bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Experimental study on the removal behavior of SiCf/SiC by traditional and ultrasonic vibration assist scratching with single grain diamond
Authors: An W Z , Yuan S M , Ouyang X L , Wei J Y , Zhang Z K , Luo Y
Published: October 2022

Due to their excellent mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs) are increasingly used in the manufacture of critical components for industries such as aerospace, nuclear and automotive. However, its high hardness, brittleness, anisotropy, and non-homogeneity lead to severe tool wear and uneven cutting process during material removal machining, making it difficult to control the surface quality. To gain an in-depth understanding of the material removal mechanism of CMCs for grinding processing, variable depth-of-cut scratch tests along different scratch directions under conventional and ultrasonic assist conditions were conducted. The results showed that ultrasonic assist scratch (UAS) caused more severe groove exit damage when scratching along the longitudinal direction of the fibers. The high-frequency hammering effect of ultrasonic vibration reduced the bending fracture of the fibers and increased the material removal when scratching along the transverse direction of the fibers, and reduced the area of groove edge chipping. In terms of scratching force, the scratching force along the longitudinal direction of the fibers is less than that along the transverse direction. In addition, ultrasonic vibration makes the material change from the original brittle fracture removal caused by extrusion, shear, and tension to the brittle fracture crack intersection removal prompted by hammering-scratching action, reducing the scratching force.
Analysis of the Distribution of Typical Metal Occurrence in Transformer Oil
Authors: Haidan Lin , Jinfeng Si , Zhanwen Sun , Haifeng Zhang
Published: October 2022

The aim of this study was to investigate the distributions of typical metal occurrence in the transformer oil. By the help of the successive extraction method, the distributions of typical metal occurrence in the oil were compared between the normal transformer and incipient fault transformer. The experimental results showed that the successive extraction method could be used to track and detect the typical metals in transformer oil. Compared with the normal transformer, the concentration and fluctuation range of typical metals in the incipient fault transformer was higher and larger, respectively. It was found that the Fe extracted by organic solvent, the Cu and Zn extracted by water were closely related to the fault early warning of the transformer.
Effects of Modified Graphene Additives on Dispersion Stability and Wear Resistance of Lubricating Oil
Authors: Wang Chenchen , Li Qingda , Liu Jiwei , Wang Hao , Liu Minghui , Wang Yifeng
Published: October 2022

To investigate the synergistic effect of oleic acid modification and dispersant on the dispersion stability and wear resistance of graphene in base oil. Modified graphene was prepared by using oleic acid as surface modifier and T161 as dispersant. The microstructure of graphene was characterized by SEM and Raman. The effects of oleic acid modification and dispersant T161 on the dispersion stability of graphene were investigated, and the optimal addition amount of T161 was determined. At the same time, the optimum amount of modified graphene was determined by MMU–10 testing machine. And the feasibility of modified graphene in finished lubricating oil was studied. The feasibility of modified graphene in finished lubricating oil was also studied. The results showed that T161 with the addition level of 0.5wt% had the best synergistic effect with oleic acid modification, and there was no obvious precipitation after standing for one week. The sample of modified graphene with 0.075wt% +0.5%T161 showed the best anti-wear effect with a friction coefficient of 0.52. Compared with the finished lubricating oil, the friction coefficient is increased by 26.9%. The results of graphene dispersion stability analysis showed that the synergistic effect of oleic acid modification and dispersant T161 could greatly improve the dispersion stability of graphene in base oil. Graphene added lubrication mechanism for modified graphene particles to fill pits and the presence of adsorption film. Modified graphene will not improve the antiwear and antifriction effect of the finished lubricating oil. The addition of modified graphene destroys the original stability of the lubricating oil.
Size effect of mortar specimens under uniaxial compression
Authors: Kovac M
Published: October 2022

This paper investigates the phenomenon of the size effect of quasi-brittle lime-based material. This research aims to confirm the existence of a size effect on a homogeneous material - test specimens of mortar, which are subjected to uniaxial compression and provide additional knowledge to explain the causes of the size effect. This paper deals with the analysis of the results of experimental tests of mortar specimens without inclusion and with one centrally located steel inclusion. Two series of tests with different slenderness and size were prepared. The results of the experiment showed that the compressive strength of the test specimens decreased with increasing specimen size. The larger interface area between the inclusion and the mortar matrix negatively affected the compression strength.
Analytical Determination of Longitudinal Forces on the Vessels During Filling of the Navigation Lock
Authors: Kašpar T
Published: October 2022

