bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An iterative algorithm for optimizing COVID-19 vaccination strategies considering unknown supply
Authors: Bicher Martin , Rippinger Claire , Zechmeister Melanie , Jahn Beate , Sroczynski Gaby , Mühlberger Nikolai , Santamaria-Navarro Julia , Urach Christoph , Brunmeir Dominik , Siebert Uwe , Popper Niki
Published: May 2022

Background and objective

The distribution of the newly developed vaccines presents a great challenge in the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Policy makers must decide which subgroups should be vaccinated first to minimize the negative consequences of the pandemic. These decisions must be made upfront and under uncertainty regarding the amount of vaccine doses available at a given time. The objective of the present work was to develop an iterative optimization algorithm, which provides a prioritization order of predefined subgroups. The results of this algorithm should be optimal but also robust with respect to potentially limited vaccine supply.

Methods

We present an optimization meta-heuristic which can be used in a classic simulation-optimization setting with a simulation model in a feedback loop. The meta-heuristic can be applied in combination with any epidemiological simulation model capable of depicting the effects of vaccine distribution to the modeled population, accepts a vaccine prioritization plan in a certain notation as input, and generates decision making relevant variables such as COVID-19 caused deaths or hospitalizations as output. We finally demonstrate the mechanics of the algorithm presenting the results of a case study performed with an epidemiological agent-based model.

Results

We show that the developed method generates a highly robust vaccination prioritization plan which is proven to fulfill an elegant supremacy criterion: the plan is equally optimal for any quantity of vaccine doses available. The algorithm was tested on a case study in the Austrian context and it generated a vaccination plan prioritization favoring individuals age 65+, followed by vulnerable groups, to minimize COVID-19 related burden.

Discussion

The results of the case study coincide with the international policy recommendations which strengthen the applicability of the approach. We conclude that the path-dependent optimum optimum provided by the algorithm is well suited for real world applications, in which decision makers need to develop strategies upfront under high levels of uncertainty.
Software reliability model of open source software based on the decreasing trend of fault introduction
Authors: Wang Jinyong , Zhang Ce , Yang Jianying
Published: May 2022

Open source software (OSS) has become one of the modern software development methods. OSS is mainly developed by developers, volunteers, and users all over the world, but its reliability has been widely questioned. When OSS faults are detected, volunteers or users send them to developers by email or network. After the developer confirms the fault, it will be randomly assigned to the debugger who may be a developer, a volunteer, or a user. These open source community contributors also have the phenomenon of learning when removing faults. When the detected faults are removed, the number of introduced faults decreases gradually. Therefore, this study proposes a software reliability model with the decreasing trend of fault introduction in the process of OSS development and testing. The validity of the proposed model and the accuracy of estimating residual faults are verified by experiments. The proposed model can be used to evaluate the reliability and predict the remaining faults in the actual OSS development and testing process.
Consumer demand for healthy beverages in the hospitality industry: Examining willingness to pay a premium, and barriers to purchase
Authors: Hallak Rob , Onur Ilke , Lee Craig
Published: May 2022

This study empirically examines consumer demand for healthy beverages within the hospitality industry. The research investigates sociodemographic and motivational factors that influence consumers’ ‘willingness to pay a premium’ (WTPP) price for healthy beverages using survey data from 1021 consumers in Australia and New Zealand (NZ). Water and juice are rated as representing ‘healthy’ beverages sold by hospitality businesses. Under 2% of respondents consider sugar free drinks as being healthy. Consumers rate a ‘healthy’ beverage as having low/no sugar, natural/no additives, or containing vitamins and minerals. Less than 1% of respondents identify ‘probiotics’ or ‘organic’ as a healthy beverage. Censored Poisson finds consumers who frequently eat out or are younger have higher WTPP. Healthy eating goals increase WTPP, whereas food economizing goals decreases WTPP. Food hedonism goals reduces consumers’ WTPP, and gender differences moderates this relationship. The findings present new insights on consumer behavior and healthy consumption in hospitality.
Modeling transport of extended interacting objects with drop-off phenomenon
Authors: Jain Aditi , Gupta Arvind Kumar
Published: May 2022

We study a deterministic framework for important cellular transport phenomena involving a large number of interacting molecules called the excluded flow of extended interacting objects with drop-off effect (EFEIOD). This model incorporates many realistic features of biological transport process including the length of biological “particles” and the fact that they can detach along the biological ‘tracks’. The flow between the consecutive sites is unidirectional and is described by a “soft” simple exclusion principle and by repelling or attracting forces between neighboring particles. We show that the model admits a unique steady-state. Furthermore, if the parameters are periodic with common period T, then the steady-state profile converge to a unique periodic solution of period T. Simulations of the EFEIOD demonstrate several non-trivial effects of the interactions on the system steady-state profile. For example, detachment rates may help in increasing the steady-state flow by alleviating traffic jams that can exist due to several reasons like bottleneck rate or interactive forces between the particles. We also analyze the special case of our model, when there are no forces exerted by neighboring particles, and called it as the ribosome flow model of extended objects with drop-off effect (RFMEOD), and study the sensitivity of its steady-state to variations in the parameters.
The role and mechanism of tetramethylpyrazine for atherosclerosis in animal models: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Li SiJin , Liu Ping , Feng XiaoTeng , Wang YiRu , Du Min , Wang JiaRou
Published: May 2022

Background

Atherosclerosis(AS) is widely recognized as a risk factor for incident cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) is the active ingredient of Ligusticum wallichii that possesses a variety of biological activities against atherosclerosis.

