bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Durability Indicators for Sustainable Self-Consolidating High-Strength Concrete Incorporating Palm Oil Fuel Ash
Authors: Salam Md. Abdus , Safiuddin Md. , Jumaat Mohd. Zamin
Published: July 2021

This paper presents the durability indicators for sustainable self-consolidating high-strength concrete (SCHSC) including palm oil fuel ash (POFA) as a supplementary cementing material (SCM). SCHSC mixes were prepared by varying the water to binder (W/B) ratio and POFA content. The W/B ratio was varied in the range of 0.25 to 0.40, and the POFA content differed in the range of 10–30% to produce the desired SCHSC mixes. The tests conducted on the freshly mixed SCHSCs to evaluate their filling ability, passing ability, and segregation resistance were slump flow, J-ring flow, and sieve segregation, respectively. To evaluate the durability of the hardened SCHSCs, the compressive strength, water absorption, and permeable porosity were examined along with the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). The correlations between different hardened properties were derived to ascertain the durability indicators for sustainable SCHSCs. It was observed that most of the SCHSCs possessed excellent filling ability and passing ability with adequate segregation resistance. The test results also revealed that the compressive strength and UPV increased, whereas the water absorption and permeable porosity decreased with a lower W/B ratio and a higher amount of POFA (up to 20% weight content). Moreover, strong correlations were found between the different hardened properties of SCHSC. These correlations were used to determine the durability indicators for sustainable SCHSC with respect to compressive strength, permeable porosity, and water absorption. In accordance with the derived durability indicators, the sustainable SCHSC mixes produced in this study had the durability levels varying from “high” to “outstanding”.
A Study of High Frequency Ultrasound Scattering from Non-nucleated Biological Specimens
Authors: Falou Omar , Baddour Ralph E. , Nathanael George , Czarnota Gregory J. , Kumaradas Carl , Kolios Michael
Published: July 2021

The high frequency backscatter from cells with a nucleus to cell volume ratio of 0.50 cannot be adequately modeled as a homogeneous sphere. It was hypothesized that the cytoplasm of such cells is of fluid nature. This work attempts to model the ultrasound backscatter (10–62 MHz) from some non-nucleated biological specimens. This was done by measuring the backscatter response from individual sea urchin oocytes and comparing it to theoretical predictions in both the time and frequency domains. A good agreement was found between the experimental and theoretical results suggesting that the non-nucleated oocytes are of fluid nature.
Improved parameter estimation of the line-based transformation model for remote sensing image registration
Authors: Abdelrahman Ahmed , Easa Said M. , Yan Wai Yeung
Published: July 2021

The line-based transformation model (LBTM), built upon the use of affine transformation, was previously proposed for image registration and image rectification. The original LBTM first utilizes the control line features to estimate six rotation and scale parameters and subsequently uses the control point(s) to retrieve the remaining two translation parameters. Such a mechanism may accumulate the error of the six rotation and scale parameters toward the two translation parameters. In this study, we propose the incorporation of a direct method to estimate all eight transformation parameters of LBTM simultaneously using least-squares adjustment. The improved LBTM method was compared with the original LBTM through using one synthetic dataset and three experimental datasets for satellite image 2D registration and 3D rectification. The experimental results demonstrated that the improved LBTM converges to a steady solution with two to three ground control points (GCPs) and five ground control lines (GCLs), whereas the original LBTM requires at least 10 GCLs to yield a stable solution.

Keywords: image registration; image rectification; remote sensing; ground control lines; line-based transformation model
Gene Network Landscape of the Ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila
Authors: Xiong Jie , Yuan Dongxia , Fillingham Jeffrey S , Garg Jyoti , Lu Xingyi , Chang Yue , Liu Yifan , Fu Chengjie , Pealman Ronald E , Miao Wei
Published: July 2021

