BackgroundYouTube (YT) is the most common video platform accessed by surgical trainees for the preparation of surgery. However, the quality of the YT videos has been questioned time and again. This study was performed to comprehensively assess the quality of the available YT videos on pediatric laparoscopic pyeloplasty (LP).Materials and MethodsThe term “laparoscopic pyeloplasty in children” was searched in YT on June 3, 2021, and ten most-viewed videos on LP were included. The percentage video power index (%VPI), the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria, and the laparoscopic surgery video educational guidelines (LAP-VEGaS) video assessment tool were used to assess the video popularity, the quality of medical information, and the overall quality of the included videos respectively. Videos were defined as acceptable (score of 11 or more) or poor quality (score <11) based on LAP-VEGaS scores. The inter-observer agreement, in terms of the LAP-VEGaS scoring, was observed among two surgeons using the kappa statistics.ResultsThe median values of the %VPI and JAMA scores of the included YT videos were 68.1 (range 0-13570) and 2 (range 1-2) respectively. The median LAP-VEGaS score of these videos was 6.75 (range 2-16.5) with only two videos having acceptable quality. The quality of these videos was poor in 7/9 domains of the LAP-VEGaS tool. A moderate inter-observer agreement (kappa=0.542) was observed in terms of the LAP-VEGaS scores assigned to the videos (p<0.0001).ConclusionA comprehensive assessment of the ten most-viewed YT videos on pediatric LP revealed poor overall quality. The included videos depicted sub-optimal presentation of the medical information and weak conformity to the LAP-VEGaS guidelines. Laparoscopic pyeloplasty (LP) is one of the common minimally invasive procedures performed in children . Recent Over the past few decades, e-learning has emerged out to be the new method of learning among medical undergraduates and graduates . In factBy utilizing three independent video assessment tools, the current study aims to assess the quality of operative videos regarding LP on YT. Percentage video power index (%VPI), the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria, and the laparoscopic surgery video educational guidelines (LAP-VEGaS) video assessment tool were used to assess the video popularity, the quality of medical information, and the overall quality of the included videos respectively. We hypothesize that the quality of these YT videos is sub-optimal and poor. We also intend to evaluate the inter-observer agreement on LAP-VEGaS scoring among two surgeons with different operative experiences.youtube.com, the total number of YT videos were identified. Further, on the same day, an independent video search was conducted by two authors (SA and BJ) to screen the operative videos regarding LP in children on YT. The videos were filtered as per their view counts and ten most-viewed videos were selected. Seminars, lectures, webinars, and commercial advertisements were excluded. Videos depicting open pyeloplasty were also excluded.One of the authors (SA) utilized the ‘advanced search’ feature of the Google search engine on June 3, 2021, to identify the total number of YT videos on pediatric laparoscopic pyeloplasty. After entering the search term as “laparoscopic pyeloplasty in children” (minus ‘robot’) in the ‘all these words’ menu and entering the domain as Video characteristics such as the information about the surgeon (name and country), type of the operative approach , operative side (left or right), year of video upload, the duration of the video, view count, like count, and dislike count were recorded. An estimate of the video popularity, the video power index (VPI), was calculated as done in the previous studies . The JouTwo authors (BJ and GS), with five years and more than ten years of experience in pediatric laparoscopic surgery respectively, assessed the quality of the operative videos using the LAP-VEGaS tool . DevelopThis cross-sectional study involved the analysis of information already available on an open video platform, i.e. YouTube. A clearance from Institutional Review Board was not required as no patient contact was established throughout the course of the study. Data entry was done in Microsoft Excel (version 15.24) spreadsheets and analyses were performed using StataCorp. 2011. Stata Statistical Software: Release 12. College Station, TX: StataCorp LP. Data were expressed as numbers, proportion, median, and ranges. Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare the median values of percentage VPI (%VPI) and JAMA scores among the acceptable quality (group A) and poor quality (group B) videos. The inter-observer agreement for LAP-VEGaS scores was adjudged using the kappa statistics . Based oA total of 125 videos were available on YT regarding pediatric LP. Of these, thirteen most-viewed videos were screened to select ten of them. Two videos were excluded because one was a webinar and the other was a lecture. The third excluded video depicted LP performed by the senior author (GS) of the study. The surgeon’s information was present in all of the included videos. The majority  of the videos were uploaded by surgeons from India. The countries of origin of the remaining videos were France (n=1), the United States of America (n=1), Russia (n=1), and Brazil (n=1). Table The ten most-viewed videos regarding pediatric LP on YouTube were uploaded between 2010-2017. The median duration of the videos was 6.35 (range= 4.20-14.45) minutes. The median view count, like count, and dislike count were 2411 (range= 985-454168), 9 (range 0-741), and 1 (range 0-7). Five out of ten videos depicted left-sided pathology. The transperitoneal approach was used in the majority  of the children. The operative side and operative approach were not mentioned/appreciable in one of the videos.Table Figure The operative exposure of the residents and trainees varies considerably among different surgical subspecialties. In fact, due to the worldwide variation in weekly working hours, inconsistent surgical exposure is observed among trainees of similar subspecialty but working in different centers of the world . These vYT is the most commonly used video platform by trainees from different surgical sub-specialties ,7. AlthoIn this study, a comprehensive quality assessment of the YT videos on pediatric LP was performed. %VPI was used as the tool for the assessment of video popularity. The reason for using %VPI rather than the individual parameters  was to avoid any bias due to the year of uploading the video ,14. A coLAP-VEGaS was the third tool that was used to assess the overall quality of the operative videos on minimally-invasive surgery (MIS) in the current study. Weak conformity to the LAP-VEGaS guidelines was observed among the included videos. Only two videos had an acceptable quality (score of 11 or more). Apart from the two domains items 5 and 9), the domain information was incompletely presented (or not presented) by the majority of the videos. Consistent with the findings of the previous studies [ and 9, tAlthough Haslam et al.  have demThe present study has few limitations. First, we have included ten most-viewed operative videos on pediatric LP from one video platform only. The sample size of the study is small. Also, a comparison with other video platforms and video libraries of the surgical societies will provide insightful information. Second, only videos regarding one surgical procedure were included in our study. Therefore, the available YT videos on other pediatric minimally-invasive procedures need to be scrutinized before any definite conclusions are drawn. Finally, for the quality assessment, the videos were filtered as per the view counts. As depicted by the lack of correlation between high LAP-VEGaS scores and %VPI, the criterion to filter the videos based on their view counts is not ideal. Hence, further studies with well-structured screening criteria need to be conducted for an optimal assessment of the video quality.A comprehensive assessment of the ten most-viewed YT videos on pediatric LP revealed poor overall quality. The included videos depicted a sub-optimal presentation of the medical information (JAMA benchmark criteria) and weak conformity to the LAP-VEGaS guidelines. Therefore, strict viewer discretion is advised to the surgical trainees while watching the operative videos on YT till compliance with these quality assessment tools is significantly improved.