The basic parameter for the calculation of the lock filling time is the determination of the forces on the vessels during the filling of the navigation lock. The time required to fill the lock determines the method of filling the lock. The forces on vessels during filling (emptying) directly determine the capacity of the waterway. In the first phase of the lock design, the forces on the vessels during locking are calculated analytically. Most approaches to calculate the forces on vessels are concerned only with finding the maximum value of the forces on vessels. This research deals with the analytical determination of the maximum forces on vessels during the lock filling period. Data from the physical model and the 1D model are used to calculate the maximum forces on the vessels. This simple method can be used to design a new lock. This simple method can be used to design a new lock and to increase the capacity of existing historic locks on the Elbe-Vltava Waterway (Czech Republic) without any structural modifications.
Use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in planning and managing the life cycle of buildings
Authors: Smetanková J , Mésároš P , Krajníková K , Biolek V
Published: October 2022

Many studies and research point to a growing trend in industrial digitization. New materials, technologies and advanced automation tools are increasingly being promoted in the construction industry. With the increasing degree of digitization, various ways and methods of planning, management and control across different construction processes are also increasing. BIM is a unified information system that enables the sharing of documentation, supports communication, streamlines individual processes, helps eliminate errors and increases quality. Based on this fact, the paper analyses the current state of use of Building Information Modelling in planning and managing the life cycle of buildings in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The current state of knowledge and use of BIM, defining the advantages and possible barriers to its use, examining the scope and potential of BIM implementation within the building life cycle and defining tools and applications used in time and financial planning of construction production were analysed. The paper also briefly examines how the implementation of BIM can affect selected key tasks of the preparation and valuation professions.
Overview of meteorological and hydrological conditions in the Hornád river basin
Authors: Nagy P , Garaj M , Hlinková M
Published: October 2022

The assessment of deficit and surplus volumes is important for assessing the effects of climate change on water management. Climate change needs to be taken into account in water management. At a time of climate change, there is a frequent occurrence of such periods, but also torrential rains, it is necessary to assess the quantity and quality of surface waters. Building structures must be designed in such a way that, during the period of torrential rains, they retain water from the surface runoff and prevent any damage that could arise from the original; sufficient water and dry season must be ensured during the period. Water shortages can also be caused by increased water consumption. The assessment of the volume of water in the Hornád river basin has shown that it is possible to mitigate climate change.
Sumsets and fixed points of substitutions
Authors: Dekking F.
Published: October 2022

In this paper we introduce a technique to determine the sumset

A
+
A

A+A

, where

A
A

is the indicator function of the 0’s occurring in a fixed point

x
x

of a substitution on the alphabet

{
0
,
1
}

\{0,1\}

.
A new framework for drug–disease association prediction combing light-gated message passing neural network and gated fusion mechanism
Authors: Liu Bao-Min , Gao Ying-Lian , Zhang Dai-Jun , Zhou Feng , Wang Juan , Zheng Chun-Hou , Liu Jin-Xing
Published: October 2022

With the development of research on the complex aetiology of many diseases, computational drug repositioning methodology has proven to be a shortcut to costly and inefficient traditional methods. Therefore, developing more promising computational methods is indispensable for finding new candidate diseases to treat with existing drugs. In this paper, a model integrating a new variant of message passing neural network and a novel-gated fusion mechanism called GLGMPNN is proposed for drug–disease association prediction. First, a light-gated message passing neural network (LGMPNN), including message passing, aggregation and updating, is proposed to separately extract multiple pieces of information from the similarity networks and the association network. Then, a gated fusion mechanism consisting of a forget gate and an output gate is applied to integrate the multiple pieces of information to extent. The forget gate calculated by the multiple embeddings is built to integrate the association information into the similarity information. Furthermore, the final node representations are controlled by the output gate, which fuses the topology information of the networks and the initial similarity information. Finally, a bilinear decoder is adopted to reconstruct an adjacency matrix for drug–disease associations. Evaluated by 10-fold cross-validations, GLGMPNN achieves excellent performance compared with the current models. The following studies show that our model can effectively discover novel drug–disease associations.
Multi-model predictive analysis of RNA solvent accessibility based on modified residual attention mechanism
Authors: Huang Yuyao , Luo Jiesi , Jing Runyu , Li Menglong
Published: October 2022

Predicting RNA solvent accessibility using only primary sequence data can be regarded as sequence-based prediction work. Currently, the established studies for sequence-based RNA solvent accessibility prediction are limited due to the available number of datasets and black box prediction. To improve these issues, we first expanded the available RNA structures and then developed a sequence-based model using modified attention layers with different receptive fields to conform to the stem–loop structure of RNA chains. We measured the improvement with an extended dataset and further explored the model’s interpretability by analysing the model structures, attention values and hyperparameters. Finally, we found that the developed model regarded the pieces of a sequence as templates during the training process. This work will be helpful for researchers who would like to build RNA attribute prediction models using deep learning in the future.
Photoperiod affects female life history traits in temperate populations of Aedes aegypti from South America
Authors: Campos Raúl E , Di Battista Cristian M , De Majo María Sol , Montini Pedro , Fischer Sylvia
Published: October 2022

