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Biological oscillatory activity in neural networks has been intensively studied over the past years. Neuronal oscillations are the basis of many different behavioral patterns and sensory mechanism. Understanding the dynamic properties of these mechanisms is useful for analyses of biological functions and medical diagnoses. The dynamic characteristics of wake‐sleep circadian rhythms and ECG’s cardiac cycle data measured for normal subjects are identified here, using MA‐BP neural network model. It was found that dynamics of regular components can be captured by the model. The captured dynamics are kept in a steady state for some periods. The order of the MA neural network was suppressively controlled by the first 2∼3 orders. Hence it may be useful for medical diagnoses of circadian rhythms and heart related diseases.

COVID-19 has had remarkable impacts in rural America. Although the onset of the pandemic was in urban areas, it quickly spread to rural areas and ultimately resulted in higher mortality rates for rural populations. Due to this and other associated impacts, the pandemic has resulted in mental health issues across rural America. In this chapter, the authors first describe the state of rural America pre-pandemic, then detail the overall and mental health impacts of the pandemic on rural people. Following this, the authors report results of a case study on COVID-19 in the rural America West and conclude with recommended steps for addressing the unfolding crisis. Many of the steps the authors can take to improve rural mental health following the pandemic have long-been necessary. However, given the impacts of COVID-19, they are now needed more than ever.

It is of a great significance for the health monitoring of a liquid rocket engine to build an accurate and reliable fault prediction model. The thrust of a liquid rocket engine is an important indicator for its health monitoring. By predicting the changing value of the thrust, it can be judged whether the engine will fail at a certain time. However, the thrust is affected by various factors, and it is difficult to establish an accurate mathematical model. Thus, this study uses a mixture non-parametric regression prediction model to establish the model of the thrust for the health monitoring of a liquid rocket engine.

This study analyzes the characteristics of the least squares support vector regression (LS-SVR) machine . LS-SVR is suitable to model on the small samples and high dimensional data, but the performance of LS-SVR is greatly affected by its key parameters. Thus, this study implements the advanced intelligent algorithm, the real double-chain coding target gradient quantum genetic algorithm (DCQGA), to optimize these parameters, and the regression prediction model LSSVRDCQGA is proposed. Then the proposed model is used to model the thrust of a liquid rocket engine.

The simulation results show that: the average relative error (ARE) on the test samples is 0.37% when using LS-SVR, but it is 0.3186% when using LSSVRDCQGA on the same samples.

The proposed model of LSSVRDCQGA in this study is effective to the fault prediction on the small sample and multidimensional data, and has a certain promotion.

The original contribution of this study is to establish a mixture non-parametric regression prediction model of LSSVRDCQGA and properly resolve the problem of the health monitoring of a liquid rocket engine along with modeling the thrust of the engine by using LSSVRDCQGA.

Construction tradesmen are exposed to high levels of stress that can worsen mental health, negatively impacting safety compliance and organization productivity. Hence, effectively coping with stress to prevent mental ill-health becomes an essential point of reference. Thus, this study aims to examine the role of factors such as resilience and coping strategies in protecting tradesmen against mental ill-health.

Using a cross-sectional survey design, 110 tradesmen from 65 construction companies were surveyed using the Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Brief Resilience Scale and Ways of Coping Questionnaire.

The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis. With a 74.5%, 36.4% and 14.6% prevalence rate of self-reported depression, anxiety and suicide ideation among the tradesmen, only positive reappraisal, accepting responsibility coping behaviors and resilience would mitigate the likelihood of developing mental ill-health symptoms.

This study has extended existing literature by providing information vital to building interventions to deal with stressors effectively. This information would benefit individuals, organizations and the economy and equip policymakers with a deeper knowledge base toward improving mental health.

You never know, that's all, there's no way of knowing … Last week our lives were all right … But now I think we're going to be murdered. Just like that.” So begins The Shadow Knows, a novel whose major theme is a woman's panic about the possibility of danger to her family. She is not alone; Americans are increasingly fearful of violence as it becomes more pervasive. According to the 1982–83 Statistical Abstract of the U.S., published by the Bureau of the Census, one of every 30 people over 12 years old was the victim of violence in 1980. And those statistics refer only to reported violence; they do not include the victims of private violence: child abuse, incest, or spouse beating. Such domestic violence more than doubled between 1976 and 1981, and accounts for more than one‐third of the nation's police forces' time. The statistics pertaining to women are particularly worrisome. A woman's chances of being raped at some point in her life are now one in ten—and her chances of being injured by battery are even greater. Such statistics are very frightening.

Minority female students are increasingly faced with issues such as financial instability, work-family imbalance, and few growth opportunities in their careers. Within the context of community colleges, the presence of minority female administrators may serve as a venue for the empowerment and attainment of academic and professional goals for minority female students through administrators’ mentoring practices. The purpose of this paper is to explore the lived experience of community college minority female administrators in their role as informal mentors to community college minority female students.

The author used a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore community college minority female administrators’ experiences as mentors of female minority students. Mullen’s (2009) alternative mentoring model guided the study as well as a feminist lens. The purposive sample included six minority female administrators from two Florida community colleges, with individual interviews based on 18 open-ended questions. Data were analyzed with Atlas.ti™ qualitative software.