Reverse vaccinology (RV) is a state-of-the-art technique to predict vaccine candidates from pathogen's genome(s). To promote vaccine development, we updated Vaxign2, the first web-based vaccine design program using reverse vaccinology with machine learning. Vaxign2 is a comprehensive web server for rational vaccine design, consisting of predictive and computational workflow components. The predictive part includes the original Vaxign filtering-based method and a new machine learning-based method, Vaxign-ML. The benchmarking results using a validation dataset showed that Vaxign-ML had superior prediction performance compared to other RV tools. Besides the prediction component, Vaxign2 implemented various post-prediction analyses to significantly enhance users’ capability to refine the prediction results based on different vaccine design rationales and considerably reduce user time to analyze the Vaxign/Vaxign-ML prediction results. Users provide proteome sequences as input data, select candidates based on Vaxign outputs and Vaxign-ML scores, and perform post-prediction analysis. Vaxign2 also includes precomputed results from approximately 1 million proteins in 398 proteomes of 36 pathogens. As a demonstration, Vaxign2 was used to effectively analyse SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing COVID-19. The comprehensive framework of Vaxign2 can support better and more rational vaccine design. Vaxign2 is publicly accessible at   Vaxign2 provides the immunogenicity assessment by the post-prediction analysis workflow. The principal mechanism of vaccines is the adaptive immune response: humoral (antibody) and cell-mediated responses. The protection offered by these immune responses is primarily mediated by B cells and T cells. In particular, T cell response can be mainly categorized into CD4 (helper) and CD8 (cytotoxic) T cell responses, which are induced by epitopes bound to major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-II, and MHC-I molecules, respectively. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the predicted PAgs based on their B cell and T cell epitopes.P-value for the predicted epitope binding to PSSMs is calculated by the MAST sequence homology search algorithm  for different MHC-I or MHC-II alleles are generated by MEME  based onlgorithm . Besideslgorithm .As mentioned in the previous section, epitopes bound to the MHC-I or MHC-II molecules are presented to T cells to induce an immune response. However, human MHC molecules are highly polymorphic, and the expression of different MHC molecules is significantly impacted by human genetic variation. Thus, it is essential to determine if the predicted PAg contains a set of epitopes capable of binding to different MHC molecules and offers a broad coverage to the world population. Based on the result from Vaxitop MHC-I and MHC-II T cell epitope prediction, Vaxign2 can also calculate the population coverage of the input proteins using the IEDB Population Coverage Tool . The prehttp://hmmer.org/) with the hidden Markov models downloaded from the EggNog database  and Gene Ontology (GO) terms, as well as possible orthologous proteins using HMMER2  Heegatives . To avoiVaxign2 contains publicly available pre-computed results of 980,285 proteins from 398 proteomes in 36 pathogens , and TabClostridioides difficile cell wall protein 22 (Cwp22)   and to saumannii .The emerging Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a massive crisis to global public health, and WHO declared the COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The causative agent of COVID-19 is SARS-CoV-2, which shares high sequence identity with SARS-CoV . As of 6The SARS-CoV-2 S protein is a commonly used vaccine antigen in current COVID-19 vaccine development. Figure P-value ≤ 0.01)  Figure . The MHC) Figure ,34, and ) Figure . Vaxign2) Figure . Further) Figure . Note th) Figure  and did ) Figure , such as) Figure . Finally) Figure  in Ortho Moderna ,17.O-methyltransferase (2′-O-MT), and nucleocapsid phosphoprotein (N)  Figure . Among t) Figure . In part) Figure  showed t) Figure . It coul) Figure , that coVaxign2 is a comprehensive system providing protective antigen (PAg) prediction and post-prediction analysis to support accurate and efficient antigen selection during the early step of vaccine development. The original Vaxign is one of the most popular open-source Reverse Vaccinology (RV) tools. Vaxign-ML is a machine learning (ML)-based RV prediction tool that facilitates vaccine candidate selection with high accuracy. The current Vaxign-ML was primariy developed for bacterial and viral PAg prediction, and will be extended to predict parasitic PAgs. By integrating Vaxign and Vaxign-ML, Vaxign2 provides an accurate PAg predict and yet supports customizable selection based on the user's prior knowledge. Furthermore, Vaxign2 facilitates post-prediction analysis of the predicted PAgs for immunogenicity and functional assessments.Vaccine informatics  is a raphttp://www.violinet.org/vaxign2. The Vaxign2 source code is also available in the GitHub repository (https://github.com/VIOLINet/Vaxign2-django).Vaxign2 is accessible at gkab279_Supplemental_FileClick here for additional data file.


According to the reviewed literature, the selection system in handball is quite complex and requires new approaches from trainers based on the current and modern requirements of this game. This paper investigated the importance of coordinative ability development in handball in the selection process for young Romanian children (10–12 years old). The results were obtained from a sociological questionnaire survey, for which 109 handball coaches, 34 female and 75 male, were questioned. The mean age was 40.71 years (SD = ±5.32) with a range of 31–51 years for female coaches and 40.3 years (SD = ±7.53) with a range of 30–62 years for male coaches. Their experience in handball coaching varied from 10 to 30 years, with 19.88 (SD = ±5.05) years of experience on average for female coaches and 19.09 (SD = ±5.26) years of experience on average for male coaches. The answers delivered depended on the experience and knowledge the coaches had and difficulties they had encountered over the years. Data are presented using a variety of appropriate descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, and mean and standard variation. Obtained data were modeled using a one-way analysis of variation (ANOVA). The questionnaire format was three-to-five-point Likert scale. As a general overview, in the opinion of the surveyed specialists, the Romania selection process for handball does not meet their expectations, and the development level of coordinative abilities in 10–12 year-old children is medium to weak. A total of 61.76% female and 58.66% male coaches stressed the importance of developing coordination abilities to optimize the selection process of children for handball games, opening up a new approach in modern training methods for performance achievement. The obtained results from this paper questionnaire can be used by coaches as a different approach to the handball training process, considering that handball is a game mainly based on coordination. The need for thorough and forward-looking training of athletes is a major concern of researchers in terms of modern sports training nowadays. Training tomorrow’s athletes’ team is considered an important priority, and it is the main concern of the researchers. They try to make various contributions and improvements in sports training components based on the athletes’ age ,2,3.Currently, the selection process in Romania for handball games is carried out according to certain principles and rules that are no longer up to date, which determines a regression from a performance point of view.The specialized literature is diversified in terms of selection issues but lacks the solutions that coaches are looking for. The harmonious combination of motor, morphological, psychological, and functional criteria, considering the optimal age of selection, health, and body integrity, is argued to improve handball performance.Awareness of the importance of carrying out the selection process on a well-determined scientific basis, the constant drive to find specific innovative solutions, and the application of the criteria listed in optimal conditions provides the appropriate framework for initiation into sports activity with the aim to achieve good performance.The main purpose of this study was to investigate handball coaches’ opinions and gauge to what extent they believe children’s coordinative abilities’ development may influence the quality of the selection process in Romanian handball. The study started due to the presumption that the development of children’s coordinative abilities is very important, especially since around the age of 7–12 years, they develop up to 75% of the maximum development potential reached in adolescence . At the The novelty and originality of this paper involves the use of a questionnaire survey instead of classical methods applied for collecting accurate results regarding the selection of children for handball. We used this approach because it is highly used in many research domains due to its easy process of collecting and processing valuable data. In sports, for example, Russell et al.  highlighThe obtained results from this paper’s questionnaire can be used by coaches as a different approach to the handball training process, considering that handball is a game mainly based on coordination.In team sports, situations, routines, strategies, and tactics occur, the knowledge of which is crucial to describe and analyze collective behavior , which iHandball involves a variety of unpredictable actions where the two teams act as a dynamical system. Regarding this method, the need to understand how players’ performance can contribute to obtaining greater scientific knowledge of technical actions emerges .In many scientific papers, the optimal age to start training for different sports is discussed considering injury prevention for future young athletes ,14. For With the increase in sports performance, the content of sports training has become increasingly complex, resulting in changing methodology. This fact has led to significant changes in the sports training content systematization, the development of which follows some strict rules and principles. According to Shuba et al. , one of At the FIMS World Congress of Sports Medicine , it was -Establishing the optimal age of selection, the age at which the skills and motor qualities of the individual are obvious and have maximum efficiency in guaranteeing the achievement of performances in the chosen sport area.-the selection criteria established to be adequate to the particularities of the sport area.-The rejection system is recommended in the first stage of selection and training, although sometimes individuals who can achieve superior results in the future activity are rejected.-The specific selection tests within the sport area will be applied in ascending order, according to the individual’s age, gender, development level, and training particularities.-The selected individuals must conform well to the regional sport particularities, the sporting tradition, the training conditions, and sports facility, and with the social, economic, and professional environment conditions, which may lead to improvement of motor skills and abilities.In handball, the organization of the selection process aims to cover as many candidates as possible and tries to effectively use selection methods by involving the most appropriate diagnostic methods. However, for the selection to be carried out correctly and to lead to sports performance, some well-established rules must be strictly observed, some of which are listed below :-EstabliThe enhancement of the skills and qualities of future athletes can be achieved through an extensive instructive educational process called sports training . The suc-Increase in motor capacity.-Harmonious physical development specific to the chosen sport area.-Development of basic motor skills and formation of the foundation for the development of combined or specific motor skills.-Learning the correct basic technical and tactical procedures of the practiced sport.