Background: Genome-wide expression data of gene microarrays can be used to infer gene networks. At a cellular level, a gene network provides a picture of the modules in which genes are densely connected, and of the hub genes, which are highly connected with other genes. A gene network is useful to identify the genes involved in the same pathway, in a protein complex or that are co-regulated. In this study, we used different methods to find gene networks in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila, and describe some important properties of this network, such as modules and hubs. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using 67 single channel microarrays, we constructed the Tetrahymena gene network (TGN) using three methods: the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), the Spearman correlation coefficient (SCC) and the context likelihood of relatedness (CLR) algorithm. The accuracy and coverage of the three networks were evaluated using four conserved protein complexes in yeast. The CLR network with a Z-score threshold 3.49 was determined to be the most robust. The TGN was partitioned, and 55 modules were found. In addition, analysis of the arbitrarily determined 1200 hubs showed that these hubs could be sorted into six groups according to their expression profiles. We also investigated human disease orthologs in Tetrahymena that are missing in yeast and provide evidence indicating that some of these are involved in the same process in Tetrahymena as in human. Conclusions/Significance: This study constructed a Tetrahymena gene network, provided new insights to the properties of this biological network, and presents an important resource to study Tetrahymena genes at the pathway level. 
Resource Management in Energy Harvesting Cooperative IoT Network under QoS Constraints
Authors: Amjad Maliha , Ahmed Ashfaq , Naeem Muhammad , Awais Muhammad , Ejaz Waleed , Anpalagan Alagan
Published: July 2021

Cooperative communication with RF energy harvesting relays has emerged as a promising technique to improve the reliability, coverage, longevity and capacity of future IoT networks. An efficient relay assignment with proper power allocation and splitting is required to satisfy the network’s QoS requirements. This work considers the resource management problem in decode and forward relay based cooperative IoT network. A realistic mathematical model is proposed for joint user admission, relay assignment, power allocation and splitting ratio selection problem. The optimization problem is a mixed integer non-linear problem (MINLP) whose objective is to maximize the overall sum rate (bps) while satisfying the practical network constraints. Further, an outer approximation algorithm is adopted which provides epsilon-optimal solution to the problem with guaranteed convergence and reasonable complexity. Simulations of the proposed solution are carried out for various network scenarios. The simulation results demonstrate that cooperative communication with diversity achieves a better admission of IoT users and increases not only their individual data rates but also the overall sum rate of an IoT network.
Age Discrimination and Early Retirement Policies: A Comparison of Labor Market Regulation in Canada and the United States
Authors: Gillin C T , Klassen Thomas R
Published: July 2021

As public policy issues, mandatory retirement and age discrimination are approached differently in Canada and the United States. The legal frameworks, enforcement procedures, and judicial decisions are distinct in the two jurisdictions. The United States, unlike Canada, has specific legislation to protect the rights of older workers, and has a centralized enforcement system. The differences between the two countries are accounted for by the greater emphasis on individual rights in he United States and on communitariamsm in Canada. The different policy choices of each society highlight the tensions inherent in North American labor markets. The United States seems to be in a better position to shift toward a labor-management policy which encourages older workers to remain in the workforce.
Effects of underscoring on the perception of closure and intensity in film excerpts
Authors: Thompson William F , Russo Frank , Sinclair Don
Published: July 2021

In 3 experiments, we examined the influence of musical underscoring on judgments of closure in filmed events. In Experiment 1, a 12 s animated episode was
judged to end with greater closure if underscoring was strongly closed than if it
was weakly closed. This influence of music was implicit: When asked to justify
their judgments, participants mainly cited only qualities of the visual information. Experiment 2 provided evidence that music can influence perceived closure in longer film episodes, but it also revealed that musical accompaniment
does not always influence judgments of closure. Experiment 3 examined the
effect of underscoring for 12 brief film excerpts from a commercial motion
picture. Ratings of closure were obtained for 3 conditions: underscores only,
films without underscores, and films with underscores. Again, underscoring
influenced perceived closure in films. However, ratings of closure were more
heavily influenced by visual information than by underscoring. Other effects
of closure in film music are discussed.
High-frequency Ultrasound Scattering from Microspheres and Single Cells
Authors: Baddour Ralph E. , Sherar Michael D. , Hunt J. W. , Czarnota G. J. , Kolios Michael
Published: July 2021

Assessing the proportion of biological cells in a volume of interest undergoing structural changes, such as cell death, using high-frequency ultrasound~20–100 MHz!, requires the development of a theoretical model of scattering by any arbitrary cell ensemble. A prerequisite to building such a model is to know the scattering by a single cell in different states. In this paper, a simple model for the high-frequency acoustic scattering by one cell is proposed. A method for deducing the backscatter transfer function from a single, subresolution scatterer is also devised. Using this method, experimental measurements of backscatter from homogeneous, subresolution polystyrenemicrospheres and single, viable eukaryotic cells, acquired across a broad, continuous range of frequencies were compared with elastic scattering theory and the proposed cell scattering model, respectively. The resonant features observed in the backscatter transfer function of microspheres were found to correspond accurately to theoretical predictions. Using the spacing of the major spectral peaks in the transfer functions obtained experimentally, it is possible to predict microsphere diameters with less than 4% error. Such good agreement was not seen between the cell model and the measured backscatter from cells. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed
Scale Effects on Solid Rocket Combustion Instability Behaviour
Authors: Greatrix David R.
Published: July 2021

