bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Development of a real-time wireless sensor network-based information system for efficient irrigation of upland and lowland crop production systems
Authors: Ramirez R C , Agulto E S , Glaser S D , Zhang Z , Hermocilla J A C , Ella V B
Published: June 2022

This study developed a real-time web-and WSN-based information system for efficient irrigation water management and automation of drip-irrigated upland crop and intermittently-irrigated lowland crop production systems. The web-based system uses Flutter and DART to accommodate multiple end user platforms, while the WSN-based system uses state-of-the-art hardware and sensors for real-time monitoring of soil moisture, water level and weather conditions. The sensors are wirelessly connected in a low-power mesh network that sends data to a central server. The sensor readings are uploaded to the web application via MQTT, which generates charts and graphs for data analysis. The sensor readings compared well with measurements from conventional instruments. The system in this study provides a sustainable solution for improving irrigation efficiencies under both upland and lowland crop production systems, in minimizing water losses and in improving the overall agricultural crop productivity.
Development of Low-cost Soil Moisture Monitoring System for Efficient Irrigation Water Management of Upland Crops
Authors: Aringo M Q , Martinez C G , Martinez O G , Ella V B
Published: June 2022

With the advancement of information and communication technology, various types of soil moisture sensors have been developed. Coupled with data loggers, these sensors could prove useful in monitoring soil moisture in upland crop production areas which in turn could be used for efficient irrigation water management. However, most of these sensors are costly and unaffordable to most farmers in developing countries. Hence, a low-cost soil moisture monitoring system intended to facilitate irrigation water management in upland crop production systems was developed in this study. The device was built with a capacitive soil moisture sensor, an ESP8266 Wi-Fi mini board, and a datalogging shield with RTC. Soil moisture measurements are transmitted via ESP-NOW to a server which also uses an ESP8266 Wi-Fi mini board. The low-cost soil moisture monitoring system was evaluated based on its measurement of volumetric water content and transmission of data via ESP-NOW. The performance of the capacitive soil moisture sensor was compared with the ICT International MP306 soil moisture sensor. Statistical analyses showed that volumetric water contents measured by the capacitive soil moisture sensor are comparable to those of the MP306 soil moisture sensor, thus conceived as a low-cost alternative to the high-end sensor. Moreover, test results on the range of ESP-NOW showed that data can be successfully transmitted over long distances. With regards to this, the low-cost soil moisture monitoring system may be integrated with other technologies to enable irrigation scheduling and automation for efficient irrigation water management in upland crop production systems.
Discrimination between arabica and robusta coffees using NIR-integrating sphere spectroscopy coupled with hierarchical clustering analysis
Authors: Suhandy D , Kusumiyati  , Yulia M
Published: June 2022

In Indonesia, coffee farmers preferred to produce arabica and robusta coffee. Regarding its superior quality and commercial values, now the demand for specialty arabica and fine robusta coffee is increasing. In this research, discrimination between the two coffees was evaluated using NIR-integrating sphere spectroscopy coupled with the hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) method. NIR spectral data in the region of 1175-1650 nm was measured using a portable fiber optic NIR spectrometer equipped with an integrating sphere from Ocean Optics (NIR-Quest, Ocean Optics, USA). Arabica (n=10) and robusta (n=10) ground roasted coffee (with mesh 50) was prepared as samples. The principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were utilized in data analysis to discriminate between the specialty arabica and fine robusta coffee samples. The PCA and HCA results confirmed the good separation between the two coffees with arabica and robusta coffee samples were grouped in two distinct clusters. This result reveals that NIR-integrating sphere spectroscopy seems to be a potential analytical method dedicated to the discrimination of arabica and robusta coffee with minimum sample preparation.
Assessment of Water Availability for Rice Cultivation in South Lampung Regency
Authors: Anika N. , Wijaya L. , Ramadhani D. A. , Fauzi A. I.
Published: June 2022

Climatic conditions influence the availability of water for rice cultivation. Climate change will significantly impact rice production in areas where water resource infrastructure is inadequate. South Lampung Regency is primarily a rain-fed rice production region. As a result, an assessment of water availability for rice cultivation is required for sustainable rice production. This study aims to provide recommendations to the government in carrying out the necessary infrastructure development. This study uses secondary data such as rainfall, temperature, solar radiation, evaporation, and humidity from 2010 to 2020. The study’s findings provide information on the sufficiency of water availability for rice cultivation in each sub-district in the South Lampung Regency, as well as scenarios for developing water resources infrastructure.
Estimating the ripeness level of avocado (Persea americana) by using ultraviolet reflection
Authors: Bayu M F , Pertiwi S
Published: June 2022