-Brief introduction of specialization and game tasks.At the same time, modern sports training is oriented towards fulfilling a set of clear training objectives:-In preparing 10–12 year-old children for handball, many researchers believe that modern sports require, as the main components, physical, technical, tactical, theoretical, and psychological training ,26,27,28-Developing the motor capacity that can be achieved through borrowed means from other sports ; these are the basis for the technical–tactical skills specific to handball development.-Harmonious physical development, which is an objective achievable through posture and breathing exercises as well as through bilateral analytical work and execution of specific exercises with the clumsy body part.-Development of motor qualities specific to the stage of physical development, speed, and skill; of course, the development of motor qualities, strength, and endurance is also attempted, but it is approached on a secondary level.-Learning specific handball game technique, where the correct skills and specific technical procedures are imposed.-Having an appropriate behavior in the training or competition activity , as well as outside the sports sphere, and respecting the basic principles of a balanced life .Participation in competitions with an optimal level of training.The optimization of the training process involves material, organizational, and medical factors, referring to the increase in the registered performances, as well as to the complexity of the training of the performance athletes.The issue of optimizing the selection system in sports, especially in handball, is particularly important. In the reviewed literature, the authors consider the selection process to determine approximately 70% to 75% of destined-to-be-great athletes ,30,31. TBy analyzing the ways of accomplishing the process of selection and sports training in Romania, as well as in other countries, such as France, Poland, or Spain, it was possible to draw some similarities and differences. Among the similarities were the concept of the game, the basis of selection, and the basic material conditions, as well as the age of selection for initiation in handball. At the same time, the training period from the initiation in handball to the achievement of great performances was comparable. For example, in 2019, there were approximately 55,000 professional athletes in France, compared to only 6000 professional athletes in Romania. Additionally, the financial support of the other countries was clearly superior compared to that of Romania, as well as the professional level of handball coaches that were included, who led an extremely efficient system of continuous training ,33,34.Nowadays, there is a decrease in the sports selection age compared to the existing model for children. This trend has developed from the need to quickly obtain sports performances and the continuous increase in the technical and tactical mastery levels, facts that determine the intensification of all aspects of training young athletes. The training of future athletes creates important problems due to the reduction in the performance period in which athletes are expected to achieve “great performance”, which requires the re-recruitment and completion of groups of athletes participating in major competitions .According to Ghervan , the aveA study performed by Leuciuc  highlighThe essence of the selection process is to establish a diagnosis and a prognosis regarding the future evolution of sports performance. In this process, the basic tool is represented by the test’s procedures. Numerous issues related to this approach were discussed at meetings of the European Federation for Sport and Body Activities, the main purpose of which was to standardize tests in the sports field. It was concluded that age-appropriate psychomotor tests should be used in the selection process, and it was proposed that test packages specific to different sport areas should be established ,39.A modern trend that allows the selection system’s optimization is that of the introduction of tests that assess coordinative abilities’ development level. Handball is a game mainly based on coordination, but in the selection tests for children in Romania, coordinative abilities are only tested through technical tests. The ability to coordinate is determined by a control process and movement regulation. They allow the control of predictable and unpredictable actions. Here, we can distinguish two categories. The first category includes the ability of general coordination because of multipurpose motor acquisition that allows the performance of motor tasks in an inventive, personal manner. The second category includes specific coordinative abilities, developed within a sports discipline, that allow the choice of tactical combinations specific to the respective sport. Generalized training of coordinative abilities is complex and requires the identification and prioritization of each component to be developed  ,41.Testing in the selection process is a major importance factor. Various scientific studies attest to this. In countries with a history of handball performance, various new selection strategies and various tests to facilitate the recruitment of young talents for handball have been adopted ,43,44,45In a study conducted in Poland, researchers proposed a test package for the selection of children for handball, which includes somatic measurements, motor tests, and tests that measure the level of coordinative abilities’ development. The latter is evaluated by tests where simple reaction time to visual stimuli, complex reaction time to visual stimuli, visual–motor coordination , spatial orientation, ambidexterity, and perception and sense of direction are measured. The study’s conclusions show that assessing the level of development of coordinative abilities is extremely important for the selection of children for handball .Numerous studies conducted in France and Canada also propose the inclusion of coordination tests in the process of selecting children for handball, in addition to those that assess general motor skills and physical development. The authors propose tests such as: 9-3-6-3-9, the peripheral vision test, reaction speed, throwing the ball to the target, zigzag running, and moving in a triangle. The conclusions of these studies also emphasize the importance of including tests for assessing coordinative abilities in test packages for the selection process of children for handball ,47.https://forms.gle/7atx7Goebz9o7tU67, accessed on 28 December 2021). The questions were asked and arranged so that the handball coaches’ opinions would be as useful as possible to highlight the benefits of using coordinative abilities in the selection and training process for children in handball. The methodology for the questionnaire application was strictly followed in order to not influence the obtained results. Firstly, we conducted a pilot questionnaire survey with 13 questions asked to 35 handball coaches to determine the questions’ validity and their comprehension degree; then, we elaborated a final questionnaire survey with 10 refined questions asked to 109 Romanian handball coaches. The questionnaire format was a three-to-five-point Likert scale. To achieve this important goal, a 10-question questionnaire was created and distributed individually (via email) to Romanian handball coaches using Google Forms , and anonymization policies were first agreed upon by participants before starting the questionnaire. It is important to mention that the authors of this paper did not use the private information or the identity of questioned persons for any other purpose than the scientific one. The respondents were informed about the purpose of the questionnaire and about its scientific use. Finally, users were informed that their participation was voluntary, and some reminders were sent during the survey period to try to ensure an adequate participation rate.The final 10-question questionnaire listed in In this section, we depict handball coaches’ questionnaire answers, with the corresponding comments. By analyzing the answers from the pilot questionnaire, we established the necessity of the proposed approach, the importance of the topic in handball coaches’ activity, and also the importance of coordinative abilities’ development for handball.p < 0.03 for female coaches and F = 4.15, p < 0.0004 for male coaches in a statistical data analysis. The percentage difference between the answers of the handball coaches who checked the “good” and “satisfactory” options was relatively small compared to those who answered “weak” and “very weak”. None of the handball coaches answered that the quality of the Romanian selection process in sports was “very good”, meaning that there is a necessity to make improvements in this direction.Regarding question no. 1, “How do you appreciate the quality of Romanian selection in sports games?”, most handball coaches considered the quality of the selection process in our country as weak or very weak. Comparing the first three answer options  with the last two options (weak and very weak), less than 50%  were satisfied with the quality of the Romanian selection process in sports compared to 58.83% female and 52% male coaches who were not satisfied with it, resulting in F = 4.96, p < 0.05 for female coaches and F = 4.15, p < 0.0004 for male coaches. The fact that most of the handball coaches chose the “weak” and “very weak” options denotes the possibility of making improvements to the selection process in handball, and the research topic chosen by us is very important and up to date.Most handball coaches, 53.21%, chose for the second question “How do you appreciate the quality of the Romanian handball game selection process?” the options “weak” or “very weak”. The rest of the handball coaches, 46.79%, were satisfied with the quality of the Romanian handball selection process. Comparing data from the first three answer options  with the last two options (weak and very weak), we can conclude that the analyzed data are statistically significant, resulting in F = 5.32, p < 0.01 for female coaches and F = 3.99, p < 0.003 for male coaches after comparing the first two answer options  with the last three options . Most handball coaches considered the “motor” and “somatic-and-functional” criteria to be very important, but it is necessary to appreciate the interdependence and the influence of all selection criteria in obtaining sports performance. Handball performance is conditioned by a high level of motor quality development with a high genetic susceptibility, such as coordinative abilities and speed [For the third question, “What do you consider to be the most effective selection criteria?”, most of the answers  focused on the “motor” criterion as most important, while 32.35% of female and 37.33% of male coaches answered with the “somatic-and-functional” criterion, 14.7% of female and 10.66% of male coaches chose the “medical” criterion, 11.76% of female and 1.33% of male coaches chose the “psychological” criterion, and 5.88% of female and 1.33% of male coaches chose the “biochemical” criteria. The statistical significance obtained was F = 4.38, nd speed .