Center for Independent Living

In this paper, we discuss the necessity of investigating corrosion of steel members hidden inside buildings. Firstly, according to some past works, we enumerate exceptional cases, in which corrosion progresses even in steel members hidden inside buildings. Moreover, we present a guideline on the necessity of investigating the hidden steel members with the corrosion progression formula. And finally, calculation examples with the guideline are shown in order to confirm the feasibility.

BackgroundEye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)-centered psychotherapy is an evidence-based treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet symptom trajectories during routine outpatient care vary considerably. Process factors such as therapeutic alliance and treatment intensity may influence outcomes, but their independent and combined contributions in real-world clinical settings remain unclear. This study examined the relationships among therapeutic alliance, treatment intensity, and PTSD symptom change in a naturalistic outpatient context.MethodsThis single-center retrospective cohort study analyzed routinely collected clinical data from adults with a clinician-confirmed chart diagnosis of PTSD based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria who completed EMDR-centered psychotherapy at a single outpatient psychological clinic in the Philippines between 2022 and 2025. PTSD symptoms were assessed using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) at baseline, mid-therapy, and post-treatment. Therapeutic alliance was measured at mid-therapy using the five-item Agnew Relationship Measure-5 (ARM-5). Treatment intensity was defined as the total number of completed psychotherapy sessions. Linear regression and moderation analyses examined associations between alliance, treatment intensity, and symptom change, adjusting for age, sex, trauma type, and therapy type.ResultsThe sample included 138 patients. Mean PTSD symptom scores decreased from 43.7 at baseline to 37.8 at mid-therapy and 30.0 at post-treatment. Therapeutic alliance did not predict early symptom change (baseline to mid-therapy; β = −0.01, p = 0.878) but significantly predicted overall symptom reduction (baseline to post-treatment; β = 0.61, p < 0.001; R² = 0.245) and late-phase improvement (mid-therapy to post-treatment; β = 0.62, p < 0.001; R² = 0.207). Treatment intensity significantly predicted symptom reduction from baseline to post-treatment (β = −0.21, p < 0.001; adjusted R² = 0.251) and from mid-therapy to post-treatment (β = −0.26, p < 0.001). Moderation analyses showed no significant interaction between therapeutic alliance and treatment intensity across treatment phases (all p > 0.10), indicating independent effects.ConclusionsIn routine outpatient EMDR-centered psychotherapy, therapeutic alliance and treatment intensity independently predict PTSD symptom improvement. Alliance appears most consequential after initial treatment engagement, while greater session completion supports sustained symptom reduction. These findings underscore the importance of fostering a strong working alliance beyond early sessions and promoting adequate treatment exposure to optimize outcomes in real-world trauma-focused care.

Young adults with intellectual disabilities experience significant cardiometabolic health disparities which may inhibit progress towards independence, underscoring the need for targeted interventions. This study examined how individuals with intellectual disabilities and caregivers perceived the relevance and acceptability of a cooking and fitness skills intervention. Fourteen semi-structured post-intervention interviews with individuals with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers queried preferences, challenges, benefits and impacts of a cooking skills and functional fitness intervention called CHEF-ID. Results were analysed thematically. Four themes were identified: (1) autonomy and competence in everyday life; (2) enriching experiences and relationships; (3) suggestions for programme enhancement; and (4) meeting a community need. Interviewees valued enhanced autonomy and competence for physical activity and cooking skills and made meaningful social connections, although participants differed in their preference for individual versus group work. Transportation was a frequently cited challenge. Future interventions should consider these factors to optimise programme design.

Trauma-related perceptual experiences may resemble psychotic symptoms, creating diagnostic challenges in adolescent populations. We report the case of a Filipino preadolescent female diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder following prolonged intrafamilial sexual abuse. During trauma-focused psychotherapy incorporating expressive techniques, the patient consistently depicted and occasionally perceived a non-vivid, dark, cloud-like visual phenomenon that appeared exclusively during states of emotional calm, safety, or happiness. The experience was transient, purely visual, and associated with a subjective sense of peace. Importantly, the patient demonstrated intact insight, preserved reality testing, absence of distress, and no functional impairment related to the phenomenon. Comprehensive phenomenological assessment and differential diagnosis ruled out psychotic disorder, neurological causes, and mood-congruent psychosis. The visual experience was conceptualized as a non-psychotic, trauma-related perceptual phenomenon. This case highlights the importance of contextual, emotional, and insight-based assessment of perceptual experiences in traumatized adolescents to prevent misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment.

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) has been presented as the critical component for unlocking the potential of machine learning in mental health screening (MHS). However, a persistent “lab-to-clinic” gap remains. Current XAI techniques, such as SHAP and LIME, excel at producing technically faithful outputs such as feature importance scores, but fail to deliver clinically relevant, actionable insights that can be used by clinicians or understood by patients. This disconnect between technical transparency and human utility is the primary barrier to real-world adoption. This paper argues that this gap is a translation problem and proposes the Generative Operational Framework, a novel system architecture that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) as a central translation engine. This framework is designed to ingest the raw, technical outputs from diverse XAI tools and synthesize them with clinical guidelines (via RAG) to automatically generate human-readable, evidence-backed clinical narratives. To justify our solution, we provide a systematic analysis of the components it integrates, tracing the evolution from intrinsic models to generative XAI. We demonstrate how this framework directly addresses key operational barriers, including workflow integration, bias mitigation, and stakeholder-specific communication. This paper also provides a strategic roadmap for moving the field beyond the generation of isolated data points toward the delivery of integrated, actionable, and trustworthy AI in clinical practice.

The application of differential protection on transformers at industrial facilities improves system reliability by isolating faults fast within the transformer zone, prevents further or catastrophic damage hence extending transformer lifespan, and improves safety by preventing further escalation of faults. This paper will discuss several aspects of applying transformer differential protection from current transformer (CT) selection to setting development and dealing with transformer inrush conditions. This paper will also explore modern advancements to further improve reliability and selectivity of transformer differential protection. Several real-world examples and field case studies will be discussed.