Avocado (Persea americana) is one of popular fruits in Indonesia because of its taste and high antioxidant content. However, research on avocado in Indonesia is still limited. Grading avocados is still undertaken manually by squeezing the fruit to find its hardness and determine the ripeness level while it is already well known that image processing may play an important role in maintaining consistency in grading fruits. This study aims to determine the ripeness level of avocado by using Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), moisture content, and hardness as the parameters, and to determine the correlation between the ultraviolet (UV) reflection and the ripeness level of avocado. The study consists of non-destructive method and destructive method. The first was done by taking pictures/images of avocados surrounded by 4 UV lamps using a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera. There were 120 samples of avocado fruit with 4 levels of ripeness, 30 each, which were obtained from the Puncak area, Bogor. Immediately after completing the image taking, the destructive method was carried to determine the TDS, moisture content, and hardness of each sample. The lab test results were then used to obtain an equation that estimates the ripeness level, expressed in age (days) before ripening, by using multiple linear regression analysis. The resulted equation is having R-Square of 0.81, which mean that the parameters can be used to determine the ripeness level. The image data were processed further to get the values of Hue (H), Saturation (S) and Intensity (I) at each ripeness level, and from those values their determination coefficient which show the feasibility of the value to represent the ripeness of the avocado were determined. The result shows that the highest determination coefficient was that of I (intensity) of about 0.8191. The results of non-destructive and destructive method then was correlated each other to show the feasibility of using nondestructive method in estimating the ripeness level of avocado. The result shows that the usage of UV reflection, especially the value of intensity, for determining the ripeness level of avocado is feasible.
Application of multispectral UAV for paddy growth monitoring in Jitra, Kedah, Malaysia
Authors: Mohidem N A , Jaafar S , Rosle R , Che’Ya N N , Arif Shah J , Fazlil Ilahi W F , Zainol W N Z , Berahim Z , Omar M H , Ismail M R
Published: June 2022

Rice is the staple food for most people in Southeast Asia, mainly Malaysia. Unfortunately, Malaysia does not reach a 100% self-sufficiency level on rice production due to inefficiency of rice farm management, pest and disease outbreak, poorly irrigation system, and climate change. Each spectral band of electromagnetic signature in the rice crops can be identified to analyse the crop condition based on the reflectance value. Therefore, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can capture different spectral band images of the rice field depending on the sensors used. This study aims to produce a paddy growth map based on the normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) value and validate the paddy growth map using the soil plant analysis development (SPAD) data. This study was carried out at the paddy field planted with PadiU Putra rice variety in Muda Agricultural Development Authority (MADA), Jitra in Kedah. Three reading samples for each point at the paddy field within 1 m radius were recorded. Then, the samples from each point were scanned using SPAD chlorophyll meter. The image data were collected using multispectral and RGB cameras at the altitude of 60 m, and a calibrated reflectance panel was used to calibrate the image. Ground control point (GCP) was placed at the four corners of the study plot, and it was being used as a georeferencing point for aerial imagery mapping. Those images were undergone orthomosaic process to produce a single overlapped image. NDVI was used to measure the healthy level of rice crops. NDVI map had shown the distribution of NDVI value across the study plot, which includes the healthy and less healthy vegetative area. SPAD value has no significant relationship with the aerial imagery of NDVI value. The NDVI map allows the farmers to monitor the paddy growth status and effectively improve their rice farm management. In the future, advanced classification methods based on the reflectance of weed, water, and soil can be prioritized and separated into different classes, whereby the NDVI map can be plotted on the paddy crops.
Design of automatic control system on trickle irrigation for tomato cultivation
Authors: Irwin M R , Prastowo
Published: June 2022

The development of technology has had an impact on the progress of irrigation systems, called the intelligent irrigation system 4.0. The objectives of this research are a measurement of Emission Uniformity (EU) and designing automatic irrigation based on soil water sensors. The result of EU value is in the range of 85-90%, which is a good category. EU value can determine whether one emitter can represent the entire emitter in one irrigation system. The principle of the soil water sensor is to read the value of the soil moisture content in the planting medium. The soil water content of 22.4%, which is the field capacity, is used as an upper limit and the soil water content of 21.1%, which is the critical point, is used as the lower limit. Determination of the critical point value is done by using the management allowable depletion (MAD) value of 0.52. The working principle of the control system is to monitor the work of the soil water sensor and become the main data to control valves, pumps, and dosing. The required cost for the automatic system is Rp. 12,626,000, -.
Design Development of Portable (Mini) Multi-function Incinerator for Dry Medical Waste Handling.
Authors: Endah Agustina S. , A.Pane Erlanda , F.Nurcholis Miftah , Arviansyah
Published: June 2022

