bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Fully Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical Model for Methane Hydrate Bearing Sediments Considering the Effect of Ice
Authors: Cheng Fanbao , Sun Xiang , Wu Peng , Chen Zhixiang , Yu Tao , Liu Weiguo , Ju Xin , Li Yanghui
Published: March 2023

The ice generation is one of the challenges facing the methane hydrate depressurization, which, however, has not been fully addressed by existing numerical models for hydrate-bearing sediments (HBS). In this study, we develop a high-fidelity, fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical numerical model that incorporates the effect of ice. The model, developed using COMSOL, takes into account water–ice phase change, thermally induced cryogenic suction and constitutive relation in HBS. It is verified well against the temperature, pressure and cumulative gas production of Masuda’s experiment. The model is then employed to investigate multiphysical responses and gas/water production when ice generation is induced by setting a low outlet pressure. The results reveal that ice forms near the outlet boundary of the specimen center, leading to a reduction in intrinsic permeability and fluid velocity and an increase in the bulk modulus of ice-HBS. This enhanced bulk modulus results in higher porosity under axial load. Although the exothermic effect of ice generation promotes the hydrate dissociation, the effect on cumulative gas production is negligible after the ice melts. A negative correlation between ice saturation and water production rate is observed, indicating that a higher gas–water ratio can be achieved by adjusting the ice duration during hydrate production. The developed coupled model proves to be crucial for understanding the effect of ice on hydrate exploitation.
Coastal Wetlands
Authors: Navarro Nuria , Rodríguez-Santalla Inmaculada
Published: March 2023

Coastal wetlands are valuable and sensitive environments that are among the most productive yet highly threatened systems in the world [...]
Genome-Wide Characterization of Effector Protein-Encoding Genes in Sclerospora graminicola and Its Validation in Response to Pearl Millet Downy Mildew Disease Stress
Authors: Hadimani Shiva , De Britto Savitha , Udayashankar Arakere C. , Geetha Nagaraj , Nayaka Chandra S. , Ali Daoud , Alarifi Saud , Ito Shin-ichi , Jogaiah Sudisha
Published: March 2023

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is the essential food crop for over ninety million people living in drier parts of India and South Africa. Pearl millet crop production is harshly hindered by numerous biotic stresses. Sclerospora graminicola causes downy mildew disease in pearl millet. Effectors are the proteins secreted by several fungi and bacteria that manipulate the host cell structure and function. This current study aims to identify genes encoding effector proteins from the S. graminicola genome and validate them through molecular techniques. In silico analyses were employed for candidate effector prediction. A total of 845 secretory transmembrane proteins were predicted, out of which 35 proteins carrying LxLFLAK (Leucine–any amino acid–Phenylalanine–Leucine–Alanine–Lysine) motif were crinkler, 52 RxLR (Arginine, any amino acid, Leucine, Arginine), and 17 RxLR-dEER putative effector proteins. Gene validation analysis of 17 RxLR-dEER effector protein-producing genes was carried out, of which 5genes were amplified on the gel. These novel gene sequences were submitted to NCBI. This study is the first report on the identification and characterization of effector genes in Sclerospora graminicola. This dataset will aid in the integration of effector classes that act independently, paving the way to investigate how pearl millet responds to effector protein interactions. These results will assist in identifying functional effector proteins involving the omic approach using newer bioinformatics tools to protect pearl millet plants against downy mildew stress. Considered together, the identified effector protein-encoding functional genes can be utilized in screening oomycetes downy mildew diseases in other crops across the globe.
The Conversation around COVID-19 on Twitter—Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modelling to Analyse Tweets Published in English during the First Wave of the Pandemic
Authors: Amores Javier J. , Blanco-Herrero David , Arcila-Calderón Carlos
Published: March 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted societies all over the world. In an interconnected and digital global society, social media was the platform not only to convey information and recommendations but also to discuss the pandemic and its consequences. Focusing on the phase of stabilization during the first wave of the pandemic in Western countries, this work analyses the conversation around it through tweets in English. For that purpose, the authors have studied who the most active and influential accounts were, identified the most frequent words in the sample, conducted topic modelling, and researched the predominant sentiments. It was observed that the conversation followed two main lines: a more political and controversial one, which can be exemplified by the relevant presence of former US President Donald Trump, and a more informational one, mostly concerning recommendations to fight the virus, represented by the World Health Organization. In general, sentiments were predominantly neutral due to the abundance of information.
Breast Density Evaluation According to BI-RADS 5th Edition on Digital Breast Tomosynthesis: AI Automated Assessment Versus Human Visual Assessment
Authors: Tari Daniele Ugo , Santonastaso Rosalinda , De Lucia Davide Raffaele , Santarsiere Marika , Pinto Fabio
Published: March 2023

