bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Wearable sweat biosensors on textiles for health monitoring
Authors: Shi Yuqing , Zhang Ziyu , Huang Qiyao , Lin Yuanjing , Zheng Zijian
Published: February 2023

With the rapid technological innovation in materials engineering and device integration, a wide variety of textile-based wearable biosensors have emerged as promising platforms for personalized healthcare, exercise monitoring, and pre-diagnostics. This paper reviews the recent progress in sweat biosensors and sensing systems integrated into textiles for wearable body status monitoring. The mechanisms of biosensors that are commonly adopted for biomarkers analysis are first introduced. The classification, fabrication methods, and applications of textile conductors in different configurations and dimensions are then summarized. Afterward, innovative strategies to achieve efficient sweat collection with textile-based sensing patches are presented, followed by an in-depth discussion on nanoengineering and system integration approaches for the enhancement of sensing performance. Finally, the challenges of textile-based sweat sensing devices associated with the device reusability, washability, stability, and fabrication reproducibility are discussed from the perspective of their practical applications in wearable healthcare.
Application and prospect of semiconductor biosensors in detection of viral zoonoses
Authors: Zheng Jiahao , Feng Chunyan , Qiu Songyin , Xu Ke , Wang Caixia , Liu Xiaofei , Lv Jizhou , Yu Haoyang , Wu Shaoqiang
Published: February 2023

The rapid spread of viral zoonoses can cause severe consequences, including huge economic loss, public health problems or even global crisis of society. Clinical detection technology plays a very important role in the prevention and control of such zoonoses. The rapid and accurate detection of the pathogens of the diseases can directly lead to the early report and early successful control of the diseases. With the advantages of being easy to use, fast, portable, multiplexing and cost-effective, semiconductor biosensors are kinds of detection devices that play an important role in preventing epidemics, and thus have become one of the research hotspots. Here, we summarized the advances of semiconductor biosensors in viral zoonoses detection. By discussing the major principles and applications of each method for different pathogens, this review proposed the directions of designing semiconductor biosensors for clinical application and put forward perspectives in diagnostic of viral zoonoses.
Advanced biosensing technologies for monitoring of agriculture pests and diseases: A review
Authors: He Jiayao , Chen Ke , Pan Xubin , Zhai Junfeng , Lin Xiangmei
Published: February 2023

The threat posed to crop production by pests and diseases is one of the key factors that could reduce global food security. Early detection is of critical importance to make accurate predictions, optimize control strategies and prevent crop losses. Recent technological advancements highlight the opportunity to revolutionize monitoring of pests and diseases. Biosensing methodologies offer potential solutions for real-time and automated monitoring, which allow advancements in early and accurate detection and thus support sustainable crop protection. Herein, advanced biosensing technologies for pests and diseases monitoring, including image-based technologies, electronic noses, and wearable sensing methods are presented. Besides, challenges and future perspectives for widespread adoption of these technologies are discussed. Moreover, we believe it is necessary to integrate technologies through interdisciplinary cooperation for further exploration, which may provide unlimited possibilities for innovations and applications of agriculture monitoring.
Time-of-flight based neutron background reduction in secondary-electron-bremsstrahlung imaging for in-vivo range verification of proton therapy: a Monte Carlo study
Authors: Yabe T. , Yamaguchi M. , Tsuda M. , Nagao Y. , Kawachi N.
Published: February 2023

In proton therapy, range verification is important to monitor the location of the Bragg peak within the patient’s body. Secondary-electron-bremsstrahlung (SEB) imaging is a promising method of proton range verification. Unfortunately, the SEB images measured by the dedicated gamma camera contain neutron-induced backgrounds as well as the SEB counts. To improve the accuracy of range verification in SEB imaging, we propose to apply a time-of-flight (TOF) method to reduce neutron background in measured images of SEB. The SEB and neutron generation and transport were calculated by a Monte Carlo simulation. Proton pencil beams were irradiated to a water phantom and then the time spectra and profiles of SEB and neutron were obtained by scoring on a detector. The total count of neutrons was approximately 10 times higher than that of SEB and increased with higher proton energy. The TOF method, selecting a time window for the TOF spectrum of SEB, reduced the neutron background by more than 97%. We concluded that the TOF methods can dramatically reduce neutron background and improve the accuracy of proton range verification in SEB imaging.
Semiempirical criterion for eliminating wraparound artifacts in single-grid-based phase-contrast X-ray imaging
Authors: Lee H. , Lee M. , Lim H. , Jeon D. , Kim W. , Cho H.
Published: February 2023