In many insects, short photoperiods induce females to lay diapausing eggs, which are associated with a reduction in female fecundity, and/or with an increase in their growth rate, allowing for a larger size at adulthood. The effects of short photoperiods may also differ among populations, depending on the different selection pressures imposed by the winter conditions. Thus, this study aimed to experimentally assess the effects of short photoperiods on Aedes aegypti, an invasive mosquito species that also vectors several viral diseases. We compared life history parameters of the females reared from the first larval instar under contrasting photoperiods, in two populations from the temperate region of Argentina, one with a milder winter (BA) and the other with a harsher winter (SB). The results showed a significant increase in the time to oviposition, a trend to a larger size of females (significant only for SB) and higher inhibition of egg hatching (more pronounced in SB), in response to short photoperiods. No differences in fecundity were detected among treatments. The different reaction norms of the populations in female body size and egg hatching response suggest an adaptation to local conditions, which might favour a further expansion of A. aegypti towards colder climates.
Successful laparoscopic pheochromocytoma resection in an adult patient with Fontan physiology: a case report
Authors: Nohara-Shitama Yume , Takahashi Jinya , Homma Takehiro , Igawa Tsukasa , Fukumoto Yoshihiro
Published: October 2022

Background

Pheochromocytoma is a rare tumour producing catecholamines and has been more frequently reported than expected in patients with a Fontan physiology.

Case summary

The patient was a 39-year-old woman born with a univentricular atrioventricular connection and pulmonary valve stenosis. A Fontan operation was performed when she was 22 years old. At the age of 38, she was diagnosed with pheochromocytoma. The most serious problem was the increased occurrence of supraventricular arrhythmias, which easily caused heart failure. We decided to perform a laparoscopic resection. Postoperative recovery was good. There were no findings of malignancy and all postoperative catecholamine levels normalized. She was discharged home on the 14th day after the surgery, walking unaided.

Discussion

Diagnosis and treatment by tumour resection in the early phase are crucial in patients who undergo the Fontan procedure. However, patients after Fontan surgery have a very low cardiac reserve. Thus, the decision to perform a surgical treatment is a very difficult one to take. In this case, fenestration had been naturally closed. As fenestration provides a consistent source of systemic ventricular preload, we performed transcatheter fenestration dilatation to improve heart failure management before surgical pheochromocytoma removal. Although laparoscopic surgery is generally considered to be less invasive, pneumoperitoneum may interfere with venous return in Fontan physiology patients. There is also a risk of thrombosis via fenestration. Here, we reported the case of a successful laparoscopic pheochromocytoma resection in an adult Fontan patient.
Case report of a ventricular fibrillation storm with a cardiac conduction disorder and HCN4 variant 18 years after ablation of atrial flutter
Authors: Nakamura Toshihiro , Fukuzawa Koji , Aiba Takeshi , Ohno Seiko
Published: October 2022

Background

Genetic abnormalities causing various arrhythmias including atrial arrhythmias, specialized cardiac conduction disorders, and malignant ventricular arrhythmias have been reported. However, it is sometimes difficult to diagnose and treat patients with various arrhythmias.

Case summary

A 49-year-old woman who underwent ablation of typical atrial flutter (AFL) at 31 years of age visited the emergency room due to a cardiopulmonary arrest. Her 12-lead electrocardiogram during sinus rhythm after resuscitation exhibited first-degree atrioventricular block with right bundle branch block and right axis deviation. No structural heart disease was evident on standard imaging screening. An implantation of a single-chamber implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) was indicated. After the ICD implantation, she then experienced multiple ventricular fibrillation (VF) episodes. Radiofrequency catheter ablation of triggered ventricular premature contractions (VPCs) was performed but failed because the clinical VPCs could not be induced during the session. Although no pathogenic variants associated with Brugada syndrome or long-QT syndrome were found, a rare HCN4 variant, c.1209+2_1209+3insGAGT (rs786205418), was identified in a gene panel analysis. Because high-frequency clinical pacing was effective for suppressing the VF, the single-chamber ICD was upgraded to a dual-chamber ICD. Thereafter, high-rate pacing successfully prevented any further ventricular arrhythmias during the follow up.

Discussion

A clinical course with prominent wide QRS complexes and AFL in one’s early 30s followed by sudden onset of a VF storm about 20 years later is extremely rare. Her clinical phenotype expression was possibly associated with a rare HCN4 variant; however, further study is needed to confirm whether this variant was pathological or not.
Æthelflaed and Other Rulers in English Histories, c.900–1150
Authors: Winkler Emily A
Published: October 2022

This article explains why Æthelflaed, ruler of Mercia, mattered to writers of history in twelfth-century England. It argues that these writers evaluated and compared rulers based not on sex or bloodline, but on the quality of a ruler’s achievements relative to the set and scale of challenges the ruler faced. They thought Æthelflaed remarkable because her triumphs for Mercia distinguished her from other rulers. The article shows that a new understanding of attitudes in twelfth-century England towards rulers, past and present, is required. It accounts for the absence of gendered comments about rulers, as well as the presence of non-binary concepts of gender, in medieval writing. It also challenges the enduring idea that Latin writers imposed a shared, Wessex-dominated national vision on the English past. They asserted Mercia’s independence under Æthelflaed’s sole rule, which shows that English regional interests persisted in the historical imagination long after the Norman Conquest.
Why making promotion after a burnout is like boiling the ocean
Authors: Sterkens Philippe , Baert Stijn , Rooman Claudia , Derous Eva
Published: October 2022