Objective

This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to study the impact of and mechanism of tetramethylpyrazine for atherosclerosis in animal models.

Methods

A systematic search was conducted of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science database, Chinese Biomedical (CBM) database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang data, and Vip Journal Integration Platform, covering the period from the respective start date of each database to December 2021. We used SYRCLE’s 10-item checklist and Rev-Man 5.3 software to analyze the data and the risk of bias.

Results

Twelve studies, including 258 animals, met the inclusion criteria. Compared with the control group, TMP significantly reduced aortic atherosclerotic lesion area, and induced significant decreases in levels of TC (SMD = ‐2.67, 95% CI -3.68 to -1.67, P < 0.00001), TG (SMD = ‐2.43, 95% CI -3.39 to -1.47, P < 0.00001), and LDL-C (SMD = ‐2.87, 95% CI -4.16 to -1.58, P < 0.00001), as well as increasing HDL-C (SMD = 2.04, 95% CI 1.05 to 3.03, P = 0.001). TMP also significantly modulated plasma inflammatory responses and biological signals associated with atherosclerosis. In subgroup analysis, the groups of high-dose TMP (≥50 mg/kg) showed better results than those of the control group. No difference between various durations of treatment groups or various assessing location groups.

Conclusion

TMP exerts anti-atherosclerosis functions in an animal model of AS mediated by anti-inflammatory action, antioxidant action, ameliorating lipid metabolism disorder, protection of endothelial function, antiplatelet activity, reducing the proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells, inhibition of angiogenesis, antiplatelet aggregation. Due to the limitations of the quantity and quality of current studies, the above conclusions need to be verified by more high-quality studies.

Trial registration number

PROSPERO registration no.CRD42021288874.
SinGAN-Seg: Synthetic training data generation for medical image segmentation
Authors: Thambawita Vajira , Salehi Pegah , Sheshkal Sajad Amouei , Hicks Steven A. , Hammer Hugo L. , Parasa Sravanthi , Lange Thomas de , Halvorsen Pål , Riegler Michael A.
Published: May 2022

Analyzing medical data to find abnormalities is a time-consuming and costly task, particularly for rare abnormalities, requiring tremendous efforts from medical experts. Therefore, artificial intelligence has become a popular tool for the automatic processing of medical data, acting as a supportive tool for doctors. However, the machine learning models used to build these tools are highly dependent on the data used to train them. Large amounts of data can be difficult to obtain in medicine due to privacy reasons, expensive and time-consuming annotations, and a general lack of data samples for infrequent lesions. In this study, we present a novel synthetic data generation pipeline, calledSinGAN-Seg, to produce synthetic medical images with corresponding masks using a single training image. Our method is different from the traditional generative adversarial networks (GANs) because our model needs only a single image and the corresponding ground truth to train. We also show that the synthetic data generation pipeline can be used to produce alternative artificial segmentation datasets with corresponding ground truth masks when real datasets are not allowed to share. The pipeline is evaluated using qualitative and quantitative comparisons between real data and synthetic data to show that the style transfer technique used in our pipeline significantly improves the quality of the generated data and our method is better than other state-of-the-art GANs to prepare synthetic images when the size of training datasets are limited. By training UNet++ using both real data and the synthetic data generated from the SinGAN-Seg pipeline, we show that the models trained on synthetic data have very close performances to those trained on real data when both datasets have a considerable amount of training data. In contrast, we show that synthetic data generated from the SinGAN-Seg pipeline improves the performance of segmentation models when training datasets do not have a considerable amount of data. All experiments were performed using an open dataset and the code is publicly available on GitHub.
QTL mapping of morphological characteristics that correlated to drought tolerance in St. Augustinegrass
Authors: Yu Xingwang , Lara Nicolas A. H. , Carbajal Esdras M. , Milla-Lewis Susana R.
Published: May 2022