Background: The assessment of breast density is one of the main goals of radiologists because the masking effect of dense fibroglandular tissue may affect the mammographic identification of lesions. The BI-RADS 5th Edition has revised the mammographic breast density categories, focusing on a qualitative evaluation rather than a quantitative one. Our purpose is to compare the concordance of the automatic classification of breast density with the visual assessment according to the latest available classification. Methods: A sample of 1075 digital breast tomosynthesis images from women aged between 40 and 86 years (58 ± 7.1) was retrospectively analyzed by three independent readers according to the BI-RADS 5th Edition. Automated breast density assessment was performed on digital breast tomosynthesis images with the Quantra software version 2.2.3. Interobserver agreement was assessed with kappa statistics. The distributions of breast density categories were compared and correlated with age. Results: The agreement on breast density categories was substantial to almost perfect between radiologists (κ = 0.63–0.83), moderate to substantial between radiologists and the Quantra software (κ = 0.44–0.78), and the consensus of radiologists and the Quantra software (κ = 0.60–0.77). Comparing the assessment for dense and non-dense breasts, the agreement was almost perfect in the screening age range without a statistically significant difference between concordant and discordant cases when compared by age. Conclusions: The categorization proposed by the Quantra software has shown a good agreement with the radiological evaluations, even though it did not completely reflect the visual assessment. Thus, clinical decisions regarding supplemental screening should be based on the radiologist’s perceived masking effect rather than the data produced exclusively by the Quantra software.
Genetic Screening Reveals Heterogeneous Clinical Phenotypes in Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Troponin T2 Variants
Authors: Weis Angelika , Krueck Svenja , Dombrowsky Gregor , Schänzer Anne , Jux Christian , Uebing Anselm , Voges Inga , Hitz Marc-Phillip , Rupp Stefan
Published: March 2023

Background: Cardiomyopathies (CMs) are a heterogeneous and severe group of diseases that shows a highly variable cardiac phenotype and an incidence of app. 1/100.000. Genetic screening of family members is not yet performed routinely. Patients and methods: Three families with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and pathogenic variants in the troponin T2, Cardiac Type (TNNT2) gene were included. Pedigrees and clinical data of the patients were collected. The reported variants in the TNNT2 gene showed a high penetrance and a poor outcome, with 8 of 16 patients dying or receiving heart transplantation. The age of onset varied from the neonatal period to the age of 52. Acute heart failure and severe decompensation developed within a short period in some patients. Conclusion: Family screening of patients with DCM improves risk assessment, especially for individuals who are currently asymptomatic. Screening contributes to improved treatment by enabling practitioners to set appropriate control intervals and quickly begin interventional measures, such as heart failure medication or, in selected cases, pulmonary artery banding.
All of Us and the Promise of Precision Medicine: Achieving Equitable Access for Federally Qualified Health Center Patients
Authors: Neuhaus Carolyn P. , Pacia Danielle M. , Crane Johanna T. , Maschke Karen J. , Berlinger Nancy
Published: March 2023

The United States National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) All of Us (AoU) initiative recruits participants from diverse backgrounds to improve the makeup of biobanks, considering nearly all biospecimens used in research come from people of European ancestry. Participants who join AoU consent to provide samples of blood, urine, and/or saliva and to submit their electronic health record to the program. In addition to diversifying precision medicine research studies, AoU will return genetic results back to many participants, which may require further follow-up care (i.e., more frequent cancer screening or mastectomy after a BRCA result). To help achieve its goals, AoU has partnered with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), which is a type of community health center whose patient base is comprised largely of people who are uninsured, underinsured, or on Medicaid. Our NIH-funded study convened FQHC providers involved in AoU to better understand precision medicine in community health settings. Drawing from our findings, we present barriers community health patients and their providers face when accessing diagnostics and specialty care after genetic results necessitate medical follow-up care. We also propose several policy and financial recommendations to help overcome the challenges discussed, stemming from a commitment to equitable access to precision medicine advances.
A Connectivity Approach to Agricultural Diffuse Pollution in Tropical Montane Catchments Dominated by Swidden Landscapes
Authors: Sandevoir Luc , Lespez Laurent , Lissak Candide
Published: March 2023

Shifting cultivation is widely practiced in many tropical mountainous watersheds. Agricultural practices are changing with the intensification of activities and the development of industrial monocultures associated with increasing land use and the use of pesticides and fertilisers. These changes have consequences for the evolution of sediment transfers in watersheds, resulting in new vulnerabilities for the inhabitants. This article shows the evolution of structural connectivity over 5 years in the village of Houaylack-Vangven, located in northern Laos, and its potential links with agricultural diffuse pollution. To develop a structural source-to-sink model to understand sediment transfers, our method was based on open-access data and various geographical tools. Field surveys were conducted to identify areas vulnerable to erosion and sediment transfers. The sources and sinks were then located using remote sensing techniques and image interpretation to then characterise connectivity rates. Finally, the relationship between the sources and sinks was analysed by graph theory to explore the potentialities for assessing the connectivity and exposure of sediment sinks. The main results are twofold: sinks coincide with areas at risk of contamination by pesticides and fertilisers, and the structural connectivity increases with the increasing of the source surfaces (swidden plots) due to the ongoing agricultural transition.
Rethinking North–South Research Partnerships Amidst Global Uncertainties: Leveraging Lessons Learned from UK GCRF Projects during COVID-19
Authors: Anghileri Daniela , Kandel Matt , Austen Melanie C. , Cheung Vikki V. , Coskeran Helen , Devenish Adam J. M. , Dunlop Patrick S. M. , Dzodzomenyo Mawuli , Goh Hong C. , Mwamakamba Sithembile , Ross Vanessa , Spafford John , Yeki Precious , Agaba Genevieve
Published: March 2023