“Physical training” was the most common option for the handball coaches who answered the question “In your opinion, which of the sports training components occupies the most important place in sports training?”, totaling 55.82% for female and 53.33% for male coaches. A total of 23.53% of female and 30.66% of male coaches answered with the “technical training” option, and 14.7% of female and 10.67% of male coaches chose “tactical training”. A total of 2.94% of female and 2.66% of male coaches considered psychological and theoretical training to also be important. Statistical analysis data for female F = 4.28 and F = 4.00 for male coaches were obtained after comparing the first two answer options  with the last three options . At the age of 10–12-years old, motor skills are characterized by the prime learning years and they are at their greatest potential. Training involves basic principles that help to create a future handball player. The correct introduction and teaching of movement and basic technical skills is the main exercise. The aim at this stage is to continuously build up technical elements of handball . So, evep < 0.006 and F = 4.12, p < 0.003 for male coaches reveal that the data are statistically significant when comparing the first three options  with the last two options (endurance and mobility). We could observe that most of the handball coaches, 54.13%, chose coordinative abilities and speed as skills they believed to play an important role in the selection of children for handball as those two are mainly developed during 10–12 years of age. Strength and endurance are motor qualities that will be developed in the later stages of junior training (after 14 years of age), due to hormonal and neuromuscular factors that converge, assuring much more advantageous adaptation [For question no. 5, “Which of the listed motor qualities play an important role in the handball athletes selection process?”, 32.35% of female and 28% of male coaches believed that “coordinative abilities” are the most important motor quality that 10–12-year-old children possess and represent an important role in the handball selection process. A total of 26.47% of female and 24% of male coaches answered “speed”, 23.53% of female and 24% of male coaches answered “strength”, 8.82% of female and 13.33% of male coaches answered “endurance”, and 8.82% of female and 10.66% of the male coaches chose “mobility” as playing an important role in handball selection. Statistical analysis data for female F = 3.44, aptation .p < 0.024 to F = 3.17, p < 0.0004 male answers, we can observed that the provided data have statistical relevance, taking into account the first three answer options  and the last two options . Orientation ability in handball is very important due to the athlete’s movement dynamic while playing. Finding the right space on posts, knowing the correct angle at which to throw the ball at the goal or the optimal moment to intercept are dependents on the orientation ability development level. Differentiation ability provides intel when interacting with adversaries or engaging in defense actions, highlighting the accuracy of the technical procedures’ execution, coordinating the segments in various situations. In defense, this ability allows the player to properly react to the adversary player’s action. Reaction ability implies an adequate response to an external stimulus, such as losing or taking the ball into possession, triggering a counterattack or when players have to make decisions and act with limited time and space.For question no. 6, “Which of the components of coordinative abilities occupy an important role in handball players training process?”, the majority of surveyed handball coaches  chose “the orientation, differentiation and reaction” ability as being very important in children’s handball training process. The rest of the 20.59% female and 37.33% male coaches stated that balance and rhythm ability are important in children’s handball training. Comparing female coaches’ answers F = 3.47, p < 0.035 to F(2.52) = 4.16, p < 0.003 male coaches’ data, we can observe a statistical significance between the first three answer options  and the last two options (low and very low). The answers of the handball coaches allow us to extract the idea that children’s coordinative abilities’ development needs more attention from coaches during training lessons. Developing children’s coordinative abilities in handball requires varied training programs. Specific training for coordinative abilities is characterized by variation in execution methods, variation in stimuli, and variation in execution circumstances while performing as quickly and accurately as possible [For the question “How much importance is given to 10–12 years children coordinative abilities development in handball training lessons?”, most handball coaches  chose the “low” and “very low” options. The rest of the 41.18% female and 49.34% of male coaches chose the “average” and “high” options, respectively. Comparing female coaches’ data F = 4.96, 35 to F2. = 4.16, p < 0.04 for female coaches and F = 3.99, p < 0.0002 for male coaches, the data reveal statistical significance in the first two answer options (preparatory and main lesson part) from the last one, the ending part. The fact that many coaches chose to develop this quality in the preparatory and main part of the training lesson highlights, again, the importance given to this motor quality.For question no. 8, “In which part of the handball training lesson do you approach the development of coordinative abilities?”, handball coaches mostly answered  the “preparatory part”, very closely followed by the second option, the “main part”, with 35.29% of female and 42.66% of male coaches answering, and 20.59% of female and 13.33% of male coaches answered the “final part”. Comparing F = 4.30, p < 0.003 for female and F = 4.06, p < 0.0001 for male coaches comparing the first two answer options  with the last three options . For children the age of 10–12 years old, handball coaches should focus mainly on the motor qualities’ development and teaching technical handball procedures. To achieve this, they must spend enough time on handball training lessons.For the second to last question of the proposed questionnaire, “What percent of the handball training lesson you spent teaching coordinative abilities?”, 61.76% of female and 65.33% of male coaches assigned up to 20% of the handball training lesson to developing the coordinative abilities. A total of 38.24% female and 34.67% of male coaches went up to 40% of the handball training lesson dedicated to developing coordinative abilities, which allows them to use more methods for developing this motor quality. Statistical significance was found with F = 4.45, p < 0.003 and male coaches F = 4.08, p < 0.0003, we can conclude that the analyzed data are statistically significant, taking into account the first two answer options (very high and high) and the last three options . From the collected data, we can observe the importance we must give to developing these motor qualities, as well as the influence they have in the Romanian handball selection process.The last question of the questionnaire concerned the importance of coordinative abilities’ development in the selection of children for handball. The answers to this question focused on the “very important” and “important” variants, the percentages being very close to 61.76% for female and 58.66% for male coaches, respectively, and 38.24% for female and 41.34% for male coaches for the “average” to “very low” options. Comparing data from female coaches F = 4.45, In this paper, we analyzed the necessity of using the coordinative abilities in the handball selection process of children aged 10–12 years old using a questionnaire survey. In an attempt to summarize, in a few sentences, the answers to the questions of the questionnaire proposed in this paper, we can say that the Romanian selection process in sport games in general, and in handball in particular, should be raise their expectations level. At the same time, they considered that the development level of the coordinative abilities of 10–12 year-old children is medium to weak, and the actual workplan in the training process for the development of this quality is quite small. Most coaches do this in the preparatory or the main part of training lessons, using mostly 20% of training lesson time for developing coordinative abilities. The respondents also stressed the importance of developing coordinative abilities in the handball selection process for children.The answers of handball coaches confirmed the fact that the  in-depth study of the sports selection process in Romania is required, bringing practical solutions and contributions in this regard and giving the necessary importance to the development of coordinative abilities, which can contribute to the selection process.Developing coordinative abilities involves components such as coordination, agility, speed, and accuracy of motor performance. Handball performance, by nature, requires a great deal of coordination.


A convolutional neural network can easily fall into local minima for insufficient data, and the needed training is unstable. Many current methods are used to solve these problems by adding pedestrian attributes, pedestrian postures, and other auxiliary information, but they require additional collection, which is time-consuming and laborious. Every video sequence frame has a different degree of similarity. In this paper, multi-level fusion temporal–spatial co-attention is adopted to improve person re-identification (reID). For a small dataset, the improved network can better prevent over-fitting and reduce the dataset limit. Specifically, the concept of knowledge evolution is introduced into video-based person re-identification to improve the backbone residual neural network (ResNet). The global branch, local branch, and attention branch are used in parallel for feature extraction. Three high-level features are embedded in the metric learning network to improve the network’s generalization ability and the accuracy of video-based person re-identification. Simulation experiments are implemented on small datasets PRID2011 and iLIDS-VID, and the improved network can better prevent over-fitting. Experiments are also implemented on MARS and DukeMTMC-VideoReID, and the proposed method can be used to extract more feature information and improve the network’s generalization ability. The results show that our method achieves better performance. The model achieves 90.15% Rank1 and 81.91% mAP on MARS. Person re-identification (reID) uses computer vision to determine whether a particular pedestrian is present in an image or video sequence. Person re-identification is widely considered a sub-problem of image retrieval. Given a monitored pedestrian image, we retrieve the pedestrian’s photo under the cross-camera. Person re-identification can combine with pedestrian detection and pedestrian tracking technology to be applied to state-of-the-art video surveillance, advanced security, and other fields. Person re-identification can be divided into image-based and video-based person re-identification. In recent years, many significant achievements have been made in image-based person re-identification. Video data contain more information than image data. Recently, video-based person re-identification has attracted more attention. Video-based person re-identification aims to match personal video with candidate galleries. Given a pedestrian video, the purpose of video-based person re-identification is to identify the same pedestrian from videos captured by different cameras. How to embed the video’s temporal and spatial information into the feature representation is a challenge. Presently, most methods cannot be used to ascertain the relationship between frames in feature extraction fully.In recent years, scholars have proposed many different methods to solve video-based person re-identification . The autThe current state-of-the-art video person re-recognition is based on deep convolutional networks. With robust deep convolutional networks and large-scale labeling benchmarks, these methods achieve good performance and efficiency. Although significant progress has been made in video person re-identification, most current algorithms do not fully use the rich temporal and spatial information in the video. Due to imperfect person detection algorithms, some generated bounding boxes are smaller or larger than the actual situation. In this article, we propose a multi-level fusion temporal–spatial co-attention network to explore the temporal–spatial information of video sequence frames fully. This paper proposes a multi-level fusion temporal–spatial co-attention strategy to solve the video-based person re-identification problems according to the different similarity degrees of video-sequence frames.This paper introduces the knowledge evolution technique to improve the feature extraction performance of the backbone. Experiments show that this strategy is effective for a video-based person re-identification dataset.The network has excellent performance on four video person re-identification datasets. Compared with the latest results, the network proposed in this paper is optimal in some metrics.A video sequence can be used as a feature vector, but the degree of similarity for each video sequence frame is different. Each video sequence has additional semantic