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Identification method of wheel-rail two-point contact state in switch area
Time-resolved Brownian tomography of single nanocrystals in liquid during oxidative etching
Beyond the spotlight: Unveiling the gender bias curtain in movie reviews
Historically, the film industry has been male-dominated both in front of and behind the camera, resulting in a longstanding gender imbalance in storytelling and representation. This legacy of male-centric narratives may unconsciously influence critics’ expectations and judgments. Existing literature suggests that negative critiques in movie reviews can significantly impact actors’ earnings by diminishing a film’s commercial prospects. This influence extends to potential reductions in back-end compensation and marketability for future projects, and it can directly affect actors’ well-being, leading to increased stress levels and elevated cardiovascular reactivity. Previously, gender biases in movie reviews were computed using disparities in male-led versus female-led movie ratings or box-office earnings; however, no work has been done to quantify the linguistic biases within movie review transcripts. This work aims to leverage our language-model-powered gender bias detection system to measure benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, explicit marking of sex, dehumanization, and generic pronouns in reviews published by professional critics. Therefore, we analyzed 17,165 professionally written reviews, comprising a total of 735,000 sentences. Our analysis uncovers pronounced representation bias in key movie roles, with 72% of first actors, 91% of first directors, and 86% of first writers being male. More importantly, the findings indicate that movies with female-dominated casts evoke, on average, 149% higher magnitude of hostile sexism and 44% higher magnitude of benevolent sexism in their reviews compared to movies with male-dominated casts. We also find that benevolent sexism is most common in Family and Music genres, reflecting the romanticization of gender roles, whereas hostile sexism peaks in Romance. A non-parametric statistical analysis revealed significant gender differences in benevolent and hostile sexism scores for movie reviews, with female first actors, directors, and writers receiving higher levels of both benevolent and hostile sexist criticism compared to their male counterparts.
Cost-effectiveness analysis of extended endoscopic lumbar foraminotomy (EELF) and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF): a prospective observational study
Sucrose-preferring gut microbes prevent host obesity by producing exopolysaccharides
Exploring the relationship between established HIV risk factors and depressive symptoms amongst young women without HIV in two sites in South Africa
Purpose Adolescent girls are at high risk for depression and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition. Poor mental health can increase vulnerability to risky sexual behaviours. Therefore, this study aims to determine the prevalence of depressive symptomology and explore the convergence of HIV risk factors with depressive symptoms amongst cis-gender adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in rural KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and peri-urban Western Cape (WC) communities in South Africa. Methods Cross-sectional survey data from two sites in South Africa was used - the rural Vulindlela community in KZN and the peri-urban Philippi East community in the WC. Study inclusion criteria included being sexually active with at least one male partner, and not planning to relocate in the next 12 months. The PHQ-9 scale was used to determine depressive symptomology, a socio-behavioural questionnaire was used to determine sexual behaviours, odds ratios and confidence intervals derived from logistic regression models were used to explore the associations between depressive symptomology and socio-behavioural factors associated with HIV acquisition. Results The cohort consisted of 274 adolescent girls, 38.6% from the WC site and 61.4% from the KZN site. Overall, 15.7% (43/274) of AGYW reported depressive symptoms. Participants from the peri-urban WC site were more likely to experience depressive symptoms (OR 8.34; 95% CI 3.80–18.30) compared to those living in the rural KZN site. Depressive symptoms were less likely to occur in adolescent girls between the ages of 14 to 17 as compared to those between the ages of 18 and 19 (OR 0.44; 95% CI 0.22–0.90). Socio-behavioural HIV risk factors associated with depressive symptoms include: age disparate relationships (OR 2.98; 95% CI 1.52–5.84), high (four or more) numbers of lifetime partners (OR 8.15; 95% CI 3.60–18.45) and engaging in sex under the influence of alcohol (OR 2.58; 95% CI 1.32–5.04). Multivariate analysis showed that participants from the WC site (AOR 5.25; 95% CI 1.95–14.17) had higher odds of experiencing depressive symptoms while participants with four or more lifetime partners (AOR 3.46; 95% CI 1.24–9.60) were at higher odds of experiencing depressive symptoms. Conclusion In this cross-sectional study, depressive symptomology is associated with certain HIV risk behaviours. Longitudinal studies are required to test the causal relationship between depression and HIV acquisition and to better understand the geospatial differences observed.
Prediction of the transient coolant jet released from the nose cone at supersonic flow via machine learning
Leveraging synthetic data to improve regional sea level predictions
Impacts of climate change on the suitable habitat of Angelica sinensis and analysis of its drivers in China
Correction for Austin et al., Death-receptor activation halts clathrin-dependent endocytosis
Description of current status of implementation and management of cardiac arrest in China
Publisher Correction: Optimization and prediction of paver block properties with ceramic waste as fine aggregate using response surface methodology
Superpixel guided spectral-spatial feature extraction and weighted feature fusion for hyperspectral image classification with limited training samples
Daily briefing: The infinite optimism of polymath Gottfried Leibniz
The link between sleep bruxism and oxidative stress based on a polysomnographic study
Publisher Correction: Rethinking the four-wing problem in plesiosaur swimming using bio-inspired decentralized control
Correction for Khadim et al., Continental freshwater discharge influences sea surface salinity variability near world’s megadeltas
In-pixel foreground and contrast enhancement circuits with customizable mapping
Abstract This paper presents an in-pixel contrast enhancement circuit that performs image processing directly within the pixel circuit. The circuit leverages HyperFET, a hybrid device combining a MOSFET and a phase transition material (PTM), to enhance performance. It can be tuned for different modes of operation. In foreground enhancement mode, it suppresses low-intensity background pixels to nearly zero, isolating the foreground for better object visibility. In contrast enhancement mode, it improves overall image contrast. The contrast enhancement function is customizable both during the design phase and in real-time, allowing the circuit to adapt to specific applications and varying lighting conditions. A model of the designed pixel circuit is developed and applied to a full pixel array, demonstrating significant improvements in image quality. Simulations performed in HSPICE show a nearly 6x increase in Michelson Contrast Ratio (CR) in the foreground enhancement mode. Furthermore, process variation and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) analysis has been conducted to evaluate the robustness of the design under manufacturing variations. The simulation results indicate its potential for real-time, adaptive contrast enhancement across various imaging environments.