International research and development projects (or grand challenge projects) consist of multicultural, multi-country, multi-sectoral, and multi-stakeholder initiatives aimed at poverty reduction. They are usually conceived as partnerships between actors in the global north–south. The COVID-19 pandemic was a major unexpected disruption to ongoing projects and challenged their already complex management. The aim of this paper is to present evidence on how international development projects were impacted by COVID-19 with a particular focus on the relationship between research institutions in the north and south. We conducted a mixed-methods research study, combining a reflective exercise with the co-author team and a survey with principal investigators, project managers, and capacity development leads drawn from 31 Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) projects funded through the UK government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) and focused on social–ecological system research. The survey contained closed- and open-ended questions in order to (i) demonstrate how those involved in managing projects adapted to risks, including both threats and opportunities, presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, and (ii) consider the implications for tailoring adaptive management approaches in international research projects amidst uncertainties, with a special focus on enhancing equities in global north–south partnerships. The paper offers the following recommendations on designing, planning, and implementing international research and development projects: (i) devolve project management in order to enhance project resilience and improve north–south equities; (ii) allocate dedicated resources to enable equitable north–south research partnerships; (iii) rely more on hybrid and agile approaches for managing a project’s life cycle; and (iv) improve resource flexibility, transparency, and communication through enhanced funder–implementer collaboration.
Institutional Diversity or Isomorphism? Research on the Evolution of Collective-Owned Construction Land Marketization Reform since the 1990s—The Case of Shunde and Wujiang, China
Authors: Xu Gaofeng , Liu Jian
Published: March 2023

Collective-owned construction land (CCL) marketization is an important driving force for the rapid development of China’s rural economy and society. Recognizing the trends and logic of its institutional changes is important for better understanding the central-local interrelation and the new-round CCL reform. Throughout the process of rural land reform since China’s reform and opening up, together with the unified policy guidance from the central government, the diversity of local practices and the trend of convergence in the development process deserve attention. Based on the institutional isomorphism theory, this paper analyzes the evolution of the CCL system in Shunde, Guangdong Province, and Wujiang, Jiangsu Province, since the 1990s, empirically demonstrating the trend of convergence based on diversity and exploring the underlying influencing mechanisms. The study finds that the evolutionary practice is characterized by the trend of ephemeral convergence represented by the shared cooperative and the land reservation reform and that of coeval convergence represented by the construction land nationalization. Top-down coercive pressure, horizontal imitative learning pressure, and governance-embedded normative pressure jointly shape the evolutionary convergence. This paper argues that the diversity of local experiments should be allowed and encouraged based on local characteristics. Policy flexibility should be further considered by the central government when formulating uniform policies for local adaptability.
Analysis of the Spatial–Temporal Pattern of the Newly Increased Cultivated Land and Its Vulnerability in Northeast China
Authors: Du Guoming , Wang Xiaoyang , Wang Jieyong , Liu Yaqun , Zhang Haonan
Published: March 2023

Ensuring compliance with China’s “1.8 billion mu” (120 million hectares) cultivated land preservation policy is a fundamental goal of land policy. Northeast China has experienced significant cultivated land expansion due to rigorous compensation policies over the past two decades, resulting in sustainable increases in grain output. This research employs remote sensing data to examine the spatial–temporal pattern and vulnerability of newly increased cultivated land expansion in Northeast China and its potential impact on food security. Results indicate a 3.08% increase in newly increased cultivated land from 2000 to 2020, with the majority located in the Sanjiang Plain’s humid area and Inner Mongolia’s arid and semi-arid regions. The low quality of newly added cultivated land makes it highly vulnerable. Temperature instability significantly and negatively correlates with cultivated land expansion. The vulnerability of cultivated land is negatively and significantly related to grain yield, suggesting an adverse impact on national food security. This study focuses on the marginal impact of newly increased cultivated land and proposes policy recommendations.
Land Transfer or Trusteeship: Can Agricultural Production Socialization Services Promote Grain Scale Management?
Authors: Zhou Ziming , Zhang Kaihua , Wu Haitao , Liu Chen , Yu Zhiming
Published: March 2023