Single-grid-based phase-contrast X-ray imaging (SG-PCXI) is a non-interferometric method for the simultaneous retrieval of absorption, phase-contrast (differential), and dark-field images from a single exposure with a common X-ray grid using a spatial harmonic imaging (SHI) technique. However, the retrieved images are often distorted by the wraparound artifacts that are caused by the spectral overlap of adjacent harmonic peaks in the Fourier domain, resulting in the degradation of image quality. In this study, a semiempirical criterion required for eliminating wraparound artifacts in SG-PCXI was established by considering two constraints: one to resolve periodic grid strips by the system resolution to use the SHI technique, and the other to ensure that the spectral contents of adjacent harmonic peaks are separated (not overlapped) to the greatest possible extent during data processing. Further, we assumed that the system resolution can be experimentally determined as the spatial frequency at a 10% modulation transfer function. To verify the efficacy of the semiempirical criterion, we conducted an experiment using a table-top setup, which primarily comprised a microfocus X-ray source with a 20 μm focal spot size, X-ray grids with strip densities of 150, 200, and 254 lines/inch, and a CMOS flat-panel detector with a 49.5 μm pixel size. The experimental measurements of the wraparound artifacts in our system setup were in good agreement with the semiempirical criterion over the entire range of test conditions, thus verifying its efficacy for SG-PCXI. Accordingly, the semiempirical criterion established in this study will be useful for designing a wraparound artifact-free system layout in SG-PCXI.
Modern high-availability multi-stage power distribution system for the CMS phase-2 upgrade
Authors: Stachon K. , Dissertori G. , Gadek T. , Hansen M. , Lusin S. , Lustermann W.
Published: February 2023

The operation of CMS at the HL-LHC requires an upgrade of the readout electronics. These new modern micro-electronics require power at precise voltages between 1.2 V and 2.5 V. We will deliver this power using a 3-stage system, comprising AC-DC conversion to 380 V DC followed by radiation-tolerant 12 V DC-DC power converters feeding radiation-hard point-of-load DC-DC converter. We have studied an industrial 380 V AC-DC conversion system, featuring hot-swappable 3 kW power modules, stackable up to ∼1 MW system. Such systems are candidates for the first conversion step, feeding custom power supplies accepting 400 V DC input voltage. Our tests on one of the commercially available systems purchased from Eltek demonstrated that the system complied with our requirements, most notably in terms of maintainability, availability and power quality. A few measurement plots perceived by authors as particularly interesting are discussed in this contribution.
Numerical Evaluation of Thermal Performance of Two-Phased Closed Thermosyphon for Solar Applications
Authors: Ramlee Muhamad Fadhli , Ibrahim Adnan , Jarimi Hasila , Ramlee Noorliyana , Fazlizan Ahmad
Published: February 2023

A heat pipe is an effective passive heat transfer device with a highly efficient heat transfer rate and thermal conductivity through evaporating and condensing a working fluid circulating in a vacuum-sealed container. For solar applications, heat pipes are usually used in evacuated tube collectors (ETCs). However, the use of heat pipes in solar photovoltaic/thermal (PVT) collector is limited. Generally, a heat pipe composes of three sections: the evaporator section, the condenser section, and the adiabatic section. A wickless heat pipe, also known as a closed thermosyphon or gravitationally assisted heat pipe, relies on gravity to return the working fluid to the evaporator. Various parameters could greatly influence the thermal performance of wickless heat pipes such as initial volume filling ratio (VFR), inclination angle, inner diameter of the heat pipes, ratio of evaporator/diameter and type of working fluid used. In this study, 2D transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed using ANSYS Fluent to simulate the two-phase flow (water/steam) and to study the effect of different parameters on the heat transfer processes of a two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT) to increase its thermal performance. The 2D CFD simulations using multiphase volume of fluid (VOF) with two Eulerian phases could replicate the mass and heat transfer processes in comparison with published experimental data. A good agreement can be observed between the present CFD study with the published data in comparing the temperature profiles and thermal performance of the heat pipe. The numerical simulation of the evaporation and condensation process indicated that the thermal performance and characteristics of the TPCT are influenced by certain key parameters. In the future, full-scale 3D CFD simulations are planned to be performed to evaluate the thermal performance of heat pipes for solar photovoltaic/thermal (PVT) applications.
Indoor Performance Analysis of a Novel Double-Pass photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) Asymmetric Compound Parabolic Concentrator (ACPC) Solar Collector
Authors: Roshdan Wan Nur Adilah Wan , Jarimi Hasila , Ibrahim Adnan , Sopian Kamaruzzaman , Al-Waeli Ali H.A.
Published: February 2023

A photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar collector combines solar photovoltaic (PV) modules and solar thermal that operates simultaneously to generate electricity and thermal energy. Design parameters, operating conditions and environmental factors all have a significant impact on the performance of a PV/T solar collector. This research investigates the influence of the variation in the air mass flow rate to the performance of a novel double-pass photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator (PV/T-ACPC) solar collector. To investigate performance of the solar collector, it was tested indoors using a solar simulator at average solar radiation of 800 W/m2 with the variation in the air mass flow rate ranging from 0.0074 kg/s to 0.0900 kg/s. From the analysis, we found that as the air mass flow rate increases, the thermal efficiency and electrical efficiency increases from 37.15 % to 60.51 %, and 2.51 % to 3.29 % respectively. Meanwhile while the difference in the air output temperature and PV panel temperature were found to decrease from 19.64 °C to 2.63 °C, and 66.83 °C to 41.86 °C respectively. We also found that, as the mass flow rate continues to increase, it will reach its ‘optimum point’ and approaching a plateau at mass flow rate of 0.0262 kg/s. The finding is crucial since the collector needs to be operated at its optimum flow rate to ensure optimum efficiencies at the optimum temperature rise of the useful air supply.
Electronic energy benchmarking system (e-EBS) as sustainability tool for public buildings in Malaysia
Authors: Abidin Abdul Murad Zainal , Wajid Norhayati Mat , Fadzil Faiz , Omar Samsiah , Kamaruzzaman Syahrul Nizam , Mat Nik Elyna Myeda Nik , Azlan Anissa
Published: February 2023