Medical waste contains biohazard, such as dry medical waste from the Centre of Public Health Services (PUSKESMAS) should be burning out, especially in the pandemic of covid 19. One of the possible solution is burning the waste by using incinerator. Basic concept of incinerator is controlled high temperature combustion, thus it should be perfect condition to burnt out the hazardous waste. Heat energy that exposed while incinerator operated should having high potency to be used for other purposes such as water heater and carbonization process. This research aims to develop an incinerator which can be used not only as high temperature burner (as incinerator’s main function), but also for water heater system and carbonization process, in the same time. The incinerator designed as mini portable incinerator since it will be used in a center of public health services (PUSKESMAS). Both of hot water and charcoal produced while incinerator operation can be used for sanitation purposes in the PUSKESMAS itself. Combustion process temperatures, smoke quality, safety factor, and energy utilities are the parameters which were determined as incinerator performance. Some design improvement has been done to the original design by Pradipta and Agustina [1] in order to improve the incinerator performance. The latest design performance is showing that combustion temperature successfully increased up to 980 °C for combustion rate of 9 kg waste/hour. Utilization of heat energy produced by combustion process inside the chamber has been successfully produce 2-2,5 kg of good quality coconut shell charcoal and hot water of 83 °C at 6 lt/minute flow rate.
Determine Field and Machine Operating Condition of Rice Combine Harvester to Minimize Grain Loss
Authors: Nugroho Z A , Mandang T
Published: June 2022

Paddy can be harvested by a manual or mechanization metode. Mechanization harvesting also use some of machinery, one of example is rice combine harvester. This research has a goal to test performance of this machine in condition of field when the machine operates to know that it is worth or not to use based on national standard. The results of this research show that the field has a dry bulk density value 0.9 g/cc with 5.55 kgf/cm2 of cone index, water content is about 72.52 % and 65.49 % of soil’s porosity. Field efficiency of this machine is around 77.12 % with 915.28 kg/h of harvest capacity and 2.07 % of harvest losses. The capacity of hay disposal unit is about 170.4 kg/h with 97.69 % of grain cleanliness level. The slip that happened is about 8.01 % with actual velocity 0.535 m/s and 1.02 liter/h of fuel consumption. All of that are compared and evaluated with SNI 8185-2015 and the results show that this machine is worth to use in that area. Based on teority measurement on traction unit, this machine has rolling resistance around 121.6 kg from total weight, and has a critical traction around 532 kg and it has a rimpull value about 1525.15 kg.
Characteristics of Oil Palm Stem Mulch as Soil Conditioner at Oil Palm
Authors: Alfarisi A , Mandang T , Sutejo A
Published: June 2022

Oil palm is a plantation crop that has great potential in Indonesia. The very rapid development of oil palm is due to the high economic value of this commodity. However, the handling and utilization of oil palm waste resulting from replanting is not optimal yet. Planting new seedlings is delayed because the decomposition process of oil palm stems from replanting takes a long time. One method of replanting uses a mulcher machine which produces mulches in the form of thin fibers and has different characteristics from other replanting methods. The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of the mulch from the chopping of oil palm stems using a mulcher, to learn the effect of oil palm stem mulch on soil conditioner in oil palm replanting land, and to determine the optimum heap thickness to maintain soil quality in oil palm replanting land. Oil palm stem mulch was composted for two months using the bin method. The application of oil palm stem mulch as a soil conditioner was carried out in different thickness treatment was 1 cm, 5 cm, 10 cm thickness and control. Oil palm stem compost chopped by mulcher has the characteristics as the quality of standard Indonesian compost and decomposed faster than other replanting methods. The results showed that at a soil depth of 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm, 10-15 cm and 15-20 cm, mulch with a thickness of 10 cm was the best treatment because it was able to increase the average value of soil moisture content respectively amounted to 28.22% and decreased the value of soil penetration resistance to 15.13 kgf/cm2 and and soil temperature 27.5°C respectively. The results of the compost fit in criteria of SNI:19-7030-2004, which is moisture content of 22.99%; density of mulch of 0.77 g/cm3; C-organic content of 10.72%; N-total of 0.7952%; mulch porosity of 70.3%; and C/N ratio of 13.48%.
Application of Palm Stearin Edible Coating on Cavendish Banana (Musa acuminata)
Authors: Agusta W , Anggraeni D , Hermansyah H D , Gebrina A D
Published: June 2022

Palm stearin has the potential to alter the use of beeswax. This study aimed to assess the effect of palm stearin as an edible coating on the quality changes of Cavendish banana during storage. The samples of Cavendish banana were stored within eight days with treatment combinations of temperature (room temperature: 28 °C and 10 °C) and application of edible coating (control: without coating, and coated with palm stearin). During the storage period, physicochemical properties of the samples were evaluated in terms of weight loss, fruit firmness, total soluble solids, ascorbic acid content, respiration rate, and peel colour. The obtained results showed that storage temperature and storing period significantly (p< 0.05) affected the properties of Cavendish banana in terms of weight loss, fruit firmness, CO2 evolution, and O2 consumption. Application of palm stearin edible coating significantly affected (p< 0.05) weight loss and ascorbic acid content. Palm stearin edible coating at room temperature reduced weight loss and maintained ascorbic acid content. On the eighth day of storage, coated samples and controls stored at room temperature lose their weight up to 12.96 % and 23.94 % on average, respectively.
Drying kinetics of porang (Amorphophallus mueller B.) chips under open sun drying
Authors: Hawa L.C. , Septiyanto F.G. , Yulianingsih R. , Susilo B. , Lastriyanto A. , Sumarlan S.H. , Tihardo Y. , Sinambela L. G.
Published: June 2022