St. Augustinegrass is a warm-season grass species widely utilized as turf in the southeastern U.S. It shows significant variation in plant growth and morphological characteristics, some of which are potentially associated with drought tolerance. However, the genetic basis of these variations is not well understood. Detecting quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with morphological traits will provide a foundation for the application of genetic and molecular breeding in St. Augustinegrass. In this study, we report QTL associated with morphological traits, including leaf blade width (LW), leaf blade length (LL), canopy density (CD), and shoot growth orientation (SGO) in a St. Augustinegrass ‘Raleigh’ x ‘Seville’ mapping population containing 115 F1 hybrids. Phenotypic data were collected from one greenhouse and two field trials. Single and joint trial analyses were performed, finding significant phenotypic variance among the hybrids for all traits. Interval mapping (IM) and multiple QTL method (MQM) analysis detected seven QTL for CD, four for LL, five for LW, and two for SGO, which were distributed on linkage groups RLG1, RLG9, SLG3, SLG7, SLG8 and SLG9. In addition, three genomic regions where QTL colocalized were identified on Raleigh LG1 and Seville LG3. One genomic region on Seville LG3 overlapped with two previously reported drought-related QTL for leaf relative water content (RWC) and percent green cover (GC). Several candidate genes related to plant development and drought stress response were identified within QTL intervals. The QTL identified in this study represent a first step in identifying genes controlling morphological traits that might accelerate progress in selection of St. Augustinegrass lines with lower water usage.
Making genomic surveillance deliver: A lineage classification and nomenclature system to inform rabies elimination
Authors: Campbell Kathryn , Gifford Robert J. , Singer Joshua , Hill Verity , O’Toole Aine , Rambaut Andrew , Hampson Katie , Brunker Kirstyn
Published: May 2022

The availability of pathogen sequence data and use of genomic surveillance is rapidly increasing. Genomic tools and classification systems need updating to reflect this. Here, rabies virus is used as an example to showcase the potential value of updated genomic tools to enhance surveillance to better understand epidemiological dynamics and improve disease control. Previous studies have described the evolutionary history of rabies virus, however the resulting taxonomy lacks the definition necessary to identify incursions, lineage turnover and transmission routes at high resolution. Here we propose a lineage classification system based on the dynamic nomenclature used for SARS-CoV-2, defining a lineage by phylogenetic methods for tracking virus spread and comparing sequences across geographic areas. We demonstrate this system through application to the globally distributed Cosmopolitan clade of rabies virus, defining 96 total lineages within the clade, beyond the 22 previously reported. We further show how integration of this tool with a new rabies virus sequence data resource (RABV-GLUE) enables rapid application, for example, highlighting lineage dynamics relevant to control and elimination programmes, such as identifying importations and their sources, as well as areas of persistence and routes of virus movement, including transboundary incursions. This system and the tools developed should be useful for coordinating and targeting control programmes and monitoring progress as countries work towards eliminating dog-mediated rabies, as well as having potential for broader application to the surveillance of other viruses.
PTEN differentially regulates endocytosis, migration, and proliferation in the enteric protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica
Authors: Kadri Samia , Nakada-Tsukui Kumiko , Watanabe Natsuki , Jeelani Ghulam , Nozaki Tomoyoshi
Published: May 2022

PTEN is a lipid phosphatase that is highly conserved and involved in a broad range of biological processes including cytoskeletal reorganization, endocytosis, signal transduction, and cell migration in all eukaryotes. Although regulation of phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate [PtdIns(3,4,5)P3] signaling via PTEN has been well established in model organisms and mammals, it remains elusive in the parasitic protist E. histolytica, which heavily relies on PtdIns phosphate(s)-dependent membrane traffic, migration, and phago- and trogocytosis for its pathogenesis. In this study, we characterized the major PTEN from E. histolytica, EhPTEN1, which shows the highest expression at the transcript level in the trophozoite stage among 6 possible PTENs, to understand the significance of PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 signaling in this parasite. Live imaging of GFP-EhPTEN1 expressing amebic trophozoites showed localization mainly in the cytosol with a higher concentration at pseudopods and the extending edge of the phago- and trogocytic cups. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of phago- and trogocytosis using a confocal image cytometer showed that overexpression of EhPTEN1 caused reduction in trogo- and phagocytosis while transcriptional gene silencing of EhPTEN1 gene caused opposite phenotypes. These data suggest that EhPTEN1 has an inhibitory role in these biological processes. Conversely, EhPTEN1 acts as a positive regulator for fluid-phase and receptor-mediated endocytosis in E. histolytica trophozoites. Moreover, we showed that EhPTEN1 was required for optimal growth and migration of this parasite. Finally, the phosphatase activity of EhPTEN1 towards PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 was demonstrated, suggesting that the biological roles of EhPTEN1 are likely linked to its catalytic function. Taken together, these results indicate that EhPTEN1 differentially regulates multiple cellular activities essential for proliferation and pathogenesis of the organism, via PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 signaling. Elucidation of biological roles of PTEN and PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 signaling at the molecular levels promotes our understanding of the pathogenesis of this parasite.
The home and the world: Nationalism, cosmopolitanism and class in Españoles en el Mundo
Authors: Goss Brian Michael
Published: May 2022