The global increase in carbon emission from buildings is driving greater urgency towards carbon neutrality. A number of strategies have been developed worldwide that include energy management and building-integrated photovoltaics but these are implemented independently. There is a need for integrated approach towards better energy monitoring and benchmarking. The aim of the research is to develop an electronic energy benchmarking system (e-EBS) for public buildings in Malaysia as dashboard on energy consumption, carbon footprint, and green rating score with strategies for improvement. This is done by integrating energy auditing with the Penarafan Hijau JKR (pHJKR) building rating scheme, and the JKR Energy Online System (JENOSYS). The benchmarking system would analyse energy data and give the rating with recommended energy-saving strategies for building owners. The tool for analysis and benchmarking was selected by comparing the coefficient of determination (R2) of regression model with multi-layer perceptron, a type of neural network. The neural network model was found to have a slightly higher sensitivity level (R2=0.95) compared to the regression model (R2=0.93) and selected to develop a standard baseline of energy consumption for buildings in e-EBS. The following step is the validation of e-EBS by creating more energy benchmarks based on building category.
Mobile Learning to promote Renewable Energy Education at the Secondary Education level in developing countries.
Authors: Hoque Fahimul , Yasin Ruhizan M , Sopian Kamaruzzaman
Published: February 2023

Education is a fundamental component in advancing society towards a cleaner and sustainable energy consumption route. To achieve and promote the Sustainable development Goals (SDG’s) education will play a pivotal role in creating awareness and promotion of Renewable energy concepts amongst the general public. Malaysia and Bangladesh are two ambitious countries that has implemented various policies to harness energy from renewable sources but lacked to achieve their targets. This is mainly due to lack of RE education and interest and awareness amongst the public. Recent studies have shown a significant lack of RE curriculum specially in the secondary level of education in most of the developing countries. This lack of curriculum can directly impact the societal process to shift to a sustainable green energy future due to the lack of interest, awareness in students for RE career and importance. This gap of introducing RE education into the secondary education curriculum can be fulfilled by using Mobile Learning (M-Learning) methods and technologies as means to educate secondary schools students about RE. Both the countries have a population well equipped with smart devices and internet access thus equipping people with greater mobility, communication, and access to resources all over the world via the Internet, which can be used potentially to incorporate within the education sector as a mean for teaching and learning. Thus, this paper aims to highlight the educational strategies, theories and components that are associated with mobile learning and propose a mobile learning system that can be used to incorporate RE education in secondary education level in countries like Malaysia and Bangladesh.
Evidence on temperature and concentration of reducing agents to control the nanoparticles growth and their microbial inhibitory efficacy
Authors: Rajalakshmi T Uma , Reena T , Doss A , Kumar T Anantha , Alahmadi Tahani Awad , Alharbi Sulaiman Ali , Mariselvam R , Mideen Ponnani Kaja
Published: February 2023

The present study deals with the nanoparticles synthesis from Impatiens balsamina L. plant flower extract. The concentration of reducing agent (flower extract) and different temperature is involved in the reaction. Sixteen different silver nanoparticles were synthesized with using different ratios of the reaction mixture and different temperature. The different silver nanoparticles are different color based on the temperature and concentration of reaction mixture. The synthesized silver nanoparticles are characterized by UV/vis Spectrophotometer. The microorganisms Bacillus subtilis are highly inhibited by (90:10/60 °C; 99:1/70 °C; 92:2/70 °C; and 90:10/70 °C) silver nanoparticles. Pseudomonas aeruginosa are highly inhibited by 98:2/50 °C and 90:10/70 °C based silver nanoparticles. The bacterial species Staphylococcus aureus are highly inhibited by 98:2/50 °C and 98:2/70 °C. The E. coli was inhibited by 99:1/70 °C; 98:2/70 °C and 90:10/70 °C based silver nanoparticles. The temperature and concentration of reducing agents can play a significant role in controlling the growth of nanoparticles. This study is one of the evidence on temperature and concentration of reducing agents to control the nanoparticles growth and their microbial inhibitory efficacy.
Synthesis of nickel silicate/reduced graphene oxide composite for long-life lithium-ion storage
Authors: Dai Jianguang , Cheng Chunxiao , Li Huan , Cui Tianbao , Xiao Kun , Ning Jinli , Liu Jia , Wang Changqing
Published: February 2023