Grain Scale Management (GSM) is a crucial factor in ensuring national food security. However, in countries facing rigid resource constraints and complex land tenure relationships, the strategy of promoting large-scale grain management through land management rights transfer may not be sustainable. Therefore, based on the traditional agricultural division of labor theory, we analyze the mechanism and rationality of Agricultural Production Socialization Services (APSS) with scale characteristics to promote GSM and propose a new approach to GSM with empirical evidence from China. Using county-level panel data from Hubei province spanning from 2010 to 2021, we construct a multi-period double difference model based on the difference in the time of the establishment of pilot agricultural production socialization service counties in Hubei province. Our empirical results demonstrate the role of APSS in promoting GSM at the macro level. Specifically, the establishment of pilot counties for APSS significantly improves the level of local GSM. Furthermore, our study reveals that the degree of local financial intervention, regional industrial structure, and regional topography have heterogeneous effects on the implementation of the policy.
Laparoscopic Hartmann Procedure—A Surgery That Still Saves Lives
Authors: Bradea Costel , Tarcoveanu Eugen , Munteanu Valentina , Lupascu Cristian Dumitru , Andriesi-Rusu Florina Delia , Ciobanu Delia Gabriela , Vasilescu Alin Mihai
Published: March 2023

Background: A Hartmann operation, which is the intervention by which the lower part of the sigmoid and the upper part of the rectum are resected with the closing of the rectal stump and end colostomy, has as its indications: advanced or complicated rectosigmoid neoplasm, moderate biological condition of the patient, peritoneal sepsis, intestinal occlusion and fragile colonic wall, especially in the context of inflammatory changes. The Hartmann procedure can save lives even at the cost of a stoma reversal failure. Methods: The cases operated with the Hartmann procedure by an open approach or laparoscopic approach in our clinic, between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2020, were admitted in this study and their medical records were reviewed, also making a comparison between the two types of approach. Univariate statistical comparisons but also a multivariate analysis was performed. Results: We performed 985 operations for intestinal and colonic occlusion (7.15% of the total operations in the clinic), 531 (54%) were non-tumor occlusions and 454 (46%) were occlusive tumors (88 Hartmann operations). Of these, 7.3% were laparoscopically performed (7 laparoscopic Hartmann operations and 23 diagnostic laparoscopies). A total of 11 cases (18%) also had colonic perforation. We compared laparoscopic Hartmann with open Hartmann and observed the benefits of laparoscopy for postoperative morbidity and mortality. The presence of pulmonary and cardiac morbidities is associated with the occurrence of general postoperative morbidities, while peritonitis is statistically significantly associated with the occurrence of local complications that are absent after the laparoscopic approach. Conclusions: The Hartmann procedure is still nowadays an operation widely used in emergency situations. Laparoscopy may become standard for the Hartmann procedure and reversal of the Hartmann procedure, but the percentage of laparoscopy remains low due to advanced or complicated colorectal cancer, poor general condition both at the first and second intervention, and the difficulties of reversal of the Hartmann procedure.
Successful Treatment of Infertility in a Patient with Probable 17 Hydroxylase Deficiency and Particularities of Association with Adrenal Autoimmunity—A Case Report and Review of the Literature
Authors: Albu Alice Ioana , Iancu Mirela Elena , Albu Dragos Nicolae
Published: March 2023

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 17-hydroxylase deficiency (17OHD) is a rare disease accounting for less than 1% of cases of CAH. In female patients, fertility is severely affected mainly due to constantly increased progesterone affecting endometrium receptivity and implantation. The optimal treatment for infertility in these patients is not clearly established, with only a few recent case reports of successful pregnancies available in the literature. Hereby, we present the case of an infertile female patient with 17OHD who obtained pregnancy through an in vitro fertilization (IVF) freeze-all strategy and particularities of association with adrenal autoimmunity. A 32-year-old infertile female patient was referred for infertility evaluation and treatment. She had normal sex development and menstrual history with oligomenorrhea alternating with normal menstrual cycles. During the evaluation, a reduced ovarian reserve and obstruction of the left fallopian tube were identified, and IVF treatment was recommended. During a controlled ovarian stimulation for IVF, increased values of serum progesterone were observed; thus, all the embryos were frozen and additional tests were performed. Increased values of 17-hydroxyprogesteron, 11-deoxycorticosteron, and adrenocorticotropic hormones in association with low basal and stimulated serum cortisol, testosterone, androstenedione, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate were found, supporting the presence of 17OHD. She started treatment with oral hydrocortisone given at 20 mg/day but, because follicular phase serum progesterone remained high, hydrocortisone was replaced by an oral dexamethasone treatment of 0.5 mg/day, followed by the normalization of serum progesterone. A thawed blastocyst was transferred after preparation with oral estradiol at 6 mg/day and intravaginal progesterone at 600 mg/day under continuous suppression of endogenous progesterone production with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist and oral dexamethasone. The patient became pregnant and delivered two healthy girls at term. One year after delivery, the presence of 21-hydroxylase antibodies was detected, which might explain the particularities of adrenal steroids in our patient. Our case report demonstrates that a patient with 17OHD can become pregnant through IVF and the transfer of thawed embryos in a subsequent cycle under continuous suppression of adrenal and ovarian progesterone production.
Partial Denaturation of Double-Stranded DNA on Pristine Graphene under Physiological-like Conditions
Authors: Cruz Fernando J. A. L. , Mota José P. B.
Published: March 2023