Españoles en el mundo (‘Spaniards in the world’) is a long-standing programme of Spain’s television channel TVE1 (‘La 1’) that constructs contemporary Spanish identity in the registers of nationalism and cosmopolitanism as well as socio-economic class. The programme assumes the form of soft-focus journalism that is upbeat and apolitical. Episodes revolve around presenters visiting Spaniards who have settled in other countries to document their everyday lives. The analysis focuses on twelve episodes and presents evidence of a nationalist message of efficacious Spaniards fanning out into the world and prospering, personally and professionally, as their talents enable them to successfully integrate themselves as travellers abroad (‘all the world has enjoyed Spaniards’, one informant claims). At the same time, within the programme’s gaze, nationalism is synergized by cosmopolitanism. The programme affirms (and even banalizes) cultural cosmopolitanism as Españoles en el mundo engages respectfully with other cultures – aside from some Orientalist moments discussed in the analysis. Whatever the merits of Españoles en el mundo in its openness to cultural cosmopolitanism and its affirmations of Spain’s post-Franco generations’ stepped-up engagement with other nations, the programme is also silent on the implications of the informants’ predominantly professional, middle-class status as the ticket into the world.
Urban growth monitoring using spatial landscape matrices
Authors: Kirabira Adrian , Akanga Arthur
Published: May 2022

With over 80% of global GDP created in cities, urbanization may contribute to long-term growth if properly managed. (The World Bank, 2021). In Uganda, the population living in urban areas are rising at a rate of 2.335% since 1990 to 2020. Cities must act fast to plan for expansion and provide the fundamental services, infrastructure, and affordable housing that their growing populations require. Urbanisation occurs at the expense of transformation of other landscapes hence the process of urbanization has a large influence on landscape and ecosystem function. For assessing policy alternatives for future growth and sustainable development of urban planning must be considered. Through mapping and analyzing land use/land cover transition in urban areas, as well as monitoring their environmental effects with the help of landscape metrices was the focus of this research. Landsat Images of 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020 were used for this study, band ratios of NDVI, NDBI, NDWI were used for image enhancement to clearly identify the vegetated areas, built up areas and the areas that were covered with water, then a maximum likelihood classification technique was used to classify the images accordingly with an accuracy assessment of above 80% was accepted, the resulting classified images were then taken to FRAGSTATS for computation of landscape metrices. The metrices examined included class area, number of patches, total core area, core area percent of landscape, splitting Index, and landscape division index. It was discovered that the urban areas that converged between 1990 and 2020 contributed significantly to the fragmentation of predominantly the primarily vegetated regions of the research area, as well as the loss of the core portions of several habitats.
THE HYDROCHLORIC ACID EFFECTS ON MODIFIED CEMENT WITH NEW COMBINATIONS BASED ON CALCINED DAM’S MUD AND NATURAL POUZZOLANA
Authors: Belghit Abdelkadir , Bouhamou Nasr Eddine , Hamadache Miloud , Ziregue Belkacem
Published: May 2022

Reducing the amount of clinker in cement industry using Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) is one of the solutions developed by researchers in our field trying to respect environmental requirements, in the same context the present work aim to test the feasibility of new combinations using two sorts of Algerian SCMs and to evaluate their behavior while exposed to hydrochloric acid. To concretize this objective we fabricated a control mortar (based on cement CEMI) and nine other mortars containing modified cements, by a binary and ternary mixtures of Portland Cement CEMI, Calcined Mud (Wastes) of Chofa Dam (CW) and Natural Pouzzolana (NP), all these mixtures were tested at fresh state for consistency and setting time of pastes, and at hardened state for apparent density measure, water absorption and compressive strength of mortars. After that the ten of them were immersed in hydrochloric acid (HCL) 5% during fifteen weeks (105 days), Then they were examined for mass loss, volume loss, density decrease (apparent density) and the visual appearance. The results obtained in the majority of tests showed that the mixtures containing SCMs especially the ternary mixtures are realizable and more advantageous than others and characterized by a higher water demand and a better behavior after both compressive and HCL attack.
FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF SPECIMEN WITH UHPC AND STUD CONNECTOR
Authors: Liu Long , Wan Songqiang , Yao Shuwen , Zhao Xinzhen , Ma Jinyan
Published: May 2022

UHPC is different from ordinary concrete for mechanical properties. To study the stress state of stud connector when UHPC is used to strengthen RC beam and its influence on bearing capacity of the strengthened beam, in this paper, ABAQUS was adopted first to simulate the push-out test of  stud to verify  accuracy of the finite element model. The nonlinearity of materials and contact conditions was considered in the model, and then three parameters including concrete strength, stud length and stud diameter were studied. Results showed the finite element model established by surface to surface contact method was possible to simulate the force and failure of the stud connector. UHPC could improve the  bearing capacity of the stud specimens obviously, and the length of stud had little effect on bearing capacity of stud while failure of the stud may occur if length of the stud was too small. The increase of stud diameter could improve bearing capacity of elastic working stage.
3D DIGITAL RECONSTRUCTION OF DEFUNCT RURAL BUILDINGS BASED ON ARCHIVAL SOURCES
Authors: Poloprutský Zdeněk , Frommeltová Eva , Münzberger Josef , Sedlická Kateřina
Published: May 2022