Recent studies have explored hiring discrimination as an obstacle to former burnout patients. A substantial share of the burned-out working population, however, returns to the same employer, where they face an even more severe aftermath of burnout syndrome: promotion discrimination. To our knowledge, we are the first to directly address this issue. More specifically, we conducted a vignette experiment with 406 managers, testing the potential of the main burnout stigma theoretically described in the literature as potential mediators of promotion discrimination. Estimates reveal that compared to employees without an employment interruption, former burnout patients are assigned a 34 per cent lower promotion propensity score. Moreover, negative perceptions are associated with a history of job burnout. Four of these perceptions, namely lower leadership capacities, stress tolerance, abilities to take on an exemplary role, and chances of finding another job explain almost half the burnout effect on promotion propensities.
Differential effect of high-frequency electroporation on myocardium vs. non-myocardial tissues
Authors: Moshkovits Yonatan , Grynberg Dvora , Heller Eyal , Maizels Leonid , Maor Elad
Published: October 2022

Aims

Pulsed-field ablation (PFA) is an emerging non-thermal ablation method based on the biophysical phenomenon of electroporation. Data on PFA cardiac selectivity nature and tissue-specific thresholds are lacking. We aim to compare the in vivo differential effect of high-frequency irreversible electroporation (HF-IRE) protocols on various tissues.

Methods and results

Twenty-three Sprague-Dawle rodents were allocated into three different protocols of 300, 600, and 900 V, respectively, while delivering twenty 100 µs bursts of a 150 kHz biphasic square wave to five tissues; cardiac muscle, skeletal muscle, liver, carotid artery and sciatic nerve. Lesions were evaluated quantitatively by histologic analysis and by morphometric evaluation. There were eight, seven and eight animals in the 300, 600, and 900 V protocols, respectively. High-frequency electroporation protocols showed a graded effect on myocardial tissue with larger lesions in the 900 V protocol compared with the other two protocols as demonstrated by width (P = 0.02), length (P = 0.01) and fibrosis ratio (P = 0.001). This effect was not observed for other tissues with attenuated degree of damage. No damage to the carotid artery was observed in all protocols. Partial damage to the sciatic nerve was observed in only two samples (25%) in the 600 V group and in one sample (14.3%) in the 900 V group.

Conclusion

Electroporation effect is tissue-specific such that myocardium is more prone to electroporation damage compared with neural and vascular tissues. Our results suggest no neural or vascular damage with using a low-amplitude HF-IRE protocol. Further investigation is warranted to better identify other tissue-specific thresholds.
Rapid fabrication of large-area and uniform surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrate of Au nano-hemisphere array and its application in the detection of Malachite Green in tilapia
Authors: Zhang Qin , Han Jiaojiao , Chen Yanhong , Jia Zhiqing , Pan Xiaohui , Rani Karuppasamy Kohila , Zhou Jianzhang , Jiao Tianhui , Chen Qingmin , Wu Deyin
Published: October 2022

Although surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates have achieved high sensitivity, it is still difficult to apply these SERS protocols to the on-site detection of real samples due to the SERS substrate being fabrication-complexed, unstable, reproducible, or unable to be applied in batch production. Here, a large-scale ordered two-dimensional array of Au nano-hemispheres was developed through electron beam vaporization of Au onto the easy-available commercialized anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template with two-layer nanostructures of different diameters. The uniform Au nano-hemisphere is reliable for SERS detection of malachite green (MG) due to the relative standard deviation (RSD) of the SERS intensities at different locations less than 10%. With the optimized excitation wavelength, solvent effect and pH environment, the linear range of MG detection spans from 10–10 to 10–6 mol/L with a limit of detection (LOD) of 4×10–10 mol/L. The enhancement factor can reach 1.2×106. After extraction with acetonitrile and dichloromethane, MG in the spiked tilapia was detected with satisfactory recovery. The results indicate that the Au nano-hemisphere array can be expected to greatly facilitate SERS practical applications in detecting harmful food additives and chemicals due to the advantages of chemical inertness, physical robustness, simple fabrication, controllability, large-area uniformity, and large-batch production.
Evolution and codon usage bias of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes in Aspergillus section Flavi
Authors: Hugaboom Miya , Hatmaker Elizabeth Anne , LaBella Abigail L , Rokas Antonis
Published: October 2022

