EXERCISE QUALITY ANALYSIS USING AI MODEL AND COMPUTER VISION

In 2020 where the Covid-19 virus starts spreading around the world, many countries suffered and are forced to go through lockdowns. This creates a new norm where people are encouraged to stay at home and only go out for the purpose of getting necessities. However, in this condition, people are still urged to keep an active lifestyle by doing exercises indoors. This results in the increase of people working out at home with reference to trainer videos found online. Having said so, these trainers cannot advice or look after the people ‘mimicking' them through their screens. Therefore, an idea was sparked to create an exercise assistant program to compare the posture of the user against the video referenced. With this program, it can evaluate the performance and accuracy of exercise done by the user and provide feedback to the user to improve in their future attempt on the same exercise. With the help of the MediaPipe pose estimation model, the Joint Coordinates of the users can be obtained. These data will then be converted into 12 of the main human body Joint Angles before going through a dynamic comparison method called the DTW (Dynamic Time Warping). Thus, the similarity of each joint of the user and the referenced video can be successfully acquired. Other than that, both user's and trainer's Joint Angles are also plotted in graphs at the same time to provide a visual representation of the differences found. This system is believed to have the potential to be integrated into the educational and healthcare world in the future as a method to constantly monitor and notice what is necessary to improve. © School of Engineering, Taylor's University.

United States Consumers' Landscaping Expenditures: A Case of Garden and Lawn Care Services and Equipment

The economic downturns of 2007–09 and the COVID-19 pandemic affected most industries in the United States, including landscape services and equipment sales, and provoked both short-term disruptions and long-term changes. To understand how the landscaping industry has responded, we investigated patterns of consumer expenditures on landscape services and equipment from 2009 through 2021 using a representative sample of 76,895 US households. We categorized US households as detached single-family residents and townhouse residents to more fully articulate the factors that turned potential consumers into purchasers and the factors that affected purchasers' expenditures. We used a double-hurdle model to identify key factors that drive consumer demand for landscape services and equipment over time, including social-demographics, geographic characteristics, housing conditions, year and seasonal trends, and the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that during the studied period, the demand for landscape services declined in terms of both the percentage of consumers purchasing the services and the purchasers' average expenditures, while the demand for do-it-yourself (DIY) equipment remained relatively unchanged. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of consumers who purchased landscape services increased, while the expenditures on landscape services decreased in 2020 and then began to rebound in 2021, but not enough to reverse the overall downward trend. In contrast, purchases of DIY equipment were relatively stable in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and mainly relied on current consumers. © 2023, American Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.

The time value of red doctors’ spirit and its integration into the cultivation of medical students

China has made great, strategic achievements in the struggle against COVID-1 9 epidemic, which shows the profound and rich value of the times of the red doctors’ spirit. It not only give noble occupation responsibility and historical mission to the training of medical students in the new era, but also provide value guidance and action guide. Based on the successful experience of COVID-1 9 prevention and control and the special background of the times, set training objectives guided by the demand of society and universities for medical talents, combined with the ideological reality of medical students at present, actively carry out patriotism education, mental health education, professional ethics education and scientific spirit education for medical students through multiple channels such as strengthen the effectiveness of ideological and political theory curriculum, promote the ideological and political construction of curriculum, give full play to the educational function of various practical activities, and using environmental infiltration method to make red culture “live”, with a view to cultivating medical talents with firm politics, superb medical skills, dedication, both ability and political integrity, being able to take on great responsibilities, and helping the construction and development of a healthy China. © 2022, Editorial department of Chinese Medical Ethics. All rights reserved.

How empathetic leadership communication mitigates employees' turnover intention during COVID-19-related organizational change

Purpose: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak thrust a spotlight on organizational leaders and the challenges that employees face during periods of organizational change. The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of empathetic supervisor communication on employee turnover intention and the mediating role of affective trust toward supervisors and employee–organization relationship (EOR) quality. Informed by the social exchange theory and EOR literature, the authors develop a model in which affective trust toward supervisors and EOR quality mediates the relationship between empathetic supervisor communication and employee turnover intention. Design/methodology/approach: This study recruited 417 employees based in the USA through an online panel operated by a professional survey company. Data collection that followed a quota sampling procedure lasted for about three weeks in October 2020. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the study hypotheses. Findings: The findings of this study indicated that the extent to which supervisors adopted empathetic communication during organizational change had considerable repercussions on their supervisees' affective trust toward supervisors, relationship perception toward their organizations, and ultimately, their turnover intention. Originality/value: This study is among the first that identifies empathetic communication as a pivotal force in driving employees' positive relational and behavioral reactions, reinforcing the growing expectation of supervisors in fulfilling communication functions during organizational change. Moreover, the authors contribute to understanding change management as an activity rooted in and enacted through communication between supervisors and subordinates. In addition, this study contributes to the organizational research of empathy during change. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Xi'an network attention measurement in the post-epidemic era

Based on Baidu index data and the development timeline of COVID-19 in China, this study analyzes the spatial and temporal distribution pattern of network attention in Xi'an under epidemic prevention and control. The results show that: 1) In 2020, the network attention of Xi ' an affected by the epidemic is low. The trend of monthly network attention in the year is consistent with the time axis of domestic epidemic development, showing a ' double peak and double valley ' mode, and it is high in summer and autumn, and low in winter and spring. On the holidays, the attention increased before the festival, and the ' May 1 ' reached the peak one day before the festival, and the ' Eleventh ' reached the peak on the third day of the festival, showing a clear ' blowout ' trend. 2) The spatial distribution of Xi'an network attention is scattered, and shows the characteristics of high network attention in Henan, Sichuan and other surrounding provinces and Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other coastal economic developed areas. © COPYRIGHT SPIE.

Genome sequencing of sewage detects regionally prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants (preprint)

Viral genome sequencing has guided our understanding of the spread and extent of genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes are usually sequenced from nasopharyngeal swabs of individual patients to track viral spread. Recently, RT-qPCR of municipal wastewater has been used to quantify the abundance of SARS-CoV-2 in several regions globally. However, metatranscriptomic sequencing of wastewater can be used to profile the viral genetic diversity across infected communities. Here, we sequenced RNA directly from sewage collected by municipal utility districts in the San Francisco Bay Area to generate complete and near-complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes. The major consensus SARS-CoV-2 genotypes detected in the sewage were identical to clinical genomes from the region. Using a pipeline for single nucleotide variant (SNV) calling in a metagenomic context, we characterized minor SARS-CoV-2 alleles in the wastewater and detected viral genotypes which were also found within clinical genomes throughout California. Observed wastewater variants were more similar to local California patient-derived genotypes than they were to those from other regions within the US or globally. Additional variants detected in wastewater have only been identified in genomes from patients sampled outside of CA, indicating that wastewater sequencing can provide evidence for recent introductions of viral lineages before they are detected by local clinical sequencing. These results demonstrate that epidemiological surveillance through wastewater sequencing can aid in tracking exact viral strains in an epidemic context.