This paper deals with the specifics and working procedures for 3D digital reconstructions of defunct buildings of rural architecture. The resulting 3D models are to be used for presentation and educational activities intended for the lay and professional public and are based on archival sources - archival 2D metric survey documentation (drawings and photographs), written sources. Another requirement is the possibility of presentation on the internet within a parallel developing web platform. SketchUp 2021 Pro software, extended by plug-ins, is used for the 3D modelling process.
A new multi-objective optimization approach for process parameters optimization during numerical simulation of quenching steel parts
Authors: Hrnjica B. , Behrem S.
Published: May 2022

The paper presents the numerical simulation of quenching cylindrical steel sample immersed in three different quenchants: water, 5 % aquatensid solution, and isorapid oil. The quenching process starts from the initial temperature of the cylinder at 850 °C and moves through the air until it reaches the quenching bath. The quenchant is held at constant temperature of 40 °C. The cylinder is made of carefully selected steel which does not change its structure during quenching and heating. Cylindrical samples were manufactured in three different dimensions (R, H), (mm): (12.5 × 100), (25 × 150) and (37.5 × 225), so that four measuring points were installed in each sample. Each measuring point consists of thermocouple installed beneath the cylinder surface, capable of measuring the temperature every half second. Based on the experiment, the numerical simulation is recognized as transient and nonlinear two-dimensional heat conduction problem consisting of the two main tasks: direct heat transfer problem (DHTP) and inverse heat transfer problem (IHTP). The paper proposes a new multi-objective optimization approach for the estimation of heat transfer coefficients during the numerical simulation of quenching cylindrical steel sample. The proposed approach gained better results and less convergence time compared to the results from the literature. The paper includes methods, algorithms and the source code for the calculation of the temperature fields in time and heat transfer coefficient estimation of the IHTP. The simulation software has been implemented in C# programming language and can be found at http://github.com/bhrnjica/quenching_simulation.
A two-stage construction heuristic approach for vehicle routing problem with split deliveries and pickups: Case studies and performance comparison
Authors: Jin C. , Lu L.J. , Min J.N.
Published: May 2022

The vehicle routing problem with split deliveries and pickups is a hot research topic in recent years, where a customer can be served multiple times with split deliveries and pickups. The objective is to minimize the travel distance, use the fewest number of vehicles and increase the load rate, which will further reduce the carbon emissions that damage the environment. In this paper, we use a two-stage construction heuristic approach to solve this problem. First, partitioning algorithms based on the multi-restart-iterative sweep algorithm are adopted to partition the customer domain into sub-domains according to the vehicle capacity, and to determine the split points and the corresponding values. Second, a modified Clarke-Wright savings algorithm is used to check the possibility of each point in each route based on the load of each point and the vehicle load limitation. The three case studies with 12 instances per each from the reconstructed Solomon benchmark datasets were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed approaches-Unsplit, Both-Split and Enhanced-Both-Split. The comparison among these approaches reveals that the splits reduce the total travel cost and vehicles used, and increase the average loading rate considerably, especially when customers have larger demand values. Our computation results proves that the vehicle routing problem with split deliveries and pickups is highly beneficial for transportation and logistics enterprises.
All-optical ultrafast ReLU function for energy-efficient nanophotonic deep learning
Authors: Li Gordon H.Y. , Sekine Ryoto , Nehra Rajveer , Gray Robert M. , Ledezma Luis , Guo Qiushi , Marandi Alireza
Published: May 2022

In recent years, the computational demands of deep learning applications have necessitated the introduction of energy-efficient hardware accelerators. Optical neural networks are a promising option; however, thus far they have been largely limited by the lack of energy-efficient nonlinear optical functions. Here, we experimentally demonstrate an all-optical Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU), which is the most widely used nonlinear activation function for deep learning, using a periodically-poled thin-film lithium niobate nanophotonic waveguide and achieve ultra-low energies in the regime of femtojoules per activation with near-instantaneous operation. Our results provide a clear and practical path towards truly all-optical, energy-efficient nanophotonic deep learning.
The effects of high alkali impregnation and oxygen delignification of softwood kraft pulps on the yield and mechanical properties
Authors: Esteves Cláudia V. G. , Brännvall Elisabet , Östlund Sören , Sevastyanova Olena
Published: May 2022