information in temporal and spatial space. Inspired by the above idea, we propose a new multi-level fusion temporal–spatial co-attention (MLTS). The contributions of this paper are as follows:The following is the contents of the rest of this paper. Video-based person re-identification has attracted attention . ScholarFor video-based person re-recognition, the video contains multiple image sequence frames. Multiple image sequence frames have both temporal and spatial relationships ,20,21. WTo solve the problem of video-based person re-identification, we propose a multi-level fusion network structure. Our network framework is shown in The effect of neural network training depends on a large dataset. With a small dataset, the network is prone to fall into local extreme values. This paper introduces the knowledge evolution (KE)  method, l, the binary mask l into two specific parts: The fit hypothesis and the reset hypothesis. Given a resolution rate For each layer We use three different branch strategies in feature fusion: Algorithm 1 MLTS algorithm.Input: Epoch epochs;  1:D;Video sequence   2:Learning rate   3:for each do  4:    Extract feature vectors from input videos according to Equations  and 6);;6);  5:    Predict labels from input videos by the model;  6:if then      7:          8:else if then      9:        10:else if then    11:        12:else if then    13:        14:end if    15:    Update loss with Equation 16:if then    17:        18:        Update best model;19:end if    20:end forOutput: Best model, mAP, cmc.In this section, we introduce the proposed network framework in detail. The network framework consists of three branches: The global branch, the local branch, and the attention branch, which correspond to “A”, “B”, and “C”, respectively, in The global branch network is shown in The local branch network is shown in t represents the time sequence length, and d represents the image’s horizontal feature dimension. In this paper, the attention mechanism is used to aggregate the temporal features, as shown in Equation ϕj=1Here, the Softmax function is adopted in Equation  obtain tEquation , the resEquation  and 6)..σ(·) is ith input video sequence, and t is the length of the original input video sequence. jth frame image of the ith input video sequence. The length of the input video sequence is set as ith input video sequence can be set as In the video-based person re-identification task, we can use D of the identity label, we can define target functions based on the identity label. The first is a classification function based on the identity label.For a set ith identity, and ith identity. The purpose of the function Here, q represents the confidence probability of the predicted label, z is the predicted labels of model. y is the ground truth labels. n is the batch size.Here, For the video-based reID, we use metric learning for feature embedding to narrow the distance between the positive samples and push the distance between the negative samples.d is the distance function. For each anchor We use soft metric learning. Here, We combine classification learning with metric learning to find the appropriate image feature embedding to better solve video-based person re-identification problems.ith image of the video sequence. m is the total number of video sequences from the gallery set. The first jth video sequence from the gallery set can be defined as: jth sequence. The video sequence contains 8 frames of images, so the length of the video sequence is designed as: In the evaluation phase, given a video sequence containing the same pedestrian from the query set, the video-based person re-identification task is to find the video sequence of the same pedestrian in all video sequences from the gallery set. Each video sequence from the query set can be defined as: We use unified learning to optimize the model. The loss function is defined as follows:G represents the global branch output, L represents the local branch output, and A represents the attention branch output. In the local branch, we calculated six different component losses.Here, Under the unified learning mechanism, we calculate the sum of global branch loss, local branch loss, and attention branch loss and update network parameters through backpropagation.We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed methods in the widely used actual person re-identification task with real-world pedestrian video datasets. DukeMTMC-VideoReID, MARS have more videos and are more challenging.MARSThe MARS dataset  is currently the largest video-based person re-identification dataset . It is aDukeMTMC-VideoReIDThe DukeMTMC-VideoReID dataset  is a subPRID2011The Austrian Institute of Technology created the Person Re-ID 2011 (PRID2011) dataset  to promoiLIDS-VIDThe iLIDS-VID dataset ,30,31,32For the fairness of comparison, the backbone is ResNet50 in this paper. Each video sequence’s frame image has a width of 128 pixels and a height of 256 pixels. Unless otherwise specified, the length of the video sequence is 4.As for the evaluation metrics, this paper adopts several standard metrics most commonly used in person re-identification. Cumulative matching curve (CMC), mean average precision (MAP), and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve are included.To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, MLTS, we execute many experiments in this section.T is the time function, A is the aggregation function, C is the classification function, and L is the loss function. By analyzing the proposed network structure, the time complexity will be given in this section. It is shown in Equations –12).(9.(912).In In There are three different strategies in For the PRID2011 and iLIDS-VID datasets, we used the same comparison. As can be seen from the figure, in the top half of the rank, our proposed method performs better than the “G+L+A” strategy but slightly behind the “G+L+A” strategy in the middle of the rank. The final rank of these methods is 100%.To better express the proposed method’s effectiveness, some visualization results are presented in this paper. They are presented in In this paper, we propose a multi-level fusion temporal–spatial co-attention person re-identification. Our method demonstrates the reliable performance on four large-scale datasets. The introduction of knowledge evolution’s ResNet backbone can improve feature extraction performance. The designed local branch, global branch, and attention branch network can pay more attention to the information of video frames. Of course, there is still a gap between this and actual use. We hope that our method can provide an option for video-based person re-identification applications.In our method, we use the original unified learning mechanism. In the future, we will continue to explore the influence and further optimize this unified learning mechanism.In ResNet, we use mean aggregate features. In the future, we will continue to explore the influence of the mean aggregation method.Our proposed method is not only for video re-identification tasks but also for other supervision tasks. These all need to be explored.The multi-level fusion mechanism and unified learning that we propose are general and are not limited to specific areas of pedestrian re-identification. Future aims are as follows:


Gangstalking refers to a novel persecutory belief system wherein sufferers believe that they are being followed, watched, and harassed by a vast network of people in their community who have been recruited as complicit perpetrators. They are frequently diagnosed as mentally ill, although they reject this formulation. Those affected by this belief system self-identify as targeted individuals (TIs). They seek to prove the veracity of their persecution and dispute the notion that they are mentally ill by posting videos online that purport to provide evidence of their claims.The objective of the study was to characterize the multimodal social semiotic practices used in gangstalking evidence videos.We assembled a group of 50 evidence videos posted on YouTube by self-identified TIs and performed a multimodal social semiotic discourse analysis using a grounded theory approach to data analysis.TIs accomplished several social and interpersonal tasks in the videos. They constructed their own identity as subjects of persecution and refuted the notion that they suffered from mental illness. They also cultivated positive ambient affiliation with viewers of the videos but manifested hostility toward people who appeared in the videos. They made extensive use of multimodal deixis to generate salience and construe the gangstalking belief system. The act of filming itself was a source of conflict and served as a self-fulfilling prophecy; filming was undertaken to neutrally record hostility directed toward video bloggers (vloggers). However, the act of filming precipitated the very behaviors that they set out to document. Finally, the act of filming was also regarded as an act of resistance and empowerment by vloggers.These data provide insight into a novel persecutory belief system. Interpersonal concerns are important for people affected, and they construe others as either sympathetic or hostile. They create positive ambient affiliation with viewers. We found that vloggers use multimodal deixis to illustrate the salience of the belief system. The videos highlighted the Derridean concept of différance, wherein the meaning of polysemous signifiers is deferred without definitive resolution. This may be important in communicating with people and patients with persecutory belief systems. Clinicians may consider stepping away from the traditional true/false dichotomy endorsed by psychiatric classification systems and focus on the ambiguity in semiotic systems generally and in persecutory belief systems specifically. Gangstalking refers to a persecutory belief system wherein those affected believe they are being followed, watched, and harassed by many people in their community who have been recruited into a network of complicit perpetrators . In contThose affected gather in online communities to support each other and co-construct, develop, and contest the gangstalking belief system. The community members use a specialized lexicon to describe their experiences and to signal membership in the community of those affected. For example, the term “gangstalking” is used to describe the system of persecution, a “targeted individual (TI)” denotes the subject of the harassment, while those who participate in the intimidation are known as “perpetrators” or “perps” .People affected by gangstalking report that the experience is extremely distressing. The campaign of harassment is frequently experienced as the accumulation of numerous otherwise innocuous acts, such as people clearing their throat, muttering under their breath, or giving lingering glances as they pass on the street. Because each of these acts may individually be passed off as unremarkable and mundane, TIs find it difficult to prove the existence of the harassment. When they come to clinical attention, they are frequently diagnosed with psychiatric illness and their belief systems are labeled as persecutory delusions . HoweverCaught on Camera, highlight the role of the video camera as an apparently dispassionate and truthful observer of reality.Our previous work found that concerns about being believed and procuring and presenting proof of their systematic victimization are prime concerns of TIs in online fora . For thiPrevious studies have examined linguistic data in online communities regarding mental health concerns, including depression and anorexia , self-inPrevious studies have examined Google search activity in early psychosis  and the The objective of this study is to characterize the multimodal semiotic practices used in gangstalking evidence videos. We examine how these resources are deployed in order to construct the discourse of gangstalking, as well as how they are used to accomplish interpersonal tasks. To do this, we use a multimodal social semiotic theoretical framework to identify the semiotic resources used by TIs to construct and develop the gangstalking belief system in these evidence videos. In keeping with this framework, we identify social and interpersonal tasks accomplished by TIs in the videos, including constructing