Interactions between DNA and graphene are paramount for a wide range of applications, such as biosensing and nanoelectronics; nonetheless, the molecular details of such interactions remain largely unexplored. We employ atomically detailed molecular dynamics simulations with an enhanced sampling technique to investigate the adsorption and mobility of double-stranded DNA along the basal plane of graphene, in an electrolytic aqueous medium. The study focuses on physiologically relevant conditions, using a buffer of [NaCl] = 134 mM. DNA physisorption is shown to be fast and irreversible, leading to deformation and partial melting of the double helix as a result of π–π stacking between the terminal nucleobases and graphene. Denaturation occurs primarily at the termini, with ensemble averaged H-bond ratios of 47.8–62%; these can, however, reach a minimum of 15%. Transition between free-energy minima occurs via a thermodynamical pathway driving the nucleic acid from a radius of gyration of 1.5 nm to 1.35 nm. Mobility along the basal plane of graphene is dominant, accounting for ~90% of all centre-of-mass translation and revealing that the DNA’s apparent diffusivity is similar to diffusion along the endohedral volume of carbon nanotubes, but one order of magnitude faster than in other 2D materials, such as BC3 and C3N.
Research on Load-Sharing Technology of Toroidal Planetary Worm Based on Sliding Oil Film Supporting Roller
Authors: Mao Meijiao , Yang Shiping , Dong Mengyu , Li Min , Chen Xiaogao , Liu Xin , Qin Changjiang
Published: March 2023

In the manufacturing and assembly of a toroidal drive mechanism, errors have a great influence on the load sharing of the mechanism. In order to improve the load-sharing characteristics of the mechanism, a floating oil film structure system is designed to support the planetary gear and to compensate for inaccuracies in the manufacturing and assembly of the mechanism parts in this paper. The elasticity and hydrodynamic effect of the floating oil film allow the planetary gear to achieve its own small floatation and produce a certain axial displacement, which compensates for the influence of error and achieves load sharing. To examine the effect of the floating oil film structure, the floating oil film bearing is simulated by FLUENT, the characteristics of the floating oil film are analyzed, and the stiffness and damping coefficients of the floating oil film are calculated. In ADAMS, the method of equivalent replacement of the floating oil film with spring damping is adopted to conduct a dynamic analysis on the toroidal drive mechanism with the floating oil film load-sharing structure, and the results show that the system with a floating oil film structure can effectively compensate the influence of errors and improve the uniform load performance.
Scheme of Operation for Multi-Robot Systems with Decision-Making Based on Markov Chains for Manipulation by Caged Objects
Authors: Arreguín-Jasso Daniel , Sanchez-Orta Anand , Alazki Hussain
Published: March 2023

This paper presents the design of a new control scheme for a group of omnidirectional robots in a multi-robot system operating in an environment with obstacles. The control scheme uses a decision agent based on discrete-time Markov chains and takes into account the state of the system, obstacle positions, and geometries to manipulate targets, providing robustness against measurement uncertainties. The decision process is dynamic, with state information updating at each time step and tasks being executed based on the hierarchy determined by quadratic hierarchical programming. The system’s stability in the mean-square sense is analyzed through the study of a closed-loop stochastic system, and the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated through numerical simulations, including a comparative analysis with a finite-state machine decision agent.
Study of Solar Energetic Particle Events with Ulysses, ACE Observations and Numerical Simulations
Authors: Lian Lele , Qin Gang , Wang Yang , Cui Shuwang
Published: March 2023

We study the latitudinal extent of the near-relativistic electron events of 10 June 2000 and 26 December 2001, observed by both Ulysses and ACE. From the observations it is shown that the intensity of ACE was quite different from that of Ulysses. Through the numerical simulations, we obtain the SEPs time-intensity profiles, which generally fit well to the observations. To compare the observations we obtained the best fit parameters for the simulations. We suggest that the transport effects, especially the perpendicular diffusion effect, can cause the difference between the intensity profiles of ACE and Ulysses, which is dominated by particle transport at a large radial distance and high-latitude when a spacecraft has poor magnetic connection to the particle source. Furthermore, we present the particle source from the best fit parameters to show that the start and peak times of the particle sources are between the onset and max times of a flare in all the energy channels. Moreover, we propose models for the peak intensity and half width of the particle source, and the time interval from the flare onset to the particle source peak time. We show that the models generally agree with the best fit parameters.
A Comparative Investigation on the Microstructure and Thermal Resistance of W-Film Sensor Using dc Magnetron Sputtering and High-Power Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering
Authors: Huan Jing , Wu Zhengtao , Wang Qimin , Zhang Shihong , Kwon Se-Hun
Published: March 2023