To improve the electrochemical performance of nickel silicate as anode material of lithium ion batteries, nickel silicate nanosheets anchored on reduced graphene oxide composite is synthesized via hydrothermal method using sandwich-like silica/graphene oxide as raw material. Nickel silicate nanosheets anchor on both sides of the reduced graphene oxide and cross each other to form net-like structure. The thickness of the nanosheets is about 15 nm. The composite shows an optimal electrochemical performance as lithium ion battery anode material. The initial capacity is 1525.7 mAh g−1 and the capacity retains 815.5 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles at the current density of 50 mA g−1. It exhibits good rate performance. When the current density is increased to 5000 mA g−1, the average capacity is as high as 415.8 mAh g−1. The composite also demonstrates an exceptional high cycling stability with the capacity of 423.4 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles.
Characterization and strengthening mechanism of CNT/TiB2 particulates added AZ91D composites
Authors: Velmurugan V , Mohan B
Published: February 2023

In the current work, magnesium (AZ91D) matrix composites reinforced with different weight fractions (5, 10, and 15%) of titanium diboride (TiB2) and 1.5 wt% carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are fabricated using stir casting. The improvements in mechanical, wear and corrosion resistance properties are evaluated as per ASTM guidelines. The synergistic strengthening effect of TiB2 and CNT is also studied. It was discovered that the AZ91D/(1.5CNT-10TiB2) composite outperformed other magnesium matrix composites in terms of strength and ductility. Experimental characterization and quantity analysis revealed that the load transfer process of CNT, thermal mismatch, and grain refinement are the primary factors leading to the composite’s increased tensile strength. Porosity tends to increase due to variance in the thermal expansion coefficient of particles and matrix material; Orowan strengthening mechanism plays a prominent role in enhancing tensile strength. Because of the influence of synergistic strengthening, microparticles TiB2 increased the proportion of load transmission mechanisms, and thermal mismatch facilitated the homogenous distribution of CNTs. Wear resistance and corrosion resistance increase with the inclusion of CNTs and TiB2 content. An abrasive-type wear mechanism is seen in the SEM image, and the wear craters are also seen in all the SEM images. Adding TiB2 significantly improves the cast composites’ resistance to corrosion because of grain refinement. Higher addition of TiB2 influences higher pitting corrosion due to poor grain refinement.
Experimental characterization and modeling of the inter-ply sliding behavior of unidirectional prepreg in the preforming process
Authors: Li Zhefu , Zhao Dacheng , Sun Baozhong , Liu Weiping , Yue Guangquan
Published: February 2023

The inter-ply sliding behavior is one of the important factors affecting the quality of carbon fiber composite products. In this paper, the inter-ply sliding behavior of the unidirectional prepreg was investigated for the preforming process. The inter-ply sliding resistance of prepreg under different conditions was measured by the homemade measuring device and the lubricating effect of inter-ply resin was identified by the micromorphology. The effect of fiber orientation was quantified by the combined roughness. With the increase of sliding distance, the inter-ply sliding resistance initially increased significantly, and finally maintained a constant value. A phenomenological model of the inter-ply sliding resistance was developed to explain the effects of pressure, velocity, and fiber orientation. This model can accurately describe the inter-ply sliding behavior of prepreg, which can be used for numerical simulation and the optimization of preforming process.
NaCl aqueous solution as a novel electrode in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor for highly efficient ozone generation
Authors: GAO Erhao , GUO Keying , JIN Qi , HAN Li , LI Ning , WU Zuliang , YAO Shuiliang
Published: February 2023

Ozone (O3) generated by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is widely used in various industrial processes. In this study, NaCl aqueous solution was used as a novel electric power transmission electrode in a DBD reactor (instead of a traditional metal electrode) for highly efficient ozone generation. The results demonstrated that a high O3 yield of 242 g kWh−1 with a concentration of 14.6 g m−3 O3 was achieved. The power transmission mechanism works because NaCl aqueous solution behaves as a capacitor when an alternating pulse voltage below 8 kHz is used. Compared with the resistance of the discharge barrier and discharge space, the resistance of NaCl aqueous solution can be ignored, which ensures that O3 is generated efficiently. It is expected that O3 generation using NaCl aqueous solution as a novel electrode in a DBD reactor could be an alternative technology with good application prospects.
Dynamical fluctuations of a tracer coupled to active and passive particles
Authors: Santra Ion
Published: February 2023

We study the induced dynamics of an inertial tracer particle elastically coupled to passive or active Brownian particles. We integrate out the environment degrees of freedom to obtain the exact effective equation of the tracer—a generalized Langevin equation in both cases. In particular, we find the exact form of the dissipation kernel and effective noise experienced by the tracer and compare it with the phenomenological modeling of active baths used in previous studies. We show that the second fluctuation-dissipation relation (FDR) does not hold at early times for both cases. However, at finite times, the tracer dynamics violate (obeys) the FDR for the active (passive) environment. We calculate the linear response formulas in this regime for both cases and show that the passive medium satisfies an equilibrium fluctuation response relation, while the active medium does not—we quantify the extent of this violation explicitly. We show that though the active medium generally renders a nonequilibrium description of the tracer, an effective equilibrium picture emerges asymptotically in the small activity limit of the medium. We also calculate the mean squared velocity and mean squared displacement of the tracer and report how they vary with time.
Quick identification of ABC trilayer graphene at nanoscale resolution via a near-field optical route
Authors: Shen Peiyue , Zhou Xianliang , Chen Jiajun , Deng Aolin , Lyu Bosai , Zhang Zhichun , Lou Shuo , Ma Saiqun , Wei Binbin , Shi Zhiwen
Published: February 2023