their own identity, creating distance with some groups, and fostering closeness and intimacy with other ones.This analysis begins by describing and defining the genre of gangstalking evidence videos. We then describe how TIs use deictic strategies to create salience in the videos. First, we describe linguistic practices, and then we move on to visual strategies, including the gaze of the camera, intertitles, and text and image overlay. Next, we describe several interpersonal dynamics at work in the videos.For this study, we assembled a corpus of videos posted on YouTube by self-identified TIs. For this, we used the YouTube Application Programming Interface (API) to search for videos. We used Python 3.0 to access the API and search the snippet object of videos. We searched for videos that contained the terms “gang stalking” or “gangstalking” AND “caught on video” or “caught on tape” or “proof” or “evidence” in the video title, description, or category. We sorted the search results by relevance using the YouTube API. We manually reviewed the search results to identify videos posted as proof or evidence of the gangstalking phenomenon. To be included in the analysis, a video had to be posted by a self-identified TI and purport to depict gangstalking activity. We identified other types of videos concerning gangstalking that were not germane to the analysis. These included first-person descriptive accounts of gangstalking, slideshow-type informational content about gangstalking, excerpts of news stories about gangstalking, original musical performances about gangstalking, and others. These videos were excluded from our analysis. We assembled a corpus of 50 videos meeting our inclusion criteria and achieved consensus by the authors regarding the suitability of the videos for inclusion.We then conducted a multimodal discourse analysis to identify the social semiotic resources mobilized by content creators posting YouTube videos presented as evidence of the gangstalking phenomenon.To do this, we imported the videos into the NVivo software package  , which aWe coded the videos and transcripts for paralinguistic and multimodal features of the videos, such as gestures, intertitles, text and image overlay, camera angles, and visual effects such as close-ups, time lapse, and slow motion. We considered linguistic and paralinguistic resources as well as the technologically mediated visual frame . We captAll the data used for the analysis were posted in a public forum available to any internet user. Our analysis constitutes what Eysenbach and Till refer to as passive analysis .The institutional research ethics board at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health reviewed the proposed study design and opined that it did not require formal approval.Gangstalking evidence videos can be considered a subgenre of a video blog (vlog). A genre is a conventionalized form associated with a conventionalized purpose or occasion and is characterized by a schematic structure . The vidAs mentioned before, each video can be viewed as having three functional components , two of which are optional and one of which is essential to this genre.During the optional introductory component of the video, the TI addresses the viewer directly and orients them to the purpose and content of the video. As described later, TIs also use this section of the video to establish positive ambient affiliation with the viewer. Ambient affiliation is a concept proposed by Zappavigna  to descrThis is what a targeted individual experiences all day long.All right, everyone. Looks like gangstalking is at hand. You guys wanted to see some video. Well. It's about to happen.This is the essential functional component of the video that presents the first-hand evidence of gangstalking. Much of the video is displayed in real time. However, two main temporal techniques are used to de-emphasize portions of the video deemed less significant or to highlight salient parts. Specifically, TIs use time lapse in parts that are deemed less important, while slow motion is used to mark particular moments in the video as important. We discuss these in more detail later.During this optional component, the TI once again directly addresses the viewer, summarizes the contents of the video, and re-establishes affiliation with the viewer.So there you go. There is a full-blown, orchestrated, uh, you know, I call it street theater–planned event, whatever. There it is broken down. All right, guys. Catch ya later. Bye.Caught on Camera reality TV show or a nature documentary.In part, this generic structure derives its meaning from paradigmatic associations that the viewer establishes between the content of the video and other culturally available videos . For insA frequent and recurrent theme in the videos is that evidence of the gangstalking behaviors is obvious and self-evident; the actions of the people captured in the evidence videos are presented as incontrovertible evidence that they are gangstalkers. However, video creators also communicate that to pick up on the relevant cues, an observer must be oriented or initiated as to what cues to look for and be inducted into the group that is able to detect relevant signs. To bridge the gap between seemingly benign actions of people filmed by TIs and the gangstalking conspiracy, TIs use features of multimodal deixis to draw attention to salient features of the videos.Deixis refers to linguistic features that encode information about the personal, spatial, and temporal situation in which they are used . For exaMost of the videos used some form of voice-over narration to describe their contents, put the depicted events in context, and create salience. This practice exemplifies discourse simultaneously being constructed by and constructing social reality; creators use deixis to draw attention to features and events that they observe and perceive as salient and, in so doing, construct the salience of these features for their viewers. In one video, a narrator claims:There's a Honda Odyssey that always be following me, so.there to direct the viewer’s attention to an otherwise unremarkable car in the video footage. The remainder of the sentence consists of a noun phrase (a Honda Odyssey), coupled with a relative clause that highlights the relevance or salience of this particular vehicle.The creator uses the deictic determiner I see the neighbor who does not, uh, light up the front of his driveway with a security light. However, what he does do is he lights up the driveway of this house, which is 50 to 60 feet away. Now that’s called targeting. That’s called harassment.that as a demonstrative determiner to refer anaphorically to their prior description of the light. This gloss imbues the description with semiotic salience, highlighting the connotative significance of the scene. If this were absent, some uncertainty or confusion may exist regarding the relevance or significance of the light. These deictic phrases serve to definitively resolve this ambiguity.In this example, the creator uses the deictic Look at this guy. He is intentionally blocking me from moving.The first sentence of this example serves to index the salient portion of the video. The second sentence then provides the connotative salience assigning malicious intent to the subject. In this way, seemingly normal elements in the video footage are verbally marked out for the viewer and then described as definitive evidence of gangstalking.The visual frame itself constitutes a type of deixis. By pointing the camera in a direction, at a particular scene, the image creator is effectively pointing at the scene and indicating that there is something relevant or noteworthy about it. In other words, image creators use the gaze of the camera to direct attention to salient content. The point-of-view (POV) shot is a shot in which the camera assumes the position of a subject to show us what that subject sees . The POVFor example, one video is shot in a shopping mall and the evidentiary portion of the video depicts people walking around and shopping. A portion of the video depicts this in time lapse and then returns to normal speed to display Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) uses the concept of transitivity to identify how speakers use language to describe their experience. It groups all processes, expressed by verbs, into six categories: material, behavioral, mental, existential, verbal, and relational . Our anaIn a video of a TI at a store, he says:Literally look at ‘em all come over here.Later in the same video:Ha ha ha. It's so obvious. Absolute madness. Look at the whole store. Look at it. Barely anyone. Couple people here, and then wham, look at that. They just all came and flooded me like that, eh.flooded with the direct object me to indicate that the malicious activity is being directed toward him. This lexical choice also invokes a water metaphor to equate the experience of being gangstalked to that of being flooded. Metaphor is pervasive in the language used to reify mental states and forms of distress  coming at you with another one. You know what I’m sayin’?In this instance, the TI adopts a friendly, conversational tone and informal forms of address that would not be out of place in more mainstream YouTube vlogs aimed at a young audience.Yeah, guys, what's going on? Yeah, so something really crazy happened to me today.Hey, guys. I've got some footage here of me filling up at a service station, and it shows just how the handlers orchestrate things.Similarly, in the coda section of the vlogs, vloggers adopt a similar register with viewers:Peace and love and light to all. I'm out.Thank you. I'm [redacted], and I'm out in Oklahoma. September 15th, 2:05 pm. Have a good day.But anyways, guys I'm gonna get off here for now. Um, enjoy your day. Unfortunately, it's rainy. Cloudy and rainy here today, but it's still a beautiful day, you guys. Stay happy. Stay peaceful. And yeah, just keep the hope going. Everything's gonna be good. Love you, guys. Bye.In contrast to the affiliation construed with viewers, TIs use a different set of multimodal discursive strategies to construct others as being hostile and malicious and to increase interpersonal distance between themselves and the perps they claim are represented in the videos.In contrast to the generally positive regard creators demonstrate toward viewers, they use a variety of discursive strategies to express negative affect—primarily anger and hostility—toward other people present in the videos. They also use compositional strategies to distance themselves from those represented as engaged in gangstalking.In the evidentiary portion of the vlogs, depictions of perps of gangstalking use long-distance shots, as shown in TIs engage in a variety of face-threatening acts with others in their videos. “Face” is a sociological concept, originating in the work of Goffman , which bWhy are you gangstalking? Why are you gangstalking me? Why are you gangstalking me? Why are two cars pulled up with their headlights facing me? Are you doing a psyop?This utterance is face threatening in that it includes direct questioning but with no attempts at softening or redressing its direct, pointed nature. The formulation “Why are you gangstalking?” presupposes that the interlocutor is in fact engaged in gangstalking and leaves no room for a version of events in the way that the question “Are you gangstalking me?” would. Further, repeating the question several times in rapid succession lends a sense of urgency and even aggression to the interrogation.In another video, a TI enters a Walmart store and confronts a group of people smoking cigarettes at the store entrance:Aye, my god, you know there's, like, a cigarette place you can smoke over there? It's right there to the left. You feel me? So, like, you smoke a lot right here, that shit, like, that's fucked up. You know what I'm saying? But you could smoke right there, though.You feel me, You know what I’m saying), which intensify the impoliteness of the utterance.In this example, the TI enacts impoliteness by calling out the behaviors of the interlocutors, who were apparently not known to him previously, and using expletives in pointedly criticizing their behavior . He alsoThat’s provoking. That’s provoking,” to justify the hostility he demonstrated toward the