The fungal genus Aspergillus contains a diversity of species divided into taxonomic sections of closely related species. Section Flavi contains 33 species, many of industrial, agricultural, or medical relevance. Here, we analyze the mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of 20 Flavi species—including 18 newly assembled mitogenomes—and compare their evolutionary history and codon usage bias patterns to their nuclear counterparts. Codon usage bias refers to variable frequencies of synonymous codons in coding DNA and is shaped by a balance of neutral processes and natural selection. All mitogenomes were circular DNA molecules with highly conserved gene content and order. As expected, genomic content, including GC content, and genome size differed greatly between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. Phylogenetic analysis based on 14 concatenated mitochondrial genes predicted evolutionary relationships largely consistent with those predicted by a phylogeny constructed from 2,422 nuclear genes. Comparing similarities in interspecies patterns of codon usage bias between mitochondrial and nuclear genomes showed that species grouped differently by patterns of codon usage bias depending on whether analyses were performed using mitochondrial or nuclear relative synonymous usage values. We found that patterns of codon usage bias at gene level are more similar between mitogenomes of different species than the mitogenome and nuclear genome of the same species. Finally, we inferred that, although most genes—both nuclear and mitochondrial—deviated from the neutral expectation for codon usage, mitogenomes were not under translational selection while nuclear genomes were under moderate translational selection. These results contribute to the study of mitochondrial genome evolution in filamentous fungi.
A dataset of ant colonies’ motion trajectories in indoor and outdoor scenes to study clustering behavior
Authors: Wu Meihong , Cao Xiaoyan , Yang Ming , Cao Xiaoyu , Guo Shihui
Published: October 2022

Background

The motion and interaction of social insects (such as ants) have been studied by many researchers to understand clustering mechanisms. Most studies in the field of ant behavior have focused only on indoor environments (a laboratory setup), while outdoor environments (natural environments) are still underexplored.

Findings

In this article, we collect 10 videos of 3 species of ant colonies from different scenes, including 5 indoor and 5 outdoor scenes. We develop an image sequence marking software named VisualMarkData, which enables us to provide annotations of the ants in the videos. (i) It offers comprehensive annotations of states at the individual-target and colony-target levels. (ii) It provides a simple matrix format to represent multiple targets and multiple groups of annotations (along with their IDs and behavior labels). (iii) During the annotation process, we propose a simple and effective visualization that takes the annotation information of the previous frame as a reference, and then a user can simply click on the center point of each target to complete the annotation task. (iv) We develop a user-friendly window-based GUI to minimize labor and maximize annotation quality. In all 5,354 frames, the location information and the identification number of each ant are recorded for a total of 712 ants and 114,112 annotations. Moreover, we provide visual analysis tools to assess and validate the technical quality and reproducibility of our data.

Conclusions

We provide a large-scale ant dataset with the accompanying annotation software. It is hoped that our work will contribute to a deeper exploration of the behavior of ant colonies.
Solitary Rectal Ulcer Syndrome Coexisting with Colitis Cystica Profunda—Is Mucosal Resection Radical or Not?
Authors: Zhang Yajie , Tian Feng , Li Hui
Published: October 2022

Lay Summary

We highlight the key diagnostic features of solitary rectal ulcer syndrome coexisting with colitis cysticaprofunda in order to increase awareness of the postoperative recurrence of the diseases.
Software Application Profile: ShinyDataSHIELD—an R Shiny application to perform federated non-disclosive data analysis in multicohort studies
Authors: Escribà-Montagut Xavier , Marcon Yannick , Avraam Demetris , Banerjee Soumya , Bishop Tom R P , Burton Paul , González Juan R
Published: October 2022

Motivation

DataSHIELD is an open-source software infrastructure enabling the analysis of data distributed across multiple databases (federated data) without leaking individuals’ information (non-disclosive). It has applications in many scientific domains, ranging from biosciences to social sciences and including high-throughput genomic studies. R is the language used to interact with (and build) DataSHIELD. This creates difficulties for researchers who do not have experience writing R code or lack the time to learn how to use the DataSHIELD functions. To help new researchers use the DataSHIELD infrastructure and to improve the user-friendliness for experienced researchers, we present ShinyDataSHIELD.

Implementation

ShinyDataSHIELD is a web application with an R backend that serves as a graphical user interface (GUI) to the DataSHIELD infrastructure.

General features

The version of the application presented here includes modules to perform: (i) exploratory analysis through descriptive summary statistics and graphical representations (scatter plots, histograms, heatmaps and boxplots); (ii) statistical modelling (generalized linear fixed and mixed-effects models, survival analysis through Cox regression); (iii) genome-wide association studies (GWAS); and (iv) omic analysis (transcriptomics, epigenomics and multi-omic integration).