ABC-stacked trilayer graphene has exhibited a variety of correlated phenomena owing to its relatively flat bands and gate-tunable bandgap. However, convenient methods are still lacking for identifying ABC graphene with nanometer-scale resolution. Here we demonstrate that the scanning near-field optical microscope working in ambient conditions can provide quick recognition of ABC trilayer graphene with no ambiguity and excellent resolution (∼20 nm). The recognition is based on the difference in their near-field infrared (IR) responses between the ABA and ABC trilayers. We show that in most frequencies, the response of the ABC trilayer is weaker than the ABA trilayer. However, near the graphene phonon frequency (∼1585 cm−1), ABC’s response increases dramatically when gated and exhibits a narrow and sharp Fano-shape resonant line, whereas the ABA trilayer is largely featherless. Consequently, the IR contrast between ABC and ABA becomes reversed and can even be striking (ABC/ABA ∼ 3) near the graphene phonon frequency. The observed near-field IR features can serve as a golden rule to quickly distinguish ABA and ABC trilayers with no ambiguity, which could largely advance the exploration of correlation physics in ABC-stacked trilayer graphene.
Recovery and treatment
Authors: Humphreys Keith
Published: February 2023

This chapter discusses the recovery and treatment of people with addiction. Within the 12-step model, recovery refers to lifetime abstinence from drugs coupled with greater compassion for and service to others, restitution to victims, and a spiritual state of serenity. Other concepts of recovery focus more on improved individual health and reduced substance use. Recovery typically involves significant work to attain and maintain, which can bring increased feelings of worth in contrast to the years of active addiction. The chapter then shares narratives of recovery and treatment. It also clarifies the differences between addiction treatment and detoxification. Addiction treatment can include many components, including medication, information, education, emotional support, role modeling, motivational interviewing, contingency management, and teaching cognitive and behavioral skills.
Inter- and intra-island speciation and their morphological and ecological correlates in Aeonium (Crassulaceae), a species-rich Macaronesian radiation
Authors: Messerschmid Thibaud F E , Abrahamczyk Stefan , Bañares-Baudet Ángel , Brilhante Miguel A , Eggli Urs , Hühn Philipp , Kadereit Joachim W , dos Santos Patrícia , de Vos Jurriaan M , Kadereit Gudrun
Published: February 2023

Background and Aims

The most species-rich and ecologically diverse plant radiation on the Canary Islands is the Aeonium alliance (Crassulaceae). In island radiations like this, speciation can take place either within islands or following dispersal between islands. Aiming at quantifying intra- and inter-island speciation events in the evolution of Aeonium, and exploring their consequences, we hypothesized that (1) intra-island diversification resulted in stronger ecological divergence of sister lineages, and that (2) taxa on islands with a longer history of habitation by Aeonium show stronger ecological differentiation and produce fewer natural hybrids.

Methods

We studied the biogeographical and ecological setting of diversification processes in Aeonium with a fully sampled and dated phylogeny inferred using a ddRADseq approach. Ancestral areas and biogeographical events were reconstructed in BioGeoBEARS. Eleven morphological characters and three habitat characteristics were taken into account to quantify the morphological and ecological divergence between sister lineages. A co-occurrence matrix of all Aeonium taxa is presented to assess the spatial separation of taxa on each island.

Key Results

We found intra- and inter-island diversification events in almost equal numbers. In lineages that diversified within single islands, morphological and ecological divergence was more pronounced than in lineages derived from inter-island diversification, but only the difference in morphological divergence was significant. Those islands with the longest history of habitation by Aeonium had the lowest percentages of co-occurring and hybridizing taxon pairs compared with islands where Aeonium arrived later.

Conclusions

Our findings illustrate the importance of both inter- and intra-island speciation, the latter of which is potentially sympatric speciation. Speciation on the same island entailed significantly higher levels of morphological divergence compared with inter-island speciation, but ecological divergence was not significantly different. Longer periods of shared island habitation resulted in the evolution of a higher degree of spatial separation and stronger reproductive barriers.
Pharmacokinetic profiles of 3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl) propionic acid and its conjugates in Sprague-Dawley rats
Authors: Abe Chizumi , Soma Ayano , Tun Tint Ni Ni , Zhang Ye , Nishitani Yosuke , Kayaki Hiroyuki , Kawakami Hideaki , Matsui Toshiro
Published: February 2023

3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)propionic acid (HMPA) is one of the end-products from gut microbiota from dietary polyphenols, which might contribute to their health benefits. This study aims to investigate the absorption, metabolism, and tissue accumulation of HMPA in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. After HMPA (10 mg/kg body weight) was orally administered, intact and conjugated HMPAs in the bloodstream were detected and reached the maximum concentration in 15 min (HMPA, 2.6 ± 0.4 nmol/mL; sulfated HMPA, 3.6 ± 0.9 nmol/mL; glucuronidated HMPA, 0.55 ± 0.09 nmol/mL). HMPA and its conjugates were also detected in the target organs 6 h postadministration, indicating that HMPA undergoes rapid conversion into conjugates, and they broadly distribute to organs with similar profiles (kidneys > liver > thoracic aorta > heart > soleus muscle > lungs). This study demonstrated that orally administered HMPA (10 mg/kg) in SD rats undergoes rapid metabolism and wide tissue distribution with ≥1.2% absorption ratio.
On the effectiveness of compact biomedical transformers
Authors: Rohanian Omid , Nouriborji Mohammadmahdi , Kouchaki Samaneh , Clifton David A
Published: February 2023