The drying behavior of porang (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume) chips under open sun drying has been conducted. The aim of present study was to determine the drying kinetics and mathematical modeling of the chips and color alteration during open sun drying. The drying process was carried out for 21 hours at the open space with direct sunlight with 3, 5, and 7 mm of chips thickness variation. The average initial water content of the chips was 89.34±1.24 %wb (wet basis), and 7.77±0.44; 9.61±1.31; and 12.88±1.47% wb (wet basis) of final moisture content at the end of process for 3, 5, 7 mm of chips thickness, respectively. The nonlinear analysis for subjected model indicated that the Midilli et al model was satisfactorily describe the drying curve of the chips with following constants, i.e. a = 0.9894; k = 0.0129; n = 2.8962; b = 0.0064. During drying, browning occurs on porang chips with decreased brightness index (L*) and yellowness index (b*) and increased redness index (a*).
A Preliminary study: the addition of konjac glucomannan-based hydrogel into chocolate increases the melting point of chocolate
Authors: Bangun S K , Saputro A D , Fadilah M A N , Rahayoe S , Prasetyatama Y D , Setiowati A D
Published: June 2022

Chocolate easily melts at a temperature of 32-34°C. This is a challenge for tropical countries, such as Indonesia. To cope with this problem, an innovation is needed to produce a heat-resistant chocolate. One of methods that can be done is by adding hydrogel. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of hydrogel made from konjac glucomannan on the physical characteristics of chocolate. In this study, hydrogel with a proportion of 2% was added into chocolate at the end of conching process. The influence of three different hydrogels made with konjac glucomannan concentration of 3%, 5%, and 7% was investigated. The result showed that the addition of hydrogel had a significant effect on the characteristics of chocolate. The addition of hydrogel did not only increase the melting point of chocolate, but also increased the hardness and particle size of chocolate. The higher the hydrogel concentration, the higher the hardness values. In conclusion, the addition of konjac glucomannan-based hydrogel in chocolate has the potential to produce heat-resistant chocolate.
Effect of Harvest and Postharvest Handling on Quality of Moringa Leaf Powder
Authors: Krah C Y , Sutrisno  , Krisnadi D , Samsudin
Published: June 2022

Moringa Oleifera is a highly nutritious plant with a plethora of uses in various fields of life. It serves as food for humans and animals, soil amendment, water purification, skincare, etc. Almost all parts of the plant are valuable and have potential commercial value. The leaves contain vitamin C in quantities that exceed orange, vitamin A exceeds carrot, calcium exceeding milk, and potassium exceeding banana. Another remarkable property of the plant is it full complement of essential amino acids, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties. The seed also gives valuable oil, which has both domestic and industrial uses. Even though the plant is naturally endowed with many useful attributes, the right harvesting and postharvest handling is required to maximise the potential and produce moringa products with optimum quality and nutritional content. Therefore, this review aims to shed light on some of the important postharvest handling practices carried out to transform the moringa leave into finished products. Some of the practices discussed are harvesting, stripping, washing, drying, and milling. The discussion also captures ways in which the activities affect the nutritional, medicinal, and general final quality of the moringa products.
Corrigendum: On the reliability of yield functions in deep drawing simulations (2022 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 1238 012073)
Authors: Ghiabakloo H , Manopulo N , Mora J , Carleer B , Van Bael A
Published: June 2022

Please see Article PDF for corrigendum text.
Novel optical metrology for inspection of nanostructures fabricated by substrate conformal imprint lithography
Authors: Nevels Teun D G , Ruijs Lieke J M , van de Meugheuvel Paul , Verschuuren Marc A , Rivas Jaime Gómez , Ramezani Mohammad
Published: June 2022

Substrate conformal imprint lithography (SCIL) technology enables the fabrication of complex and non-trivial 3D nanostructures such a slanted gratings and metasurfaces with sub-10 nm resolution over large areas for industrial-scale production, which can be fabricated in a single lithography step. This technology utilizes novel composite silicone rubber stamps that provide versatility in addition to high precision. To inspect the quality and reproducibility of the nanostructures that are fabricated using SCIL, a novel optical characterization method using Fourier microscopy is proposed. In this method, nanostructures are illuminated under a microscope objective using a collimated light beam at different incident angles and the properties of the reflected and/or diffracted beams are analysed to extract the critical dimensions of the nanostructures. This fast and non-destructive method has the potential for being used as an in-line inspection technology to extract the critical dimensions of the nanostructures over large areas and improve the overall properties of nanostructured surfaces.
A multi-level feature-fusion-based approach to breast histopathological image classification
Authors: Ding Wei-Long , Zhu Xiao-Jie , Zheng Kui , Liu Jin-Long , You Qing-Hua
Published: June 2022