smokers. He goes on to reiterate his high regard for viewers of the video and especially those who leave supportive comments:Immediately after disengaging from the group, the vlogger turns to the camera and says, “I'm tired of this shit, boy. But I'm not gonna feed into it. Imma keep doing my thing. I appreciate you all up in my motherfucking comments, talking about some “Oh, don't feed into it.” But I've been ignoring this shit for too long.This abrupt change of tone signals to viewers that although the TI is angry with those portrayed in the video, viewers are exempt from this and are in fact valued. Taken together, these strategies function to establish in- and out-groups around the vlogs. Although viewers are addressed using the language of social intimacy and as part of a shared community, perps who appear in the videos are explicitly confronted, interrogated, and sworn at. Despite engaging in such socially proscribed behavior, the way in which gangstalking vloggers explicitly justify their impoliteness toward perps also serves to present themselves as generally reasonable and polite; they mark their rudeness as an acceptable way to treat their purported harassers but also as a deviation from the otherwise genial register with which they address their intended audience. Nevertheless, such confrontational behavior creates a spectacle in the videos themselves, allowing the audience to vicariously experience direct altercations with apparent perps.Throughout our data, and as indicated in the extant literature regarding gangstalking ,3, TIs eAnd it's to a point where I'm, like, OK. Cool. You all wanna be about that life, I be about it too. I'll record all your all ass . . . you try to provoke me, I'll put your ass on this camera.Faces turned. They know that they're being filmed now. Look, they turn away. They shy away.Tell you y'all. These damn demons won't stop. And I ain't gonna stop recording them.By using the notion of perps being caught unawares and being unwillingly publicly exposed, the TIs can offset the power differential to some degree and partially restore a sense of agency. Creators frequently refer to perps as being frightened of exposure. The power of the videos, or more specifically the act of filming, to strike fear in perps is thus presented as helping TIs to redress the perceived power imbalance inherent in the persecutory belief system, wherein it is otherwise the perps who maliciously wield their collective power over TIs.In some instances, community members appear unnerved by vloggers filming them, and the act of filming itself forms the basis of hostile interactions between vloggers and participants in the evidence videos.In this instance, a vlogger confronts shoppers at a grocery store. He films them and accuses them of gangstalking him. He demands to see the manager, and when the manager arrives, the following exchange ensues, highlighting the act of filming as a source of conflict.TI: Ah, here you are, mate. How are you? Good?Manager: I'm good. How are you?TI: Yeah, not bad. What's your name?Manager: Why are you filming everyone?TI: Oh, don't worry, man. I will . . . I won't post this on YouTube, I just want . . .Manager: No, no. I'm just asking why you're filming everyone.TI: I'm not filming people. I just wanna ask you a question.Manager: No, no. You are filming, innit?TI: No, no. Uh. No, no. Uh. Uhm. Can I ask you a quick question?Manager: Can you stop that, please?TI: Yeah, yeah. Of course.TIs regard their filming as gathering evidence in an objective manner about activities that occur, regardless of whether they are being filmed. However, perps regard the process of filming itself as aggressive, hostile, and unnerving and respond with their own face-threatening acts by insisting that the filming cease. The act of filming, which is designed to capture hostility, appears to elicit the very phenomenon it attempts to document, thereby serving as something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.floating or an emptysignifier is one with a vague, highly variable, unspecifiable, or non-existent specifier [Semiotics, the study of signs, defines a sign as composed of a signifier and a signified . A sign pecifier . The behpecifier , in thisOur analysis revealed that the vloggers, who identify as individuals targeted by gangstalking, use a variety of multimodal strategies to indicate the salience of the acts depicted, thereby construing the gangstalking narrative. These included linguistic deictic features, paralinguistic features, and features operating through the visual frame.Although the stated purpose of the videos is to document and disseminate evidence of the gangstalking phenomenon, vloggers also accomplish interpersonal tasks in the videos. On the one hand, they generate intersubjective ambient affiliation with viewers of the videos. On the other, they create hostility and reinforce animus with people depicted in the videos—a process we termed “representational disaffiliation.” This may serve to strengthen community building with viewers by projecting authenticity and intimacy . People The videos use the rhetorical trope of synecdoche, where a part is used to stand in for the whole. Gangstalking is described as a widely distributed and pervasive system, but videos must be limited in scope in time and space due to practical constraints. The scenes depicted in the videos are meant to stand in for the pervasive nature of gangstalking. TIs are asking viewers of these videos to generalize the specific instances depicted.The videos highlight the Derridean concept of différance. Derrida argued that “the signified concept is never present in and of itself, in a sufficient presence that would refer only to itself. Every concept is inscribed in a chain or in a system within which it refers to the other, to other concepts, by means of a systematic play of differences” . In thisThis observation may have important clinical ramifications. Traditionally, psychiatrists define delusions as fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change, considering conflicting evidence . An alteOur findings provide insight into a novel persecutory belief system. Interpersonal concerns are important for people affected, and they construe others as either sympathetic or hostile. They create a positive ambient affiliation with viewers. Vloggers use multimodal deixis to illustrate the salience of the belief system. Clinicians may consider stepping away from the traditional true/false dichotomy endorsed by psychiatric classification systems and focus on the ambiguity in semiotic systems generally and in persecutory belief systems specifically.


Objective: Our objective is to explore the effect of applying cloud video conferencing methods to the informed consent process in an early-phase clinical trial during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: All participants who intended to participate in the trial were informed via a cloud video conference before signing the informed consent forms (ICF). Then, the attitudes of the participants with the cloud video conference and their understanding of the trial were evaluated using a questionnaire when they visited to sign the ICF onsite.Results: A total of 165 subjects participated in the cloud video conference process, and 142 visited the site to sign and date the ICFs at the center during the appointment time. The survey showed that nearly 100% of the subjects evaluated the video-based informed consent process as very good or good and gave correct answers to questions about the trial. Furthermore, 136 (95.8%) subjects believed that the knowledge about the trial derived via the video-based informed consent process was consistent with the onsite reality, and 139 (97.9%) subjects expressed their willingness to participate in an informed consent procedure undertaken through an online video conference.Conclusions: The video-based informed consent process achieved the same effects as an onsite informed consent process. The former saves time and cost of transportation for the subject and exhibits good public acceptance; especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this process is conducive for reducing the risk of subject infection due to travel and would also help avoid crowding on site. Informed consent is a fundamental measure to protect the rights and well-being of the subjects in clinical trials. Before starting a trial, researchers must inform potential subjects about the trial, and the potential subjects who agree with the trial procedures are then required to sign an informed consent form (ICF), as per the guidelines of the International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), 2016. The current widely used approach for obtaining informed consent involves a face-to-face explanation and discussion between potential participants and trained research personnel, usually the doctor. For early-phase clinical trials, the number of healthy participants is usually more than 6 but fewer than 100. However, the investigator needs to screen more volunteers  to make sure that enough eligible subjects meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the trial protocol. Therefore, several potential participants are usually invited to the Phase I clinical trial site on the same day and given detailed explanations for nearly 1 h regarding the informed consent form together as a group of 30 to 50 individuals, followed by a one-on-one discussion with the investigators before signing the ICF. However, gathering the potential participants on-site does not meet the requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control. To control and prevent the spread of the virus and ensure smooth conduct of clinical trials and the safety of both health professionals and subjects, a real-time, remote approach telemedicine technology to inform participants should be considered before one-on-one ICF signing is executed. Welch et al. reported in 2016 that the informed consent process embedded into a telemedicine session with remote video conference can eliminate challenges related to the travel and management of personnel at remote sites and improve research recruitment by reducing barriers related to informed consent while preserving human interactions .In the era of social media, nearly every adult owns one smartphone and uses the Wechat APP in work and life. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work and life, video conference APP software has risen rapidly in popularity, such as the Tencent Meeting App. This could make the real-time and cloud video conference in the group context feasible, making it possible to avoid gatherings and help control the spread of the virus.In the traditional informed consent process, the written material provided to potential research participants requires much reading and does not take into account other forms of learning .The purpose of this study was to examine a new approach for the informed consent process through the use of a real-time cloud video conference technique to test its acceptability to potential healthy subjects, and their comprehension of the real-time cloud video-based informed consent process; the method was applied to an early phase clinical trial during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the overall quality and effect of the video conference-mediated informed consent process was evaluated.This study was conducted in connection with a bioequivalence trial testing oral tablets for Parkinson's disease performed in healthy volunteers in a Chinese Phase I clinical trial center from March 31 to May 12, 2020. It was approved by the ethics committee of Aerospace Center hospital. According to the sample size of the bioequivalence trial, the estimated sample size of this study is about 150, which could meet the requirement of cross-sectional studies.The third-party company specifically recruited volunteers from the public or their database of history volunteers by posting the recruitment advertisement through Social Media (like Wechat APP) or the internet. Potential participants were invited to join a cloud video meeting hosted by the investigator through the Tencent Meeting App in a group informed consent process when they intended to participate in the bioequivalence trial or just to be of curiosity without any incentives. Applicants