Availability

ShinyDataSHIELD is publicly hosted online [https://datashield-demo.obiba.org/], the source code and user guide are deposited on Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.6500323, freely available to non-commercial users under ‘Commons Clause’ License Condition v1.0. Docker images are also available [https://hub.docker.com/r/brgelab/shiny-data-shield].
Introducing Fair Work through ‘Soft’ Regulation in Outsourced Public Service Networks: Explaining Unintended Outcomes in the Implementation of the Scottish Living Wage Policy
Authors: Cunningham Ian , James Philip , Baluch Alina , Cullen Anne-Marie
Published: October 2022

Using a regulatory analysis from Martinez Lucio and Mackenzie (2014 and 2016), this study contributes to debates concerning the capacity of ‘soft’ regulation to advance employment conditions and outcomes. This study explores the implementation of a real living wage policy for employees in outsourced Scottish social care. Despite employer compliance in implementing the living wage, it had a mixed impact on the income of workers and did not improve staff recruitment and retention. The theoretical framework challenges recent optimistic views concerning the impact of such regulation by revealing unintended and problematic consequences, such as problems with differentials and providers walking away from contracts. It further reveals how actor roles, interests, power resources and inter-relationships, as well as surrounding structural contextual influences (austerity, marketisation and engrained values and processes in political settlements), interacted to shape these outcomes. Insights from this study include that ‘soft’ regulation was unable to create conditions for actors such as trade unions, employers and non-governmental organisations to colonise or seize the regulatory space to secure the full benefits of the Scottish Living Wage. The political settlement with the Scottish Government allowed local authorities to retain coercive control over other actors in the regulatory space. Employers and trade unions were further hindered by lack of unity and continued isolation from decisions, respectively. Surrounding economic and ideological restrictions imposed by the central UK government’s austerity agenda, and the retention of powers over employment regulation added to the failure of these ‘soft’ measures to increase pay and improve recruitment and retention in social care.
Team is brain: leveraging EHR audit log data for new insights into acute care processes
Authors: Rose Christian , Thombley Robert , Noshad Morteza , Lu Yun , Clancy Heather A , Schlessinger David , Li Ron C , Liu Vincent X , Chen Jonathan H , Adler-Milstein Julia
Published: October 2022

Objective

To determine whether novel measures of contextual factors from multi-site electronic health record (EHR) audit log data can explain variation in clinical process outcomes.

Materials and Methods

We selected one widely-used process outcome: emergency department (ED)-based team time to deliver tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). We evaluated Epic audit log data (that tracks EHR user-interactions) for 3052 AIS patients aged 18+ who received tPA after presenting to an ED at three Northern California health systems (Stanford Health Care, UCSF Health, and Kaiser Permanente Northern California). Our primary outcome was door-to-needle time (DNT) and we assessed bivariate and multivariate relationships with six audit log-derived measures of treatment team busyness and prior team experience.

Results

Prior team experience was consistently associated with shorter DNT; teams with greater prior experience specifically on AIS cases had shorter DNT (minutes) across all sites: (Site 1: −94.73, 95% CI: −129.53 to 59.92; Site 2: −80.93, 95% CI: −130.43 to 31.43; Site 3: −42.95, 95% CI: −62.73 to 23.17). Teams with greater prior experience across all types of cases also had shorter DNT at two sites: (Site 1: −6.96, 95% CI: −14.56 to 0.65; Site 2: −19.16, 95% CI: −36.15 to 2.16; Site 3: −11.07, 95% CI: −17.39 to 4.74). Team busyness was not consistently associated with DNT across study sites.

Conclusions

EHR audit log data offers a novel, scalable approach to measure key contextual factors relevant to clinical process outcomes across multiple sites. Audit log-based measures of team experience were associated with better process outcomes for AIS care, suggesting opportunities to study underlying mechanisms and improve care through deliberate training, team-building, and scheduling to maximize team experience.
New onset delirium prediction using machine learning and long short-term memory (LSTM) in electronic health record
Authors: Liu Siru , Schlesinger Joseph J , McCoy Allison B , Reese Thomas J , Steitz Bryan , Russo Elise , Koh Brian , Wright Adam
Published: October 2022

Objective

To develop and test an accurate deep learning model for predicting new onset delirium in hospitalized adult patients.

Methods

Using electronic health record (EHR) data extracted from a large academic medical center, we developed a model combining long short-term memory (LSTM) and machine learning to predict new onset delirium and compared its performance with machine-learning-only models (logistic regression, random forest, support vector machine, neural network, and LightGBM). The labels of models were confusion assessment method (CAM) assessments. We evaluated models on a hold-out dataset. We calculated Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) measures to gauge the feature impact on the model.

Results

A total of 331 489 CAM assessments with 896 features from 34 035 patients were included. The LightGBM model achieved the best performance (AUC 0.927 [0.924, 0.929] and F1 0.626 [0.618, 0.634]) among the machine learning models. When combined with the LSTM model, the final model’s performance improved significantly (P = .001) with AUC 0.952 [0.950, 0.955] and F1 0.759 [0.755, 0.765]. The precision value of the combined model improved from 0.497 to 0.751 with a fixed recall of 0.8. Using the mean absolute SHAP values, we identified the top 20 features, including age, heart rate, Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale score, Morse fall risk score, pulse, respiratory rate, and level of care.