Previously, convolutional neural networks mostly used deep semantic feature information obtained from several convolutions for image classification. Such deep semantic features have a larger receptive field, and the features extracted are more effective as the number of convolutions increases, which helps in the classification of targets. However, this method tends to lose the shallow local features, such as the spatial connectivity and correlation of tumor region texture and edge contours in breast histopathology images, which leads to its recognition accuracy not being high enough. To address this problem, we propose a multi-level feature fusion method for breast histopathology image classification. First, we fuse shallow features and deep semantic features by attention mechanism and convolutions. Then, a new weighted cross entropy loss function is used to deal with the misjudgment of false negative and false positive. And finally, the correlation of spatial information is used to correct the misjudgment of some patches. We have conducted experiments on our own datasets and compared with the base network Inception-ResNet-v2, which has a high accuracy. The proposed method achieves an accuracy of 99.0% and an AUC of 99.9%.
Utility of U-Net for the objective segmentation of the fibroglandular tissue region on clinical digital mammograms
Authors: Yamamuro Mika , Asai Yoshiyuki , Hashimoto Naomi , Yasuda Nao , Kimura Hiorto , Yamada Takahiro , Nemoto Mitsutaka , Kimura Yuichi , Handa Hisashi , Yoshida Hisashi , Abe Koji , Tada Masahiro , Habe Hitoshi , Nagaoka Takashi , Nin Seiun , Ishii Kazunari , Kondo Yohan
Published: June 2022

This study investigates the equivalence or compatibility between U-Net and visual segmentations of fibroglandular tissue regions by mammography experts for calculating the breast density and mean glandular dose (MGD). A total of 703 mediolateral oblique-view mammograms were used for segmentation. Two region types were set as the ground truth (determined visually): (1) one type included only the region where fibroglandular tissue was identifiable (called the ‘dense region’); (2) the other type included the region where the fibroglandular tissue may have existed in the past, provided that apparent adipose-only parts, such as the retromammary space, are excluded (the ‘diffuse region’). U-Net was trained to segment the fibroglandular tissue region with an adaptive moment estimation optimiser, five-fold cross-validated with 400 training and 100 validation mammograms, and tested with 203 mammograms. The breast density and MGD were calculated using the van Engeland and Dance formulas, respectively, and compared between U-Net and the ground truth with the Dice similarity coefficient and Bland–Altman analysis. Dice similarity coefficients between U-Net and the ground truth were 0.895 and 0.939 for the dense and diffuse regions, respectively. In the Bland–Altman analysis, no proportional or fixed errors were discovered in either the dense or diffuse region for breast density, whereas a slight proportional error was discovered in both regions for the MGD (the slopes of the regression lines were −0.0299 and −0.0443 for the dense and diffuse regions, respectively). Consequently, the U-Net and ground truth were deemed equivalent (interchangeable) for breast density and compatible (interchangeable following four simple arithmetic operations) for MGD. U-Net-based segmentation of the fibroglandular tissue region was satisfactory for both regions, providing reliable segmentation for breast density and MGD calculations. U-Net will be useful in developing a reliable individualised screening-mammography programme, instead of relying on the visual judgement of mammography experts.
Potential changes in temperature extreme events under global warming at 1.5 °C and 2 °C over Côte d’Ivoire
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Authors: N’Datchoh E T , Kouadio K , Silué S , Bamba A , Naabil E , Djè K B , Diedhiou A , Sylla M B , Anquetin S , Lennard C
Published: June 2022

This work investigated the impact of 1.5 °C and 2 °C of global warming levels (GWLs) above pre-industrial levels on annual and seasonal mean changes in temperature extremes over Côte d’Ivoire and its different climatic zones. We used the multi-model Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment for Africa of 25 regional climate models under the RCP8.5 scenario. The changes in temperature are quantified relative to the period 1971–2000 based on five Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices indexes namely for warm spells, hot nights, hot days, cold nights and cold days. We show that a global warming of 1.5 °C and 2 °C will lead to an increase in the frequency of warm days and warm nights and a decrease in the occurrence of cold days and cold nights across Côte d’Ivoire in all climatic zones and seasons. More than 80% of the model ensemble members project this change at both GWLs. Moreover, the assessment of differences in GWLs highlights that the difference between the 1.5 °C and 2 °C thresholds may intensify the changes over all the country, climatic zones and seasons. Therefore this 0.5 °C difference in global warming is likely to impact upon energy demand and the agricultural system throughout the country and over all of the seasons. This study provides climate information for decision makers related to sectors such as agriculture, energy in their adaptation strategies.
Caution with colour calculations: spectral purity is a poor descriptor of flower colour visibility
Authors: van der Kooi Casper J , Spaethe Johannes
Published: June 2022

Background

The colours of flowers are of key interest to plant and pollination biologists. An increasing number of studies have investigated the importance of saturation of flower colours (often called ‘spectral purity’ or ‘chroma’) for visibility to pollinators, but the conceptual, physiological and behavioural foundations for these metrics as well as the calculations used rest on slender foundations.

