Purpose The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Chinese (Mandarin) version of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS-CM) among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Mainland China. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with a convenience sample of 200 Chinese PLWHA. They completed the MOS-SSS-CM along with the Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory Revised (BDI-II) scale, the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief (WHOQOL-BREF) scale. Results Internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) was 0.97 for the overall MOS-SSS-CM and 0.82–0.91 for the five sub-scales originally proposed. However, 11 of the 19 items demonstrated unsatisfactory item discriminant validity. An exploratory factor analysis yielded a two-factor solution with tangible and social-emotional dimensions, which demonstrated satisfactory reliability and better discrimination between different subscales than did the original five-factor model. The concurrent validity of the two-factor scale was further confirmed by its significant negative correlations with the BDI-II (r = −0.41, p < 0.01); the SAS (r = −0.27, p < 0.01); and the PSS-10 (r = −0.30, p < 0.01), and significant positive correlation with the WHOQOL-BREF scale (r = 0.61, p < 0.01). Conclusion We found a two-factor solution for the MOS-SSS-CM, which demonstrated good reliability and validity when applied to Chinese PLWHA. This was consistent with results from a study of Taiwanese caregivers. Further validation in other populations and disease states is warranted.

and positions between the robots and the interacted objects. [6] Thus, various kinds of the pressure sensors have been designed and applied as different force sensing interfaces. [7,8] Although the pressure sensors are attracting great attention in robot field, the limited sensing function, rigid structure and complicated back-end data processing still raise the requirements of further advancement in the robot safety detection. Flexible electronic skin (e-skin) has been widely applied in wearable devices, artificial prosthetics, health monitoring, and smart robots as it can mimic human skin functions and convert the external stimuli into different output signals through various sensors. [9-12] Among them, tactile e-skin is drawing the attention, including human-computer interfaces, medical and security systems. [13-16] Generally, the tactile sensors based on capacitive, [17,18] piezoelectric, [19-21] resistive, [22-24] and optical [25] mechanisms rely on the deformation produced by the interaction between the sensing unit and the object. Thus, the tactile sensor will occasionally generate the unstable and insensitive signals and lead to poor detection for very weak interactions. Meanwhile, the tactile sensors often require the external power source to sense the environmental stimuli. In addition, it is noted that the reported tactile sensors are mainly focusing on the tactile sensing without the direct visualization capability. The skin of specific animal species has extra functions that can change their colors when they are activated by external stimuli. Both vertebrates and invertebrates use various strategies for visualization and camouflage. For example, Chameleons can prey, camouflage protection, and even communicate through the ability of color changing. [26] Inspired by this, it is also possible to mimic the color conversion function of chameleons through mechanical or electronic equipment. [27-30] Whitesides and his colleague reported a soft machine with a microfluidic channel that could be filled or rinsed by pumping a colored liquid. [31] Rogers's team fabricated an adaptive optoelectronic camouflage system that used a bright-colored composite, producing a black-and-white pattern to match the surrounding environment. [32] A soft material system presented by Wang et al. produced voltage-controlled on-demand fluorescent patterns which could be modulated to display a variety of geometries. [33] However, these mentioned devices can only

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Purpose Evaluation and comparison of the factor structure of the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) using both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with two samples of people living with HIV/AIDS in China. Methods Secondary analyses were conducted with data from two comparable samples of 320 people living with HIV/AIDS from the same hospital using the same inclusion criteria. The first sample of 120 was collected in 2006, and the second sample of 200 was collected in 2012. For each sample, CFA was first performed on the original four-factor structure to check model fit, followed by EFA to explore other factor structures and a subsequent CFA for model fit statistics to be compared to the original four-factor CFA. Results In both samples, CFA on the originally hypothesized four-factor structure yielded an acceptable model fit. The EFA yielded a two-factor solution in both samples, with different items included in each factor for the two samples. Comparison of CFA on the a priori four-factor structure and the new two-factor structure in both samples indicated that both factor structures were of acceptable model fit, with the four-factor model performing slightly better than the two-factor model. Conclusion Factor structure of the MOS-SSS is method-dependent, with CFA supporting a four-factor structure, while EFA yielded a two-factor structure in two separate samples. We need to be careful in selecting the analytic method when applying the MOS-SSS to various samples and choose the factor structure that best fits the theoretical model.

A novel hierarchical conductive fabric-based wearable interface is proposed to control the motion of an unmanned aerial vehicle.