Conclusion

Leveraging LSTM to capture temporal trends and combining it with the LightGBM model can significantly improve the prediction of new onset delirium, providing an algorithmic basis for the subsequent development of clinical decision support tools for proactive delirium interventions.
Use of patient portals to support recruitment into clinical trials and health research studies: results from studies using MyChart at one academic institution
Authors: Sherman Scott E , Langford Aisha T , Chodosh Joshua , Hampp Carina , Trachtman Howard
Published: October 2022

Electronic health records (EHRs) are often used for recruitment into research studies, as they efficiently facilitate targeted outreach. While studies increasingly are reaching out to potential participants through the EHR patient portal, there is little available information about which approaches are most effective. We surveyed all investigators at one academic medical center who had used the Epic MyChart patient portal for recruitment. We found that messages were typically adapted for a large group, but not tailored further for individual subgroups. The vast majority of studies sent a message only once. Recruitment costs were modest, averaging $431/study. The results show some promise for recruiting through the patient portal but also identified ways in which messages could be optimized.
A New Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method for the Quantification of Vitamin C in Fresh and Dried Goji Berries (Lycium barbarumL.) Cultivated in Turkey
Authors: Dinç Erdal , Üçer Asiye , Ünal Nazangül , Üstündağ Özgür
Published: October 2022

Background

The potential background of the study is related to comprehensive detection of the content of vitamin C with an actual chromatographic method.

Objective

Vitamin C is of vital importance in terms of human life and health due to its polyfunctional activity such as antioxidant activity and antiviral effect with other biological functions. In this regard, it may be necessary to update analytical methods or develop up-to-date analytical methods to accurately estimate the amount of vitamin C in natural samples. In this study, a new ultra-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (UPLC-PDA) method has been developed for the determination of vitamin C content in fresh and dried goji berries (Lycium barbarum L.), which are cultivated in Turkey.

Method

The chromatographic elution of vitamin C in natural fruit samples was achieved on an ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 (1.7 µm, 2.1 mm × 100 mm) column using methanol and 0.1 M H3PO4 pH 2.15 (20:80, v/v), which are mobile phase. UPLC determination was done at the 242.8 nm. Flow rate was 0.20 mL/min at a column temperature of 30°C. Linearity range of the calibration graph was found to be at 5–30 µg/mL. The validity of the newly developed UPLC method was tested by analyzing individual test samples and added samples.

Results

Applicability of the validated UPLC method was verified by the quantitative analysis of vitamin C content in both fresh and dried goji berries.

Conclusions

We believe that the newly developed and validated UPLC method would be a useful and promising approach for simple quantitative analysis of goji berry samples for vitamin C.

Highlights

In previous studies, no UPLC-PDA method was reported for the analysis of vitamin C in goji berries. The method provided a good repeatability for the analysis of real samples.
Sex-specific Feeding Behavior of Adult House Flies, Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae)
Authors: Neupane Saraswoti , Hall Brandon , Brooke Grant , Nayduch Dana
Published: October 2022

House flies, Musca domestica L., (Diptera: Muscidae) mechanically vector diverse disease-causing microorganisms while foraging for food in agricultural and urban habitats. Although flies are diverse feeders, nutrient composition of food is important for both fly longevity and reproduction, especially for anautogenous females who require protein for egg production. We investigated whether fly sex and/or mating status influenced their preference for foods with varying macronutrient composition. Presumably mated or unmated male and female flies were separated by sex and offered four food, each in 10% solution offered on cotton wicks: sugar (carbohydrate-rich), fat-free milk (protein-rich, moderate carbohydrate), egg-yolk (protein and lipid-rich), and water (no macronutrients). Foods were colored with nontoxic dyes, which were rotated between replicates. After 4h exposure, flies were dissected to determine the type of food(s) ingested. The interaction of house fly sex and food type significantly influenced food preference, where females preferred milk (protein and carbohydrate-rich food), and males preferred mainly sugar (carbohydrate-rich). Furthermore, 32.8% of females and 10.6% of males foraged on multiple foods. While interaction of sex and mating status had no effect on food preference, milk preference was significantly higher in presumably mated than unmated females. We also tested whether food color influenced fly feeding preference, and found that color was most significant when flies were offered one food type, but negligible when multiple food types were present. This study suggests that bait-based fly control strategies should consider sex-specific preferences for various food attractants if aiming to target and control both male and female house flies.
Phlebotomine Fauna (Diptera: Psychodidae) and Infection by Leishmania spp. in Forest Fragments of a University Campus, Western Amazon
Authors: Carneiro Ana Carolina Gomes , de Souza Eduardo Alcici , Barroso Edmilson Pereira , de Ávila Márcia Moreira , Melchior Leonardo Augusto Kohara , Rocha Ricardo da Costa , Shimabukuro Paloma Helena Fernandes , Galati Eunice Aparecida Bianchi , Brilhante Andréia Fernandes
Published: October 2022