This study investigated whether the yield improvement after high alkali impregnation (HAI) is maintained after oxygen delignification and whether the potential of oxygen delignification to increase the mechanical properties is affected by high alkali impregnation. The yield improvement achieved by high alkali impregnation (1 %) was preserved after oxygen delignification, particularly of glucomannan. The total fiber charge and swelling increased after oxygen delignification regardless of the type of impregnation in the cooking step. The tensile index improvement obtained by oxygen delignification was retained if this was preceded by high alkali impregnation. The stiffness index was higher and elongation slightly lower after HAI impregnation than after a standard (REF) impregnation. Fibers obtained through high alkali impregnation seem to be slightly less deformed and slightly wider than fibers obtained after a standard impregnation.
Healthy Lifestyle and Dietary Approaches to Treating Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Review
Authors: Zehravi Mehrukh , Maqbool Mudasir , Ara Irfat
Published: May 2022

PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) is an endocrine condition that affects women of reproductive age: it can have catastrophic consequences, as it is accompanied by anovulation, androgen excess, infertility, insulin resistance, depression, and amenorrhea. Women who have a hereditary tendency are more likely to be affected. Other environmental variables such as a sedentary lifestyle, bad eating habits, inactivity, and obesity have frequently been implicated in the development of this illness. Each year, more women are diagnosed with PCOS as a result of an increasingly unhealthy lifestyle. When PCOS is detected early and treated correctly, the accompanying reproductive, metabolic, and cardiovascular problems can be effectively managed or predicted. PCOS is becoming a growing source of worry, as it primarily affects women of reproductive age. PCOS is also prevalent in many teenage girls during puberty. Despite being one of the most frequent reproductive health issues among women, doctors face a tremendous obstacle in providing appropriate medical therapy. PCOS is known to cause anxiety and despair, particularly when exacerbated by excessive facial hair growth, obesity, and infertility, anxiety and despair. Thus, PCOS can have a negative effect on an individual’s quality of life if it is not treated promptly. The best first-line treatment for PCOS is a lifestyle intervention that includes a healthy diet with caloric restriction, exercise to aid in weight loss and to avoid future weight gain, and support for behaviour modification. Future studies should focus on the gaps in our understanding of PCOS. Patients will receive the best care if those physicians are followed. To date, there has been no effective treatment for PCOS, and most patients receive only symptomatic treatment with hormones and insulin sensitizers, which leads to long-term medication dependency.
Kőrösi Csoma Sándor utazásai, tudományos életműve és hatása a földrajz nézőpontjából
Authors: Kubassek János
Published: May 2022

Many disciplines consider the oeuvre of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös as belonging to their field of expertise. His scholarly achievements are indeed related to linguistics, oriental studies, Tibetology, Indology as well as the history of religion, and Buddhism. Csoma de Kőrös’s interest in the original homeland of Hungarians was aroused by the articles of Ézsaiás Budai, György Pray and the lectures of Professor Blumenbach from the University of Göttingen. He mastered the Tibetan language and, using Tibetan literature hitherto unknown to European scholars, as well as his personal travel experience, he wrote a dissertation entitled “Land Survey of Tibet in Accordance with Tibetan Sources.” The paper contains important data on the characteristics of the Tibetan provinces discussing their economy and environment, as well as their mineral resources, rivers, lakes, and glaciers. Alexander Csoma de Kőrös had a significant intellectual influence on Hungarian geographers. Lajos Lóczy, Ervin Baktay, Jenő Cholnoky, László Kádár and Dénes Balázs all greatly valued his work. The Hungarian Geographical Society immortalized its memory with a laudatory medal. His statue was erected in the garden of the Hungarian Geographical Museum in 1984.
An Investigation of Stucco Wall Assembly Performance by Hygrothermal Simulation
Authors: Weston Theresa A.
Published: May 2022

Stucco walls are widely used, traditional building assemblies that have persisted by evolving to meet changing design criteria. In North America, stucco is a popular cladding choice both for its aesthetic appearance and for its inherent fire-resistant properties. Stucco use has increased in U.S. residential construction, comprising 27% of the U.S. primary exterior wall material in 2019, up from 16% 25 years earlier. Despite stucco's popularity, stucco systems have been associated with several performance questions, including cracking and water intrusion. These documented issues have spurred code and standard activity and product development over the last two decades. This study uses hygrothermal analysis to investigate several possible water intrusion mechanisms in stucco wall assemblies, including water absorption followed by inward vapor drive, water intrusion through stucco cracks, and bulk water intrusion at junctions or interfaces (e.g., window-wall interfaces). The analysis includes the relative severity of the moisture intrusion mechanism as a function of climate and assembly design. The assemblies considered were chosen considering recent and upcoming code and standard changes, including the addition of drainage and ventilation behind the stucco cladding. The efficacy of behind-cavity drainage and ventilation for mitigation of water intrusion mechanisms is analyzed.
Evaluation of Chemical Permeation Performance of Polymeric Below-Grade Waterproofing Membranes
Authors: Cao Xia , Anderson Nicholas D.
Published: May 2022