Methods

We discuss the caveats of colour attributes that are derived from human perception, and in particular spectral purity and chroma, as variables in flower colour analysis. We re-analysed seven published datasets encompassing 774 measured reflectance spectra to test for correlations between colour contrast, spectral purity and chroma.

Main findings and Conclusions

We identify several concerns with common calculation procedures in animal colour spaces. Studies on animal colour vision provide no ground to assume that any pollinator perceives (or responds to) saturation, chroma or spectral purity in the way humans do. A re-analysis of published datasets revealed that values for colour contrast between flowers and their background are highly correlated with measures for spectral purity and chroma, which invalidates treating these factors as independent variables as is currently commonplace. Strikingly, spectral purity and chroma – both of which are metrics for saturation and are often used synonymously – are not correlated at all. We conclude that alternative, behaviourally validated metrics for the visibility of flowers to pollinators, such as colour contrast and achromatic contrast, are better in understanding the role of flower colour in plant–pollinator signalling.
Supervision of Information Communication Technologies in Social Work Practice: A Mixed Methods Study
Authors: Sewell Karen M , Mishna Faye , Sanders Jane E , Bogo Marion , Milne Betsy , Greenblatt Andrea
Published: June 2022

The integration of informal information and communication technologies (ICTs) has transformed social work practice, yet the use of ICTs in practice is not commonly discussed in supervision. The aim of this sequential mixed methods study was to understand the factors associated with social workers’ discussion of informal ICT use in supervision, and the considerations that influence these discussions. A logistic regression was conducted using data from Canadian #socialwork survey participants in organisational settings (n = 958). Quantitative findings were integrated with the qualitative findings from a reflexive thematic analysis of participant interviews (n = 22), some of which occurred during and were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on our integrated findings, supervisory ICT discussion was highly dependent on organisational policy and supervisors’ interpretation of these policies. The setting in which the survey participants worked was also associated with ICT discussion in supervision. In making their decisions to discuss ICT use, interview participants further highlighted the importance of the supervisory relationship based on supervisor qualities and availability.
Multicompartmental models and diffusion abnormalities in paediatric mild traumatic brain injury
Authors: Mayer Andrew R , Ling Josef M , Dodd Andrew B , Stephenson David D , Pabbathi Reddy Sharvani , Robertson-Benta Cidney R , Erhardt Erik B , Harms Robbert L , Meier Timothy B , Vakhtin Andrei A , Campbell Richard A , Sapien Robert E , Phillips John P
Published: June 2022

The underlying pathophysiology of paediatric mild traumatic brain injury and the time-course for biological recovery remains widely debated, with clinical care principally informed by subjective self-report. Similarly, clinical evidence indicates that adolescence is a risk factor for prolonged recovery, but the impact of age-at-injury on biomarkers has not been determined in large, homogeneous samples. The current study collected diffusion MRI data in consecutively recruited patients (n = 203; 8–18 years old) and age and sex-matched healthy controls (n = 170) in a prospective cohort design. Patients were evaluated subacutely (1–11 days post-injury) as well as at 4 months post-injury (early chronic phase). Healthy participants were evaluated at similar times to control for neurodevelopment and practice effects. Clinical findings indicated persistent symptoms at 4 months for a significant minority of patients (22%), along with residual executive dysfunction and verbal memory deficits. Results indicated increased fractional anisotropy and reduced mean diffusivity for patients, with abnormalities persisting up to 4 months post-injury. Multicompartmental geometric models indicated that estimates of intracellular volume fractions were increased in patients, whereas estimates of free water fractions were decreased. Critically, unique areas of white matter pathology (increased free water fractions or increased neurite dispersion) were observed when standard assumptions regarding parallel diffusivity were altered in multicompartmental models to be more biologically plausible. Cross-validation analyses indicated that some diffusion findings were more reproducible when ∼70% of the total sample (142 patients, 119 controls) were used in analyses, highlighting the need for large-sample sizes to detect abnormalities. Supervised machine learning approaches (random forests) indicated that diffusion abnormalities increased overall diagnostic accuracy (patients versus controls) by ∼10% after controlling for current clinical gold standards, with each diffusion metric accounting for only a few unique percentage points. In summary, current results suggest that novel multicompartmental models are more sensitive to paediatric mild traumatic brain injury pathology, and that this sensitivity is increased when using parameters that more accurately reflect diffusion in healthy tissue. Results also indicate that diffusion data may be insufficient to achieve a high degree of objective diagnostic accuracy in patients when used in isolation, which is to be expected given known heterogeneities in pathophysiology, mechanism of injury and even criteria for diagnoses. Finally, current results indicate ongoing clinical and physiological recovery at 4 months post-injury.
Life History ofChrysodeixis includens(Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on Positively Charged Zein Nanoparticles
Authors: Bonser Colin A R , Astete Carlos E , Sabliov Cristina M , Davis Jeffrey A
Published: June 2022