Forest fragments consist of important ecosystems for the maintenance of sand fly populations and Leishmania hosts. This study sought to identify the phlebotomine fauna and its infection by Leishmania spp. in forest fragments on the campus of the Federal University of Acre (UFAC), Western Amazon. Monthly collections with CDC traps were carried out from March 2020 to June 2021, in four forest fragments of UFAC. Male and female insects were processed and identified at species level. A sample of females was subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis to verify the presence Leishmania DNA. In total, 465 specimens were collected, of which 238 were males and 227 were females. The most frequent species were Nyssomyia antunesi (Coutinho, 1939) (47.3%), Trichophoromyia sp. (Mangabeira, 1942) (18.70%), and Ny. whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho, 1939) (8.81%). Molecular analysis detected the presence of Leishmania (Ross, 1903) DNA in a specimen of Ny. antunesi, and another one of Evandromyia walker (Newstead, 1914). The forest fragments of the university campus harbor a diverse sand fly fauna with the presence of Leishmania DNA in these insects, in addition to the presence of other species considered incriminated vectors of Leishmania parasites.
Acceptability and Feasibility of eSCCIP: Results From a Pilot Study of the Electronic Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program
Authors: Canter Kimberly S , Vega Gabriela , Perez Ramirez Alejandra , Munoz Osorio Angel , Thomas Courtney , Lewis Amanda M , Arasteh Kamyar , Kazak Anne
Published: October 2022

Background

Providing high-quality psychosocial care to parents and other primary caregivers of children with cancer (henceforth referred to as caregivers) is important, given the numerous challenges associated with a pediatric cancer diagnosis and the increased risk for negative psychosocial sequelae among caregivers. The Electronic Surviving Cancer Competently Intervention Program (eSCCIP) is a psychosocial eHealth intervention for caregivers, developed using an iterative, user-centered process.

Method

eSCCIP was tested in a single-arm pilot trial at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware (NCT05333601). The primary outcomes were intervention acceptability and feasibility, assessed via enrollment and retention targets, and item-level acceptability ratings. Enrollment and retention targets of 45% were set based on previous work, and an item-level acceptability threshold of 80% was set. A secondary exploratory analysis was conducted examining acute distress, anxiety, symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and family functioning.

Results

44 caregivers enrolled in the study and 31 completed. The intervention was rated favorably by completers, with over 80% of the sample selecting “mostly true” or “very true” for all items of the eSCCIP Evaluation Questionnaire, which was used to assess acceptability and feasibility. Enrollment and retention rates were 54% and 70%, respectively. Exploratory psychosocial outcomes showed statistically significant decreases from pre-intervention to post-intervention for overall symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cluster D symptoms of PTSD (negative mood and cognitions), and anxiety. Small-moderate effect sizes were observed for all psychosocial outcomes of interest.

Conclusions

eSCCIP is an acceptable and feasible intervention for caregivers. Results are promising regarding reductions in symptoms of post-traumatic stress and anxiety.
Alternative splicing in plants: current knowledge and future directions for assessing the biological relevance of splice variants
Authors: Tognacca Rocío S , Rodríguez Florencia S , Aballay Federico E , Cartagena Carla M , Servi Lucas , Petrillo Ezequiel
Published: October 2022

Alternative splicing is an important regulatory process that produces multiple transcripts from a single gene, significantly modulating the transcriptome and potentially the proteome, during development and in response to environmental cues. In the first part of this review, we summarize recent advances and highlight the accumulated knowledge on the biological roles of alternative splicing isoforms that are key for different plant responses and during development. Remarkably, we found that many of the studies in this area use similar methodological approaches that need to be improved to gain more accurate conclusions, since they generally presume that stable isoforms undoubtedly have coding capacities. This is mostly done without data indicating that a particular RNA isoform is in fact translated. So, in the latter part of the review, we propose a thorough strategy to analyze, evaluate, and characterize putative functions for alternative splicing isoforms of interest.
Taming the Selection of Optimal Substitution Models in Phylogenomics by Site Subsampling and Upsampling
Authors: Sharma Sudip , Kumar Sudhir
Published: October 2022

The selection of the optimal substitution model of molecular evolution imposes a high computational burden for long sequence alignments in phylogenomics. We discovered that the analysis of multiple tiny subsamples of site patterns from a full sequence alignment recovers the correct optimal substitution model when sites in the subsample are upsampled to match the total number of sites in the full alignment. The computational costs of maximum-likelihood analyses are reduced by orders of magnitude in the subsample–upsample (SU) approach because the upsampled alignment contains only a small fraction of all site patterns. We present an adaptive protocol, ModelTamer, that implements the new SU approach and automatically selects subsamples to estimate optimal models reliably. ModelTamer selects models hundreds to thousands of times faster than the full data analysis while needing megabytes rather than gigabytes of computer memory.