Traditional dc magnetron sputtering has a low ionization rate when preparing metallic thin films. With the development of thin film science and the market demand for thin film material applications, it is necessary to improve the density of magnetron-sputtered films. High-power pulsed magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) technology is a physical vapor deposition technology with a high ionization rate and high energy. Therefore, in this work, HiPIMS was applied to prepare metallic tungsten films and compare the surface morphology and microstructure of metallic tungsten films deposited using HiPIMS and dc magnetron sputtering (dcMS) technology under different pulse lengths, as well as related thermal resistance performance, followed by annealing treatment for comparative analysis. We used AFM, SEM, XRD, and plasma characterization testing to comprehensively analyze the changes in the TCR value, stability, repeatability and other related performance of the metallic tungsten thin-film sensor deposited by the HiPIMS technology. It was determined that the thin film prepared by the HiPIMS method is denser, with fewer defects, and the film sensor was stable. The 400 °C annealed sample prepared using HiPIMS with a 100 μs pulse length reaches the largest recorded TCR values of 1.05 × 10−3 K−1. In addition, it shows better stability in repeated tests.
Fuzzy Rule Based Adaptive Block Compressive Sensing for WSN Application
Authors: Nayak Dibyalekha , Ray Kananbala , Kar Tejaswini , Mohanty Sachi Nandan
Published: March 2023

Transmission of high volume of data in a restricted wireless sensor network (WSN) has come up as a challenge due to high-energy consumption and larger bandwidth requirement. To address the issues of high-energy consumption and efficient data transmission adaptive block compressive sensing (ABCS) is one of the optimum solution. ABCS framework is well capable to adapt the sampling rate depending on the block’s features information that offers higher sampling rate for less compressible blocks and lower sampling rate for more compressible blocks In this paper, we have proposed a novel fuzzy rule based adaptive compressive sensing approach by leveraging the saliency and the edge features of the image making the sampling rate selection completely automatic. Adaptivity of the block sampling ratio has been decided based on the fuzzy logic system (FLS) by considering two important features i.e., edge and saliency information. The proposed framework is experimented on standard dataset, Kodak data set, CCTV images and the Set5 data set images. It achieved an average PSNR of 34.26 and 33.2 and an average SSIM of 0.87 and 0.865 for standard images and CCTV images respectively. Again for high resolution Kodak data set and Set 5 dataset images, it achieved an average PSNR of 32.95 and 31.72 and SSIM of 0.832 and 0.8 respectively. The experiments and the result analysis show that proposed method is efficacious than the state of the art methods in both subjective and objective evaluation metrics.
Dynamics Analysis for the Random Homogeneous Biased Assimilation Model
Authors: Zhang Jiangbo , Zhao Yiyi
Published: March 2023

This paper studies the evolution of opinions over random social networks subject to individual biases. An agent reviews the opinion of a randomly selected one and then updates its opinion under homogeneous biased assimilation. This study investigates the impact of biased assimilation on random opinion networks, which is different from the previous studies on fixed network structures. If the bias parameters are static, it is proven that the event in which all agents converge to extreme opinions happens almost surely. Next, the opinion polarization event is proved to be a probability one event. While if the bias parameters are dynamic, the opinion evolution is proven to depend on early finite time slots for the dynamical individual bias parameter functions independent of the biased parameter values after the time threshold. Numerical simulations further show that opinion evolution depends on early finite time slots for some nonlinear dynamical individual bias parameter functions.
Credit Market Freedom and Corporate Decisions
Authors: Iona Alfonsina , Calef Andrea , Georgiou Ifigenia
Published: March 2023

In this paper, we investigate whether and to what extent credit market freedom affects a firm’s target level of investment, cash holdings, and leverage. To do so, we generalize the standard empirical models, commonly used in the finance literature to estimate those targets, in order to incorporate credit market freedom into the set of regressors. We estimate three augmented models on a large and heterogeneous sample of North American nonfinancial firms over the period 2000–2019. Our empirical results suggest that greater credit market freedom is associated with a healthier corporate capital structure, higher financial flexibility, and a friendlier investment environment. Our paper contributes to both economic freedom and finance literatures by investigating an unexplored issue in economics and corporate finance research. In addition, it informs policymakers that promoting financial reforms that increase credit market freedom can boost a country’s economic growth.
Universities as an External Knowledge Source for Industry: Investigating the Antecedents’ Impact on the Importance Perception of Their Collaboration in Open Innovation Using an Ordinal Regression-Neural Network Approach
Authors: Băban Marius , Băban Călin Florin , Mitran Tudor
Published: March 2023

Within the highly complex ecosystem of industry-university collaboration in open innovation, three specific antecedents typically characterize the patterns of their interaction, i.e., motivations, barriers, and channels of knowledge transfer. However, an investigation of the extent to which these antecedents of opening up innovation impact the perceived importance of universities as an external knowledge source to the industry is still missing in the literature. Based on a research framework developed from a review of the literature, a two-stage ordinal regression, and neural network approach was performed to investigate this impact. In the first stage, the hypotheses of the proposed research framework were tested based on an ordinal regression, and those antecedents that significantly impacted the importance perception were revealed. In the second stage, an artificial neural network analysis was carried out to capture the complex relationships among the significant antecedents and the important perception of universities as an external knowledge source to the industry. On the whole, the findings of our study expand the existing open innovation literature and contribute to a more articulate view of the collaboration between industry and university in this field by providing a first perspective on which of the three antecedents has a significant impact on this perception and how such an impact can be predicted.
Choice of Solutions in the Design of Complex Energy Systems Based on the Analysis of Variants with Interval Weights
Authors: Eroshenko Stanislav A. , Pastushkov Alexander A. , Romanov Mikhail P. , Romanov Alexey M.
Published: March 2023