Motivation

Language models pre-trained on biomedical corpora, such as BioBERT, have recently shown promising results on downstream biomedical tasks. Many existing pre-trained models, on the other hand, are resource-intensive and computationally heavy owing to factors such as embedding size, hidden dimension and number of layers. The natural language processing community has developed numerous strategies to compress these models utilizing techniques such as pruning, quantization and knowledge distillation, resulting in models that are considerably faster, smaller and subsequently easier to use in practice. By the same token, in this article, we introduce six lightweight models, namely, BioDistilBERT, BioTinyBERT, BioMobileBERT, DistilBioBERT, TinyBioBERT and CompactBioBERT which are obtained either by knowledge distillation from a biomedical teacher or continual learning on the Pubmed dataset. We evaluate all of our models on three biomedical tasks and compare them with BioBERT-v1.1 to create the best efficient lightweight models that perform on par with their larger counterparts.

Results

We trained six different models in total, with the largest model having 65 million in parameters and the smallest having 15 million; a far lower range of parameters compared with BioBERT’s 110M. Based on our experiments on three different biomedical tasks, we found that models distilled from a biomedical teacher and models that have been additionally pre-trained on the PubMed dataset can retain up to 98.8% and 98.6% of the performance of the BioBERT-v1.1, respectively. Overall, our best model below 30 M parameters is BioMobileBERT, while our best models over 30 M parameters are DistilBioBERT and CompactBioBERT, which can keep up to 98.2% and 98.8% of the performance of the BioBERT-v1.1, respectively.

Availability and implementation

Codes are available at: https://github.com/nlpie-research/Compact-Biomedical-Transformers. Trained models can be accessed at: https://huggingface.co/nlpie.
Parental Involvement in Child Protection Services and Parenting Experience as Alcohol and Other Drug Use: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Authors: Goddard Kashmir , Montague Jane , Elander James
Published: February 2023

This article explores the emotional experiences of drug- and/or alcohol-using parents who have child protective Social Services involvement. Research suggests that protective processes can reduce children’s experience of poor outcomes whilst parents undergo treatment for substance misuse. Semi-structured interviews combined with photovoice and journal writing were used to generate data. Eight UK-based parents participated. Each was accessing drug or alcohol treatment and had a child who was the subject of a child protection intervention. The resulting data from the seventeen interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Key findings are presented within four themes. The first two outline parents’ perceptions of themselves and how they felt they were viewed by others. Themes 3 and 4 focus on specific emotions: anger and frustration; fear and guilt. The research identifies the complex nature of parental emotions surrounding drug/alcohol misuse when social care services are involved. Parents conceptualised their experience as psychological trauma. They discussed the emotional roller-coaster of the effects of having combined interventions. The research provides insights into how drug/alcohol use can influence parenting. It also highlights issues for professional practice, including developing successful treatment models for substance-using parents.
Design of GH4169 diaphragm for combined improvements of yield strength and surface roughness
Authors: Wang Qiushi , He Guangli , Zhao Wenjing , Han Zhihua , Wei Linlin
Published: February 2023

Diaphragm compressors have become the primary source of on-site hydrogen compression for hydrogen fuelling stations around the world. The most common hydrogen-compressor-failure mechanism has been identified as diaphragm fracture due to low tensile strength and poor surface properties. In this study, a new type of GH4169 diaphragm with high yield strength and low surface roughness was fabricated. Microstructures, tensile behaviours and surface properties of the specimens were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy, an electronic universal testing machine and atomic force microscopy, respectively. The evolution of the γ′′ and γ′ phases with temperature has been examined. Both γ′′ and γ′ phases were precipitant-strengthened phases for GH4169 and the volume and size of γ′′ and γ′ phases increase with ageing time. In addition, the γ′′ phase is the main strengthening phase and γ′ is the supportive strengthening phase. Tensile strength was increased due to the strengthening phases at the cost of ductility. The roughness of the diaphragm could reach an arithmetic average roughness (Ra) of 0.1   μ m    by applying a cooling-assisted polishing process. This work improves the reliability and reduces the auxiliary steps and down-time for diaphragm compressors.
Toward a Novel RESTFUL Big Data-Based Urban Traffic Incident Data Web Service for Connected Vehicles
Authors: Hireche Samia , Dennai Abdeslem , Kadri Boufeldja
Published: February 2023

