end of the study demonstrated coiled sheath kinking, rust in the forceps closure mechanism, bent spikes, and biomaterial contamination. Conclusions:Up to 15 to 20 uses, disposable and reusable forceps costs were similar. If reusable forceps are used more than 20 times, then they are less expensive. However, in this range of uses, reusable biopsy forceps performance diminishes. With disposable biopsy forceps costing less than $40, cost differences between reusable and disposable forceps are minimal. (Gastrointest Endosc 2000;51:266-70.)

Practitioners often have at their disposal a large number of instruments that are weakly exogenous for the parameter of interest. However, not every instrument has the same predictive power for the endogenous variable, and using too many instruments can induce bias. We consider two ways of handling these problems. The first is to form principal components from the observed instruments, and the second is to reduce the number of instruments by subset variable selection. For the latter, we consider boosting, a method that does not require an a priori ordering of the instruments. We also suggest a way to pre-order the instruments and then screen the instruments using the goodness of fit of the first stage regression and information criteria. We find that the principal components are often better instruments than the observed data except when the number of relevant instruments is small. While no single method dominates, a hard-thresholding method based on the t test generally yields estimates with small biases and small root-mean-squared errors.