that registered and accepted to participate this way subsequently took about 5 min to be trained by one or two recruitment staff on how to use the application software. The research doctor investigator would explain the ICF and relevant information about 1 h into the video meeting for fewer than 60 people due to the capacity of the software requirement. After being given sufficient time to consider the trial, at least overnight, applicants were offered an appointment to visit the study site in person for a face-to-face informed consent process meeting. Participants eligible for the study were asked voluntarily to fill a questionnaire designed to evaluate the effect and quality of the video-based informed consent process.The study involved the following steps: (a) preparation of the manual of the software application tool (Tencent Meeting App) and training of investigators and registered potential subjects for operating the software; (b) preparation of the newest ICF text and development of the document with pictures and videos to be shown during the meeting; the document covered the trial schedule, related hospital regulations, the seven-step hand-washing method in a graphical form, the protection measures to be taken at home or while traveling in a graphical form, some videos of special procedures and environment introduction, etc.; (c) gathering the potential participants to log in the video conference and testing signal and network quality upon roll call; (d) undertaking of the online informed consent process for about 1 h by one doctor investigator through the cloud video group meeting to explain the above document. As the researcher scrolls through the document and selects text or video, all these materials are updated in real-time on the participant's screen; (e) sends an eICF copy to potential participants and provides an explanation for those with bad bandwidth by phone after the video conference; (f) preparing a self-developed questionnaire by 10 authors regarding the participants' demographic information, evaluation of the effectiveness of the cloud video meeting, and understanding of the ICF of the trial project; (g) the questionnaires were answered by the participants onsite during the appointment time;(h) evaluation of the effect of the remote cloud video meeting through the analysis of the questionnaires when participants visit the study site in person to sign the ICF forms; and (I) holding one-to-one discussion between the investigator and one subject to ensure the effectiveness and quality of the informed consent process. During the one-on-one discussion in person, the investigator asked questions to further assess the effect of the video-based informed consent process and determine if subjects needed to be given further information and explanation about the ICF before the one-to-one signing of the ICF during the consent process in a private room to protect the privacy and confidentiality of their questions.The questionnaire comprised five sections: (a) an informed consent introduction on the front page (b) sociodemographic characteristics, including age and gender, (c) evaluation of the cloud video meeting effectiveness, including yes or no questions according to the previous experience, perceptional effectiveness, willingness to participate again, satisfaction with the informed explanation of doctors and whether it was easy to understand, multiple-choice or open text questions for the points focused on ICF advantages and drawbacks of video-based informed methods, and one ranked-options question for the overall evaluation of the video-based informed process, and (d) evaluation of the understanding of this ICF by testing the ICF content.Data were entered into an Excel database by one staff member and double-checked by other personnel. Frequency distributions and simple descriptive statistics were used to describe the subjects' general characteristics, to evaluate the video-based informed consent process, and to analyze the participants' understanding of the informed consent form by SPSS (version 16.0). Categorical variables are expressed as numbers and percentiles.In this study, 165 subjects participated in the cloud video-based informed consent process together with a medical investigator through the Tencent Meeting App. Subsequently, 142 subjects visited the study site and agreed to complete the questionnaire survey about the cloud video-based informed consent process and sign the written ICF before the trial screening. Participants were 18 to 46 years old with males constituting the majority of the participants at 66.2% . Of the The survey about the effectiveness of the cloud video informed process showed that all 142 (100%) subjects evaluated the effect of the video-based informed consent process to be good or very good without a gender difference in statistics; 136 (95.8%) subjects indicated that the effectiveness of the video-based informed consent process was consistent with that of the onsite informed consent process; 139 (97.9%) subjects expressed the willingness to participate in an online video-based informed consent process again. Among them, 94 (66.2%) subjects believed that the video method could avoid crowding and close contact, 109 (76.8%) agreed that it could save time, 42 (29.6%) subjects thought it could save transportation costs, and 30 (21.1%) subjects indicated that the video-based informed consent process was well-illustrated and easy to be understood. However, 31 (21.8%) subjects indicated that the environment was noisy during the video explanation; only one subject (0.7%) thought that the speed of ICF explanation by the research investigator was fast .There were 136 (95.8%) subjects who knew the background of the drug being used in this trial, all 142 (100%) subjects knew the schedule and trial period for participating in this clinical trial, and correctly answered the question regarding the admission day date; all subjects appeared to understand the investigation procedure, possible adverse reactions, and related medical measures taken in this study  and International Conference on Harmonization of Good Clinical Practice Consolidated Guideline (ICH-GCP) stipulate that the rights, safety, and well-being of trial subjects are the most important considerations and should prevail over the interests of science and society. The ethics committee and informed consent form are the main measures to protect the rights of the subjects . At presThe “Guidelines for Investigations on the Use of Electronic Informed Consent” issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2016 defined electronic informed consent as “electronic informed consent refers to the use of electronic systems and processes that may employ multiple electronic media, including text, graphics, audio, video, podcasts, passive and interactive web sites, biological recognition devices, and card readers, to convey information related to the study and to obtain and document informed consent” . SubsequDuring special occasions such as a pandemic, avoiding large gatherings and reducing travel risk are effective measures for preventing the spread of infection. In our survey, 94 (66.2%) participants believed that using the means of a video conference avoided the need for crowding and reduced the risk of virus infection. Therefore, the video-based informed consent process is worth researching and promoting as a supplement or an alternative way to onsite group informed consent meetings. In the traditional informed consent protocol, some subjects may give up visiting the study site because of the long travel distance involved and tight schedule. This study showed that the video informed consent method helped to save time and transportation costs for some participants.A study by Sonne et al. , which aHowever, the study indicated some drawbacks because video conferencing needs to transmit information through the internet and thus has higher network requirements, which may not be fulfilled in some areas. Some participants  indicated that the network was unstable during the video conference. This may be due to weak network signals or the absence of wireless devices in the location where some of the subjects lived. Also, the complete informed consent process took about 1 h, and the subjects were required to stay on the video calls throughout the process; this made it necessary to have a high network flow. According to the questionnaire, some subjects reported that insufficient network flow and the chaotic living environment (of the subject) would have a significant negative, moderating effect on the effectiveness of the video meeting. Therefore, it is recommended to inform subjects in advance regarding the prerequisites for having an interrupted, smooth-running video call, which includes the use of a sufficiently good network or wireless device .In the era of social media, nearly every adult owns one smartphone and uses the Wechat APP in work and life. However, video conferences require good network signals and flow, which may be difficult to achieve in remote areas and volunteers with lower income. This study was conducted in a municipal city with good network signals, and the data about drawbacks may therefore be overestimated.When the investigator prepared hardware facilities, informed consent, and trial procedures before the video-based informed consent process and the subjects were subsequently trained for using the Tencent Meeting application and participated in the video conference using a good wireless network, the effect of the video-based informed consent process was similar to that of an onsite process. Video and graphic explanations could enhance the subject's understanding of the content of the informed consent and greatly reduce the subject's transportation cost and time, as well as the manpower and material resources of the research center. Under special circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, a video-based approach can reduce the risk of virus transmission compared with the traditional method. Furthermore, the recording of the video conference during the video-based informed consent process can be stored as evidence for inspection later, if necessary. With the continuous development and maturity of electronic technology, video-based informed consent processes could be used alone or as a supplement to the traditional onsite informed consent process.“Teleconsent” was the term used by the FDA for electronic informed consent. The method reported in this study is different from that of teleconsent since it combines an online (video) and an offline (onsite) process for the acquiring of informed consent. Although it offers many benefits to researchers, some limitations need to be considered before it is utilized for obtaining informed consent during clinical research. First, it requires participants to have access to a computer with a good internet connection. While a large portion of the population will have direct access to broadband at home or the internet through smartphones, not everyone has access to such facilities. Second, the selected remote cloud video meeting should meet the requirement of privacy and confidentiality for participation in the clinical trial, and all the subjects should comply with this requirement so as not to disclose confidential information on trials or subjects.In addition, this study was conducted in connection with a single trial, and the sample size may thus be limited, and potential participants may have specific characteristics. We also did not investigate the 23 participating individuals who did not visit the study site. There may also be evidence of some educational, financial, or other social sampling biases. As a result, their attitudes about the video-based process in the questionnaire were thus useful, and this could be addressed in a future study.The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics committee of Aerospace center hospital. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.ZW, AD, GC, and JW made substantial contributions to the conception and design of this study, to the acquisition of data, and to the analysis and interpretation of the data. ML, SZ, XL, DZ, LZ, and YZ made substantial contributions to the implementation of the study. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.