Ensuring high-quality and uninterrupted power supply to consumers is one of the main problems of creating reliable power systems of a new generation. It is associated with the implementation of an integral assessment of the technical state of equipment of the power stations and substations, based on technical diagnostics data. Integral assessment involves the choice of ranges of the set of parameters of the technical state for groups of constituent elements of equipment, as well as the determination of their weight coefficients. Currently, the problem is solved with the help of expert assessments, arbitrarily in each specific case, which may lead to an incorrect integral assessment of the state of the equipment. The principle of decomposition makes it possible to determine the individual performance characteristics of each of them. At the same time, their subsequent aggregation ensures that the emergent properties of the system are taken into account. Such an approach was used in this work to evaluate individual types of equipment and their constituent elements. The algorithm for constructing a tree with a minimum random weight, proposed in this paper, makes it possible to increase the validity of decisions. They are made at various stages of designing complex technical systems and include tasks with an integral assessment of the technical state of equipment of power plants and substations. In the proposed algorithm, as a result of using the tree of variants, a matroid is formed, on which, using the “greedy” algorithm, the optimal solution can be determined.
Minimization of the Compliance under a Nonlocal p-Laplacian Constraint
Authors: Andrés Fuensanta , Castaño Damián , Muñoz Julio
Published: March 2023

This work is an extension of the paper by Cea and Malanowski to the nonlocal and nonlinear framework. The addressed topic is the study of an optimal control problem driven by a nonlocal p-Laplacian equation that includes a coefficient playing the role of control in the optimization problem. The cost functional is the compliance, and the constraint on the states are of the Dirichlet homogeneous type. The goal of the present work is a numerical scheme for the nonlocal optimal control problem and its use to approximate solutions in the local setting. The main contributions of the paper are a maximum principle and a uniqueness result. These findings and the monotonicity properties of the p-Laplacian operator have been crucial to building an effective numerical scheme, which, at the same time, has provided the existence of optimal designs. Several numerical simulations complete the work.
Reinforcement Learning-Enabled Electric Vehicle Load Forecasting for Grid Energy Management
Authors: Zulfiqar M. , Alshammari Nahar F. , Rasheed M. B.
Published: March 2023

Electric vehicles are anticipated to be essential components of future energy systems, as they possess the capability to assimilate surplus energy generated by renewable sources. With the increasing popularity of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), conventional internal combustion engine (ICE)-based vehicles are expected to be gradually phased out, thereby decreasing greenhouse gases and reliance on foreign oil. Intensive research and development efforts across the globe are currently concentrated on developing effective PHEV charging solutions that can efficiently cater to the charging needs of PHEVs, while simultaneously minimizing their detrimental effects on the power infrastructure. Efficient PHEV charging strategies and technologies are necessary to overcome the obstacles presented. Forecasting PHEV charging loads provides a solution by enabling energy delivery to power systems based on anticipated future loads. We have developed a novel approach, utilizing machine learning methods, for accurately forecasting PHEV charging loads at charging stations across three phases of powering (smart, non-cooperative, and cooperative). The proposed Q-learning method outperforms conventional AI techniques, such as recurrent neural and artificial neural networks, in accurately forecasting PHEV loads for various charging scenarios. The findings indicate that the Q-learning method effectively predicts PHEV loads in three scenarios: smart, non-cooperative, and cooperative. Compared to the ANN and RNN models, the forecast precision of the QL model is higher by 31.2% and 40.7%, respectively. The Keras open-source set was utilized to simulate three different approaches and evaluate the efficacy and worth of the suggested Q-learning technique.
Evaluating the Nephrotoxicity of Area-under-the-Curve-Based Dosing of Vancomycin with Concomitant Antipseudomonal Beta-Lactam Antibiotics: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Chiu Chia-Yu , Sarwal Amara
Published: March 2023