The findings uncovered four common themes and seven subthemes regarding the experience of informal mentoring as a minority female administrator: facilitating empowerment with two subthemes – modeling and coaching; administrator-student relationship with three subthemes – encouragement, life experiences, and past mentors; personal growth; and formalized mentoring with two subthemes – create a support system and access to information.

In any study, phenomenological or otherwise, the researcher’s biases may cloud the data analysis process, and the researcher may code the data incorrectly or leave out crucial information during the transcription of the interview. It was essential for the author to understand the concept of epochè to bracket the author’s own experiences as a minority female (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2012). The purposeful sample was small and only focused on one region in the US, and the study’s findings may not be transferable to other contexts.

Minority female administrators’ experiences mentoring minority female students have not been comprehensively explored in the scholarly realm; hence, their mentoring journey is unknown. The study sought to shatter that silence and create a dialogue that will hopefully continue in the field of mentoring.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze critically the evolution of educational reform in Thailand. Three major phases are identified. The special focus of the paper is an assessment of the third reform which began with the passage of the Office of the National Education Commission (ONEC) (2002).

The methodology for the study is mixed methods including document analysis, direct participant observation, and compilation of major statistical performance indicators from diverse sources.

The success of the most recent reform has been clearly mixed. Major structural and legal changes have occurred but overall system performance remains disappointingly low, despite large Thai educational expenditures as a percent of national budget and the presence of much impressive educational leadership talent. The paper identifies what is called the “Thai educational paradox”. The essence of the paradox is Thailand’s failure to achieve its educational potential. The paper identifies key factors explaining the paradox.

The paper has significant theoretical, policy, and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, the study confirms the persistence of strong regional disparities and a lack of fiscal neutrality associated with a neoliberal model of capitalistic development. From a practical policy perspective, it is imperative for Thailand to improve the overall quality of its educational system and to reduce regional disparities. There have been numerous studies of each of Thailand’s three phases of reform, but this paper’s original contribution is its presentation of a historical, interdisciplinary, and integrated perspective on the evolution of educational reform and the many obstacles associated with its implementation.

In recent years, US firms have increasingly integrated ESG performance goals into their executive remuneration packages. This study examines the relationship between board gender diversity and the tendency of firms to incorporate ESG metrics in performance-based compensation using data from US firms. The key questions this study addresses are: Are firms with more females on the board more likely to link executive compensation metrics? What components and types of ESG metrics are more likely to be adopted by firms with more females on the board?.

This study employs OLS regression, logistic regression, as well as instrumental variable, propensity score matching, and entropy balance methods to establish causality.

This study finds that firms with gender-diverse boards are more likely to shape their executive remuneration plans to be more ESG-oriented. The most significant positive relationship is observed with environmental and social sub-categories. The results also demonstrate that female directors are more likely to encourage firms to evaluate managers based on absolute and short-term ESG goals.

This study is one of the early studies that examine the adoption of ESG performance goals into executive compensation plans. It contributes to the existing literature by exploring the relationship between board gender diversity and the probability of firms incorporating ESG performance goals into executive compensation packages using a sample of US firms.

Construction workers’ health and safety (CWHS) research in India has not gained much attention among researchers. This study aims to review articles related to CWHS research in India using a science mapping approach.

A total number of 64 journal articles published between 2004 and 2019 were extracted from the Scopus database using keywords including “construction safety,” “occupational health,” “ergonomics in construction,” etc. VOSviewer software was used to examine the influential keywords, documents, sources and authors in the field of CWHS.

The study found that most of the current work focuses on safety management, safety climate, safety performance, musculoskeletal disorders and behavior-based safety. The result indicates no theoretical basis for the theories and learning methods for the existing studies.

The findings open up a research gap that researchers explore to enhance workers’ health and safety within the Indian construction environment.

The paper is the first article to provide a better understanding of current research in the field of CWHS in India by analyzing its growth through the science mapping approach.

This study aims to examine the construction of feminine beauty by onnagata kabuki actors in Japan’s history, with a focus on their narratives in modern advertorials about beauty products. The objective is to identify emerging themes in their narratives and to analyze the symbolism and rhetoric used to persuade the audience to enhance traditional feminine “beauty” by using the specific brand in the wake of Japan’s modernization and Westernization.

The study primarily employs semiotic analysis of advertorials in the newspaper and in the kabuki theatre’s program. They are supplemented with images from premodern prints. Visual content is described and analyzed as well.

The narration of the onnagata in the advertorial is the process of “truth-telling,” where the primary concern of the storyteller is persuasion about truth, such as belief in the new method of makeup with the advertised brand, and falsehood, such as belief in the old method of skincare. Four themes and binary oppositions of values emerged from the data: (1) Identity: selves vs others; (2) Material objects, cosmetics: scientific vs primitive; (3) Practice: competent vs incompetent, and (4) Transformations: intentional vs incidental.

The research shows that Japan’s onnagata transvestism tradition and its influences on women’s beauty practice have existed since the premodern period, preceding contemporary cross-gender beauty practices observed in social media.