Connected vehicles (CVs) are an emerging technology in intelligent transportation systems. Currently, many data-driven intelligent transportation systems (D2ITS) use CV data. Unfortunately, these D2ITS still need serious improvement before they meet higher-level visualization needs. Thus, we aim to develop a new, intelligent data-driven transportation system framework. We focus on visualizing real-time CV data using a big data analytic system in urban areas. In response, we first propose an effective real-time data distribution approach within the Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork. Second, we develop novel strategies for aggregating, extracting and ingesting data. We provide scalable and fault-tolerant delivery methods without interruption or delay. Finally, we proposed a novel visualization REpresentational State Transfer (REST) web service. We used Simulation of Urban MObility, OMNET++ and Veins to simulate a traffic incident dataset. Then, we tested the Basic Safety Messages in an experimental big data cluster. We used NIFI, Kafka and Cassandra for ingestion, distribution, delivery and storage. The results show accurate performance for packet loss, packet delivery and communication delay. Also, it indicates high throughput and low latency for distributed data delivery systems. Additionally, we obtained the smallest response time for the RESTFUL visualization web service.
Detecting Group Shilling Attacks In Recommender Systems Based On User Multi-dimensional Features And Collusive Behaviour Analysis
Authors: Xu Yishu , Zhang Peng , Yu Hongtao , Zhang Fuzhi
Published: February 2023

Group shilling attacks are more threatening than individual shilling attacks due to the collusive behaviours among group members, which pose a great challenge to the credibility of recommender systems. Detection of group shilling attacks can reduce the risk caused by such attacks and ensure the credibility of recommendations. The existing methods for detecting group shilling attacks mainly extract features from the rating patterns of users at group level to measure the shilling behaviours of groups. However, they may become ineffective with the change of attack strategy, resulting in a decrease in detection performance. Aiming at this problem, a new solution based on user multi-dimensional features and collusive behaviour analysis is presented for detecting group shilling attacks. First, we employ the information entropy and latent semantic analysis to analyse the user behavioural patterns from dimensions of item, rating, time and interest, and propose a suite of indicators to measure the anomaly behaviours of users. Second, we propose a measure based on the multi-dimensional features of users to capture the collusion of group members from the perspective of their synchronized behaviours and abnormal behaviours, and treat the groups with high collusion as candidate groups. Finally, based on the multi-dimensional features of users, we construct the user behaviour similarity matrix using Gaussian radial basis function (Gaussian-RBF) and adopt the spectral clustering algorithm to spot group shilling attackers in the candidate groups. Experiments show that the detection performance (F1-measure) of the proposed method can achieve 0.965, 0.964, 0.991 and 0.868 on the Netflix, CiaoDVD, Epinions and Amazon datasets, respectively, which is better than that of state-of-the-art methods.
Certificateless Broadcast Encryption with Authorization Suitable for Storing Personal Health Records
Authors: Chen Zhiwei , Deng Lunzhi , Ruan Yu , Feng Shuai , Wang Tao , Wang Bo
Published: February 2023

Cloud medical treatment provides real-time data sharing in a cost-effective method, making it more practical to create, collect and manage vast amounts of personal health records (PHR) of patients. However, health information is considered highly sensitive. How to securely store and dynamically process massive patients’ PHR data in a public cloud environment has become one of the most important challenges. Therefore, we introduce a novel solution to the problems of privacy exposure, data security and flexible access of storage modules in medical systems. In this paper, we present a privacy-preserving certificateless broadcast encryption with authorization for the PHR system, which is the best approach to effectively solve the above problems and avoid key escrow. In our work, users (patients) outsource their encrypted data to the cloud server and reallocate data accessing rights of recipients through an authorization set, sharing with a group of authorized receivers (doctors) in a secure and efficient manner. In addition, it is shown to be capable of achieving both plaintext confidentiality and receiver anonymity under the random oracle model. Moreover, the experimental evaluation shows that the proposed scheme enjoys low computational and communication overhead, indicating the feasibility and practicality of the scheme.
The concentration of edge betweenness in the evolution of planar graphs and street networks
Authors: Pichardo-Corpus J A
Published: February 2023

The centrality measures of the nodes and edges of the street networks are related to various urban phenomena. In particular, betweenness centrality correlates with the spatial distribution of economic activities, the levels of congestion, and the structural changes in cities. In this work, we study how betweenness tends to concentrate in a small set of edges and develop a model to analyse this concentration throughout the growth of graphs. We show that random planar graphs tend to betweenness concentration as the number of nodes increases. The evolution of Paris and Tijuana street networks shows the same behaviour but at a higher rate. A set of 300 street networks worldwide follows a similar relationship between the number of nodes and the betweenness concentration. We find a significant correlation between congestion ranks and betweenness concentration.
Combined Histological and Endoscopic Endpoints at Post-induction Lack Additional Prognostic Value Compared with Endoscopic Improvement Alone in Ulcerative Colitis: A Post hoc Analysis of the VARSITY study
Authors: Wong Emily C L , Dulai Parambir S , Hasan Badar , Marshall John K , Reinisch Walter , Narula Neeraj
Published: February 2023

Background and Aims

Evaluating histological outcomes in ulcerative colitis [UC] has become common in recent clinical trials. In this study, we explored the additional value of the combined endpoint of histo-endoscopic mucosal improvement [HEMI] compared with endoscopic improvement [EI] at post-induction [Week 14] and post-maintenance [1 year].