Research indicates that nanoparticles can be an effective agricultural pest management tool, though unintended effects on the insect must be evaluated before their use in agroecosystems. Chrysodeixis includens (Walker) was used as a model to evaluate chronic parental and generational exposure to empty, positively charged zein nanoparticles ((+)ZNP) and methoxyfenozide-loaded zein nanoparticles (+)ZNP(MFZ) at low-lethal concentrations. To determine concentration limits, an acute toxic response test on meridic diet evaluated (+)ZNP(MFZ) and technical grade methoxyfenozide using two diet assay techniques. No differences in acute toxicity were observed between the two treatments within their respective bioassays. With these results, population dynamics following chronic exposure to low-lethal concentrations were evaluated. Parental lifetables evaluated cohorts of C. includens reared on diet treated with LC5 equivalents of (+)ZNP, (+)ZNP(MFZ), or technical grade methoxyfenozide. Compared to technical grade methoxyfenozide, (+)ZNP(MFZ) lowered both the net reproductive rate and intrinsic rate of increase, and was more deleterious to C. includens throughout its lifespan. This was contrasted to (+)ZNP, which showed no differences in population dynamics when compared with the control. To evaluate chronic exposure to (+)ZNP, generational lifetables reared cohorts of C. includens on LC5 equivalent values of (+)ZNP and then took the resulting offspring to be reared on either (+)ZNP or untreated diet. No differences in lifetable statistics were observed between the two treatments, suggesting that (+)ZNP at low ppm do not induce toxic generational effects. This study provides evidence into the effects of nanodelivered methoxyfenozide and the generational impact of (+)ZNP.
The association between short-term, chronic localized and chronic widespread pain and risk for cardiovascular disease in the UK Biobank
Authors: Rönnegård Ann-Sofie , Nowak Christoph , Äng Björn , Ärnlöv Johan
Published: June 2022

Aims

The interplay between pain of different chronicity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is incompletely understood. We aimed to investigate the association between different levels of chronic or nonchronic pain and risk of CVD.

Methods and results

Participants in the UK Biobank who reported pain at baseline were divided into three groups according to pain duration and widespreadness. Participants reporting no pain were controls. Multivariable Cox regression was used to investigate the association between pain and incidence of myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, cardiovascular mortality, and composite CVD (defined as any of the before-mentioned cardiovascular events). Of 475 171 participants, 189 289 reported no pain, 87 830 reported short-term pain, 191 716 chronic localized pain, and 6336 chronic widespread pain (CWP). During a median of 7.0 years’ follow-up, participants with chronic localized pain and CWP had, after adjustment for age, sex, established cardiovascular risk factors, physical activity, anxiety, depression, cancer, chronic inflammatory/painful disease, pain/anti-inflammatory medication, socioeconomic status, a significantly increased risk for composite CVD [hazard ratio (HR) 1.14, confidence interval (CI) 1.08–1.21, P < 0.001; and HR 1.48, CI 1.28–1.73, P < 0.001, respectively] compared with controls, with similar results when using the different specific CVDs as outcomes. Population attributable risk proportion for chronic pain as a risk factor for composite CVD was comparable with that of diabetes (8.6 vs. 7.3%, respectively).

Conclusion

Chronic pain is associated with an increased risk for myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure, and cardiovascular death independent of established cardiovascular risk factors, socioeconomic factors, comorbidities and medication. Our study, the largest to date, confirms and extends our understanding of chronic pain as an underestimated cardiovascular risk factor with important public health implications.
Vegetarianism, microbiota, and cardiovascular health: looking back, and forward
Authors: Kumar Amudha , Chidambaram Vignesh , Mehta Jawahar L
Published: June 2022

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, with over 17.9 million attributed deaths in 2019. Unhealthy diet is an often-overlooked major modifiable risk factor for CVD. Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimates suggest that unhealthy diets account for nearly 26% of all deaths, of which 84% were attributed to CVD. Plant-based diets (PBDs), which are a diverse group of dietary patterns focused on plant produce, with flexibility for varying levels of vegetarianism, have been suggested to decrease the incidence of various cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases. In this review, we aim to delve into the spectrum of PBDs, revisit objective definitions and classifications, and compare them with standard non-vegetarian diets. We examine plausible mechanisms underlying the cardiovascular benefits of PBDs with a particular focus on the dietary manipulation of gut microbiota–host interaction and its effect on energy metabolism, and local and systemic inflammation. In addition, we explore the evidence on the impact of PBDs on CVD, examine the challenges and limitations associated with dietary intervention studies, and devise strategies to draw valid conclusions. Dietary interventions, such as PBDs are one of the most powerful, attainable, cost-effective tools for health and environmental protection at the population level. We conclude with a clear appreciation for PBDs in environmental sustainability, climate change, and animal welfare.
Burden of cardiovascular diseases and depression attributable to psychosocial work exposures in 28 European countries
Authors: Sultan-Taïeb Hélène , Villeneuve Tania , Chastang Jean-François , Niedhammer Isabelle
Published: June 2022

Background

This study aimed to estimate the annual burden of cardiovascular diseases and depression attributable to five psychosocial work exposures in 28 European Union countries (EU28) in 2015.