Chlorinated solvents, such as tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, are among the most widespread groundwater and surface-water contaminants in the United States. As the construction industry continues to build larger and deeper buildings into the water table, there is a growing probability that the pre-applied water mitigation systems used in these buildings will be exposed to contaminated groundwater and soils over the course of their service life. Understanding how different membranes and contamination exposure affect the chemical permeation rate is essential to being able to predict the waterproofing's long-term performance as a chemical barrier and ensure indoor air quality is not affected. Using existing standards as a reference, we developed a method to measure the chemical permeation rate of the below-grade waterproofing membranes at different temperature and concentration gradients. This method can accelerate the evaluation process, especially with low-permeable membranes, which typically require longer evaluation times. In addition, this method enables the analyst to build a correlation between chemical permeation rate, temperature, and time. Thus, the method presented herein provides a new way to compare the long-term performance of different membranes and can play an important role in the design of water-mitigation systems for buildings.
Low-Slope Roofing Installations and Third-Party Observations: A Critical Review of Noncompliance Management
Authors: Meyer Benjamin , Nelson Keith , Westover Kristin
Published: May 2022

Quality-assurance observations (QAOs) are an integral part of the building enclosure commissioning process. Specifically, ASTM E2947, Standard Guide for Building Enclosure Commissioning, includes site visits as part of the construction administration phase activities to observe the installations and compare them with the approved project documents. These observations are then reported to the project team, including photos, sketches, and noncompliances, with a method for tracking and resolving open items. For more than 10 years, more than 10,000 field observation reports have been compiled across more than 4,000 projects, resulting in more than 6,000 documented and tracked noncompliances in construction projects in more than 30 U.S. states. This large dataset will be mined to generate a collection of representative projects, focusing on new low-slope roof-system installations. Data derived from any single construction project cannot be reliably used to improve construction practices across the industry. By utilizing standard construction observation reporting procedures, such as those provided in ASTM D7186, Standard Practice for Quality Assurance Observation of Roof Construction and Repair, and systematic data aggregation across a multitude of projects, this paper draws out actionable conclusions that utilize standardized QAO data collection and aggregation across projects, qualify categories of common roof-system installation noncompliance, identify trends in newly installed roof-system noncompliances and resolutions, and demonstrate the value of third-party on-site QAOs in identifying and resolving noncompliances. The research and outcomes of this paper are focused on newly installed low-slope roof-system noncompliances during construction, including their nature, prevalence, causes, and resolutions. The research and approach have not previously been published, and the results of the analysis will benefit designers, construction managers, installers, risk-management professionals, and roofing manufacturers.
Moisture Load for a Vinyl-Clad Wall Assembly for Selected Canadian Cities
Authors: Xiao Zhe , Lacasse Michael A. , Defo Maurice , Dragomirescu Elena
Published: May 2022

Moisture loads arising from the deposition of wind-driven rain (WDR) on building façades can bring about damage to wall assembly components and consequently affect their long-term performance. Hygrothermal simulations are often used by building practitioners to assess the risk to moisture damage within wall assemblies. Input of moisture loads to simulation models of wall assemblies use 1% of the WDR load deposited on the exterior surface of the wall as specified in ASHRAE Standard 160. However, results from several watertightness tests of wall assemblies have shown that the ratio between the WDR and moisture loads was highly dependent on the hourly WDR loads and driving-rain wind pressure (DRWP) acting on the wall surface. To permit correlating the varying WDR conditions with the moisture load for a vinyl-clad wall assembly, the wall was tested to a set of WDR intensities and DRWPs using a unique watertightness test apparatus, the Dynamic Wind and Wall Test Facility. The results from these tests were thereafter used to formulate an empirical relation for the moisture load based on the hourly WDR load and DRWP as variables. The moisture load for this wall type was thereafter characterized on the basis of historical climate data in selected cities across Canada. It is supposed that the information derived from this study would offer both more accurate as well as more reliable information for input to simulation models.
Coordination of ASTM Standards for Thermal Insulation Materials Installed in Exterior Cavity Wall Applications
Authors: Wagner Andrew W. , Knorowski Jodi M.
Published: May 2022

ASTM standards have been and continue to be developed to provide criteria for material classification and establish best practices for building envelope components. They provide the test methods needed to evaluate the behaviors and properties of different materials such that these materials can be compared and contrasted. However, the wide variety of materials and material applications for the building envelope can make the application of ASTM standards for specific project conditions challenging for designers and industry professionals to properly assess. The standardization process creates consistency in the methods used to identify and define material properties; however, the test methods used to evaluate a specific type of material may differ among materials that could be used for similar applications. As a result, this limits the ability of the design professional to accurately compare different materials that would be installed in the same application in order to select the most appropriate overall assembly to achieve the goals for building performance. When evaluating the thermal performance of the building envelope, there are several types of thermal insulation products that are commonly used in exterior cavity wall applications, yet the test methods contained within the standard specifications for each insulating material are not entirely coordinated. Although the methods used to determine thermal resistance are generally consistent between different material types, impacts of moisture and dimensional stability are often evaluated differently, which can be misleading when comparing materials for the same application. This paper presents the challenges that are faced by the design professional when evaluating different materials on the basis of the current guidance provided in ASTM standards and recommendations for methods to coordinate requirements for materials installed in similar applications.
Evaluation Methods, Hazard Risk Assessment and Mitigation of Building Enclosure Design Elements that are Prone to Ice and Snow Collection and Release
Authors: Carter Michael
Published: May 2022