Methods

This post hoc analysis included 620 UC participants with available data from the VARSITY trial. Participants achieving post-induction and post-maintenance HEMI [Mayo endoscopic subscore ≤1 and Geboes score <3.2] were compared across clinical outcomes, patient-reported outcomes [PROs], and inflammatory markers. Univariate analyses were performed to identify variables associated with the outcome of interest. Multivariate analyses included covariates with a p <0.05 on univariate analyses.

Results

Among the 468 patients with 1-year data available, a total of 166 [35.5%] attained HEMI and 209 [44.7%] attained EI at post-induction. No difference in achievement of clinical remission [CR] at 1 year was observed among those who attained post-induction HEMI vs EI (121/166 [72.9%] vs 147/209 [70.3%], p = 0.903). Similar findings were observed for the outcome of 1-year treatment failure (45/166 [27.1%] vs 55/209 [26.3%], p = 0.781). Patients who achieved HEMI at post-induction had lower total and partial Mayo scores and had the largest improvement from baseline. Faecal calprotectin and C-reactive protein [CRP] were also significantly lower among HEMI achievers at post-induction [p <0.001]. Similar findings were observed at post-maintenance.

Conclusions

In this post hoc analysis, at post-induction, HEMI did not demonstrate additional prognostic value in predicting 1-year outcomes over EI. However, HEMI was associated with lower clinical disease activity at post-induction and at 1 year compared with endoscopic or histological outcomes in isolation.
How Effective are Female Role Models in Steering Girls Towards STEM? Evidence from French High Schools
Authors: Breda Thomas , Grenet Julien , Monnet Marion , Van Effenterre Clémentine
Published: February 2023

We show in a large-scale field experiment that a brief exposure to female role models working in scientific fields affects high school students’ perceptions and choices of undergraduate major. The classroom interventions reduced the prevalence of stereotypical views on jobs in science and gender differences in abilities. They also made high-achieving girls in grade 12 more likely to enrol in selective and male-dominated science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs in college. Comparing treatment effects across the 56 role model participants, we find that the most effective interventions are those that improved students’ perceptions of science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers without overemphasising women’s under-representation in science.
Phylogenetic challenges in a recently diversified and polyploid-rich Alyssum (Brassicaceae) lineage: low divergence, reticulation, and parallel polyploid speciation
Authors: Španiel Stanislav , Šlenker Marek , Melichárková Andrea , Caboňová Michaela , Šandalová Michaela , Zeisek Vojtěch , Marhold Karol , Zozomová-Lihová Judita
Published: February 2023

Elucidating the evolution of recently diverged and polyploid-rich plant lineages may be challenging even with high-throughput sequencing, both for biological reasons and bioinformatic difficulties. Here, we apply target enrichment with genome skimming (Hyb-Seq) to unravel the evolutionary history of the Alyssum montanum-A. repens species complex. Reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships in diploids supported recent and rapid diversification accompanied by reticulation events. Of the 4 main clades identified among the diploids, 3 clades included species from the Alps, Apennine, and Balkan peninsulas, indicating close biogeographic links between these regions. We further focused on the clade distributed from the Western Alps to the Iberian Peninsula, which comprises numerous polyploids as opposed to a few diploids. Using a recently developed PhyloSD (phylogenomic subgenome detection) pipeline, we successfully tracked the ancestry of all polyploids. We inferred multiple polyploidization events that involved 2 closely related diploid progenitors, resulting into several sibling polyploids: 2 autopolyploids and 6 allopolyploids. The skewed proportions of major homeolog-types and the occurrence of some minor homeolog-types, both exhibiting geographic patterns, suggest introgression with the progenitors and other related diploids. Our study highlights a unique case of parallel polyploid speciation that was enhanced by ecological and geographic separation and provides an excellent resource for future studies of polyploid evolution.
Experimental evolution in the cyanobacterium Trichormus variabilis: increases in size and morphological diversity
Authors: Baselga-Cervera Beatriz , Jacobsen Kristin A , Ford Denison R , Travisano Michael
Published: February 2023

Cyanobacteria morphology has apparently remained almost unchanged for billions of years, exhibiting remarkable evolutionary stasis. Cyanobacteria appear to have reached their maximum morphological complexity in terms of size, modes of multicellularity, and cellular types by ~2 Ga. This contrasts with the increased complexity observed in other multicellular lineages, such as plants. Using experimental evolution, we show that morphological diversity can rapidly evolve in a species of filamentous cyanobacteria. Since size has such significance with regard to organismal complexity, we subjected the heterocyst-forming cyanobacterium Trichornus variabilis (syn. Anabaena variabilis) to selection for larger size. We observed increases in size of more than 30-fold, relative to the ancestral population, after 45 cycles of selection. Two distinguishable nascent morphological elaborations were identified in all the selected populations: Tangle (long, tangled filaments) and Cluster (clusters of short filaments) morphology. Growth from single cells indicates heritability of the evolved Tangle and Cluster morphological phenotypes. Cyanobacteria evolutionary conservatism is ascribed to developmental constraints, slow evolution rates, or ecological flexibility. These results open opportunities to study possibilities and constraints for the evolution of higher integrated biological levels of organization within this lineage.