Background and Objectives: Vancomycin combined with piperacillin/tazobactam (vancomycin + piperacillin/tazobactam) has a higher risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) than vancomycin combined with cefepime or meropenem. However, it is uncertain if applying area under the curve (AUC)-based vancomycin dosing has less nephrotoxicity than trough-based dosing in these combinations. Materials and Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov from inception to December 2022. We examined the odds ratio (OR) of AKI between vancomycin + piperacillin/tazobactam and the control group. The control group was defined as vancomycin combined with antipseudomonal beta-lactam antibiotics, except for piperacillin-tazobactam. Results: The OR for AKI is significantly higher in vancomycin + piperacillin/tazobactam compared with the control group (3 studies, 866 patients, OR of 3.861, 95% confidence interval of 2.165 to 6.887, p < 0.05). In the sample population of patients who received vancomycin + piperacillin/tazobactam (2 studies, 536 patients), the risk of AKI (OR of 0.715, 95% CI of 0.439 to 1.163, p = 0.177) and daily vancomycin dose (standard mean difference—0.139, 95% CI—0.458 to 0.179; p = 0.392) are lower by AUC-based dosing than trough-based dosing, although it is not statistically significant. Conclusions: Nephrotoxicity is higher when combined with piperacillin/tazobactam than other antipseudomonal beta-lactam antibiotics (cefepime or meropenem) using the AUC-based dosing. However, applying the AUC-based dosing did not eliminate the risk of AKI or significantly reduce thedaily vancomycin dose compared with the trough-based dosing in the available literature.
Comparative Study of Different Ion-Exchange Membrane Types in Diffusion Dialysis for the Separation of Sulfuric Acid and Nickel Sulfate
Authors: Loza Sergey , Loza Natalia , Kovalchuk Nikita , Romanyuk Nazar , Loza Julia
Published: March 2023

The possibility of using various types of ion-exchange membranes in diffusion dialysis for the separation of sulfuric acid and nickel sulfate has been evaluated. The process of the dialysis separation of a real waste solution from an electroplating facility containing 252.3 g/L of sulfuric acid, 20.9 g/L of nickel ions and small amounts of zinc, iron, copper ions, etc. has been studied. Heterogeneous cation-exchange membrane containing sulfonic groups and heterogeneous anion-exchange membranes with different thicknesses (from 145 μm to 550 μm) and types of fixed groups (four samples with quaternary ammonium base and one sample with secondary and tertiary amines) have been used. The diffusion fluxes of sulfuric acid, nickel sulfate, and the total and osmotic fluxes of the solvent have been determined. The use of a cation-exchange membrane does not allow the separation of the components, since the fluxes of both components are low and comparable in magnitude. The use of anion-exchange membranes makes it possible to efficiently separate sulfuric acid and nickel sulfate. Anion-exchange membranes with quaternary ammonium groups are more effective in the diffusion dialysis process, while the thin membrane turns out to be the most effective.
Fabrication of a Zircon Microfiltration Membrane for Culture Medium Sterilization
Authors: Khebli Zineb , Bouzerara Ferhat , Brihi Nourddine , Figoli Alberto , Russo Francesca , Galiano Francesco , Chahredine Sadek
Published: March 2023

Multilayer ceramic membranes to be used for bacteria removal by filtration were prepared from ceramic materials. They consist of a macro-porous carrier, an intermediate layer and a thin separation layer at the top. Tubular and flat disc supports were prepared from silica sand and calcite (natural raw materials), using extrusion and uniaxial pressing methods, respectively. Making use of the slip casting technique, the silica sand intermediate layer and the zircon top-layer were deposited on the supports, in this order. The particle size and the sintering temperature for each layer were optimized to achieve a suitable pore size for the deposition of the next layer. Morphology, microstructures, pore characteristics, strength and permeability were also studied. Filtration tests were conducted to optimize the permeation performance of the membrane. Experimental results show that the total porosity and average pore size of the porous ceramic supports sintered at different temperatures within the range (1150–1300 °C), and lie in the ranges of 44–52% and 5–30 μm, respectively. For the ZrSiO4 top-layer, after firing at 1190 °C, a typical average pore size of about 0.3 μm and a thickness of about 70 μm were measured, while water permeability is estimated to a value of 440 lh−1m−2bar−1. Finally, the optimized membranes were tested in the sterilization of a culture medium. Filtration results show the efficiency of the zircon-deposited membranes for bacteria removal; indeed, the growth medium was found to be free of all microorganisms.
Investigation of the Porosity Gradient in Thickness Direction Formed by Cold Rolling in Porous Aluminum
Authors: Tychsen Jörn , Rösler Joachim
Published: March 2023

To adapt porous material for its application as low noise trailing edge, a special rolling process, using a time-varied rolling gap, was used in previous research to produce a porosity gradient in the direction of rolling. Investigations suggest that a gradient in porosity may also be produced in the thickness direction of the material, i.e., in the rolling gap direction, without using a specialized rolling mill. Such a gradient may help to further increase acoustic efficiency of porous materials. The aim of this study was to analyze the dependency of such a gradient on the rolling parameters, and to clarify which stress components are significantly responsible for an increased near-surface compaction. Experiments using different relative compressed lengths were performed to analyze shear-dominated and friction-dominated rolling. The material was characterized using compression tests, computed tomography and flow resistance measurements. It is shown that the compressed length is an important parameter for adjusting a porosity gradient. Rolling with small values of compressed length during all rolling passes leads to increased compaction of near-surface regions, compared to interior ones. The difference in porosity achieved was up to 15%. Furthermore, the results suggested that a gradient in hydrostatic stress is responsible for the porosity gradient. Validation of the results by FE simulation is forthcoming, but not part of this publication.