Methods

Based on available attributable fraction estimates, the study covered five exposures, job strain, effort–reward imbalance, job insecurity, long working hours and workplace bullying; and five outcomes, coronary/ischemic heart diseases (CHD), stroke, atrial fibrillation, peripheral artery disease and depression. We estimated the burden attributable to each exposure separately and all exposures together. We calculated Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) rate per 100 000 workers in each country for each outcome attributable to each exposure and tested the differences between countries and between genders using the Wald test.

Results

The overall burden of CHD attributable to the five studied psychosocial work exposures together was estimated at 173 629 DALYs for men and 39 238 for women, 5092 deaths for men and 1098 for women in EU28 in 2015. The overall burden of depression was estimated at 355 665 DALYs for men and 305 347 for women (respectively 3931 and 912 deaths). The three highest burdens in DALYs in EU28 in 2015 were found for depression attributable to job strain (413 938 DALYs), job insecurity (223 200 DALYs) and workplace bullying (209 306 DALYs). Significant differences between countries were observed for DALY rates per 100 000 workers.

Conclusions

Such results are necessary as decision tools for decision-makers (governments, employers and trade unions) when defining public health priorities and work stress preventive strategies in Europe.
Reading Implication: Moral Injury in Heinrich Böll’s Billard um halb zehn and Vasilii Grossman’s Vse techet
Authors: Jones Oliver T
Published: June 2022

This essay demonstrates the usefulness of ‘moral injury’ as a prism for comparative literary research, particularly between the post-National Socialist German and post-Stalinist Russian contexts. I outline a tendency in the study of post-atrocity fiction to focus on psychoanalytically defined notions of trauma. Subsequently, I explain how moral injury, which denotes the damaging psychological ramifications of transgressing one’s moral code, offers a productive lens for considering the literary thematization of morally ambiguous experiences that do not comfortably fit into the categories of victim and perpetrator, a position recently labelled the ‘implicated subject’ by Michael Rothberg. Comparing the West German author Heinrich Böll’s novel Billard um halb zehn and the Soviet writer Vasilii Grossman’s Vse techet, I show how these texts emphasize the importance of individually reckoning with one’s implication in historical violence as a matter of personal integrity. I propose that developing strategies for ‘reading implication’ such as moral injury can foster ethical forms of transnational comparison.
Prior health promotion experience and intervention outcomes in a lay health advisor intervention
Authors: Woodard Nathaniel , Chen Chang , Huq Maisha R , He Xin , Knott Cheryl L
Published: June 2022

Training lay community members to implement health promotion interventions is an effective method to educate medically underserved populations. Some trainings are designed for individuals who already have a health-related background; however, others are developed for those with no previous health promotion experience. It is unknown whether those with backgrounds in health promotion are more effective in this role than those without. This study assessed the relationship between health promotion experience among trained community health advisors (CHAs) and their self-efficacy to implement an evidence-based cancer control intervention, as well as cancer knowledge and screening behavior outcomes among intervention participants. Data were collected from 66 trained CHAs and 269 participants in CHA-led cancer awareness and early detection workshops. CHAs reported high self-efficacy to implement the intervention independent of their health promotion experience. CHA health promotion experience was neither indicative of differences in participant colorectal or breast cancer knowledge at 12 months, nor of changes in participant-reported cancer screening. However, participant prostate cancer knowledge at 12 months was greater when taught by CHAs with previous health promotion experience (P < 0.01). Prior health promotion experience of trained health advisors may not be pivotal across all contexts, but they may affect specific knowledge outcomes.
Development and validation of a Perceived Relocation Stress Scale for older individuals transferred to long-term care facilities in Taiwan
Authors: Chen Shu-Ming , Wu Chiung-Jung
Published: June 2022

Background

The aim of the current study was to develop and validate a Perceived Relocation Stress Scale.

Methods

A cross-sectional research design was used. A total of 175 older adults residing in long-term care facilities in Southern Taiwan for at least 1 y were recruited. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to examine item convergent and discriminant validity. Concurrent validity was checked using the Depression Anxiety and Stress scale. The reliability was analyzed using Cronbach's alpha and intraclass correlation coefficients.

Results

The face and content validity of the scale were verified by adequately measuring the scale items. Factor analysis consisted of four components (challenge/chance, positive appraisal, threat, loss), with a total variance of 67.35%. The content validity was determined by an expert panel to systematically examine the relevance of all items. The results of item convergent and discriminant validity supported the constructs of the scale. The alpha coefficient for the overall scale was .958, indicating good internal consistency reliability.

Conclusions

The Perceived Relocation Stress Scale is a reliable and valid measurement to assess the stress perceived by older individuals being transferred to a long-term care facility.