The collection of ice and snow on a building enclosure can have multiple impacts on design that require consideration. This includes the design of a building's structural snow and ice load capacity, accessibility or egress due to drifting snow, infiltration of snow into openings or accesses, as well as the potential for blockage of mechanical intakes and exhausts by snow. In addition, a key safety consideration is the potential for ice and snow to accumulate and release from a building enclosure, creating a potential hazard to people or damage to property. To address these impacts, microclimate consultants have developed methods of evaluating architectural designs through the analysis of historical meteorological data and site surroundings, in combination with a review of the proposed architectural design details and their exposures. However, given the limited existence of published industry research, guidelines, standards, and building codes on the topic, these types of assessments remain highly experience‐based and therefore rely on the knowledge, expertise, and skill of the evaluator to identify potential design impacts and effectively communicate risk, as well as the relative effectiveness of mitigation and management strategies. Addressing these points, a discussion of current and past practices, evaluation methods, problem and risk identification, as well as mitigation strategies will be presented, along with a case study reviewing a common architectural facade element that is prone to ice and snow collection and release.
Three-Dimensional Thermal and Condensation Risk Analysis of Cantilevered Curtain Wall Elements
Authors: Dunlap Andrew A. , Asava Ryan
Published: May 2022

Current design trends often result in extending curtain wall systems beyond the thermal boundary of the exterior enclosure. A common example of this condition is where a curtain wall system extends above the roof and becomes the parapet. Other examples of this type of situation include where the curtain wall extends past a floor line to create a soffit enclosure or past an adjacent perpendicular wall to create what is often referred to as a “wing wall.” These types of conditions are not considered in the standard test methods that define the system's thermal performance and condensation resistance and can often lead to installations with increased heat loss and reduced condensation resistance. These types of conditions may deviate from the published performance of the system and impact the overall energy efficiency of the building enclosure. The current industry standard computer modeling methods to determine the thermal performance and condensation resistance only include two-dimensional computer modeling. Although this may be sufficient for the performance in the field of a curtain wall system, it may not adequately address these unique conditions. The two-dimensional nature of the evaluation cannot include the linear transfer of heat flow in the third dimension through the mullions extending beyond the thermal envelope. Laboratory testing of these complex project-specific conditions is often impractical due to cost and schedule. Additionally, once the condition is installed it is often too late to change the design. This paper evaluates the three-dimensional effects of heat flow through curtain walls using three-dimensional modeling. The relative impact on thermal performance and condensation resistance is compared with the published performance of standard curtain wall systems. The paper also reviews installation methods to decrease the heat loss and produce more resilient systems. Two-dimensional computer modeling is utilized to compare the results with the three-dimensional modeling procedures.
The Squat-Museum
Authors: Fender Stephan
Published: May 2022

In 2019, the vor—gänge museum opened its doors. The museum, in a squatted building in the Gängeviertel neighborhood of Hamburg, Germany, is the result of a four-year process involving student groups and collaborations with the public. This case study reflects on the underrepresentation of the historic Gängeviertel neighborhoods and the marginalized groups they represent in the self-narrative of Hamburg. It evaluates the potential of squatting empty buildings to regain agency for these groups and discusses the current public history project from the perspective of an engaged actor. Based on this interdisciplinary collaboration of academia, art, and activism, it argues for structural and institutional change in academic teaching and an increased scholarly awareness for the importance of local networking, especially among marginalized groups, to create a multiperspective metropolitan narrative.
Memorializing Conflict and History in South Thailand through Museums, Art, and Poetry
Authors: Sathian Mala Rajo
Published: May 2022

This article examines public history in Deep South (Patani)1 Thailand, where renewed political conflict since 2014 has rekindled memories of a traumatic past and created an environment for its commemoration. A private museum honoring Haji Sulong, a Patanian nationalist branded as a rebel by Thai authorities, and the poetry of Zakariya Amataya conjure collective memories of the Deep South. Long subjected to hegemonic cultural policies that privilege a national identity centered on Thainess, the Malay South has gained visibility through the arts. Its vibrant arts-scape functions as a site of public history. The counterhistories produced serve to memorialize the past, offering a path out of historiographical silencing and potential for national reconciliation in the troubled region.