The ability to understand and predict the expected internal behaviour of a given solid-propellant rocket motor under transient conditions is important. Research towards predicting and quantifying undesirable transient axial combustion instability symptoms necessitates a comprehensive numerical model for internal ballistic simulation under dynamic flow and combustion conditions. A numerical model incorporating pertinent elements, such as a representative transient, frequency-dependent combustion response to pressure wave activity above the burning propellant surface, is applied to the investigation of scale effects (motor size, i.e., grain length and internal port diameter) on influencing instability-related behaviour in a cylindrical-grain motor. The results of this investigation reveal that the motor’s size has a significant influence on transient pressure wave magnitude and structure, and on the appearance and magnitude of an associated base pressure rise.
Control Methods for Low Voltage Ride-Through Compliance in Grid-Connected NPC Converter Based Wind Power Systems Using Predictive Control
Authors: Alepuz S. , Busquets-Monge S. , Bordonau J. , Cortes P. , Kouro S.
Published: July 2021

In presence of grid voltage dips, Low Voltage Ride-Through (LVRT) requirements demand the wind power plant to remain connected to the grid, helping the network to keep voltage and frequency stable. Neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converters are appropriate for wind power systems, because the current trend of increasing voltage levels. Predictive current control presents as fast dynamic response and accurate reference tracking as other well established control methods, while providing more flexibility. In this work, three different control strategies are applied to the grid-side NPC converter, in order to fulfil LVRT requirements, which are implemented with the predictive current control technique. Dc-link neutral point voltage is kept balanced by the predictive control algorithm, using the redundant switching states of the NPC converter. Simulation results confirm the validity of the proposed control approach.
A practical servomotor project: combining the Web with simulation tools to solidify concepts in undergraduate control education
Authors: Zywno M S , Kennedy D C
Published: July 2021

Current technology enables the lecturer to use computer tools to enhance the conceptualisation of lecture material. This can be especially useful in an engineering curriculum, as the course material can be rendered less abstract through visual illustration of difficult mathematical concepts. In this paper, we present an example of a multimedia enhanced course in linear control theory, taught by authors at Ryerson Polytechnic University (Toronto, Canada). In our implementation of the course, we combine software simulations of practical systems to illustrate control theory concepts with extensive online course notes to assist with comprehension. Followup analysis shows that the use of the WWW and computer tools to enhance the learning process leads to increased enthusiasm, comprehension, and information retention. A review of the process required to create the technology enabled learning environment shows that initially there is a great deal of work involved. However, we conclude that the effort is justified by allowing a positive qualitative change in the way we educate engineering students.
Building Wi-Fi Networks for Communities: Three Canadian Cases
Authors: Crow Barbara
Published: July 2021

This paper explores three Canadian wireless network projects that demonstrate that Wi-Fi technologies, like landline telephones, radio, and hydro, can be used to bring services to local communities. It is our position that despite the strengths and weaknesses of Fredericton’s eZone, Montréal’s Île Sans Fil, and the Lac Seul network in Northern Ontario, these three highlighted Wi-Fi networks demonstrate that a public information utilities model is still a useful lens through which to understand the development and implementation of telecommunications in Canada. Through our case studies, we have observed that in order for municipally based and community Wi-Fi networks to successfully take root in a community, it is advantageous to build on existing technological infrastructure. Moreover, municipal and community needs must be considered in the project. Finally, a cohort of interested advocates from the region is needed.

Résumé : Cet article explore trois projets canadiens de réseau sans fil qui démontrent qu’on peut utiliser les technologies Wi-Fi à la manière du téléphone traditionnel, de la radio ou du système hydraulique pour servir les communautés. Selon nous, les réseaux Wi-Fi eZone de Frédéricton, Île sans fil de Montréal et Lac Seul du nord de l’Ontario, quels que soient leurs qualités et défauts, démontrent que le modèle d’un service d’information au public demeure utile pour comprendre le développement et l’établissement des télécommunications au Canada. Au moyen de nos études de cas, nous avons remarqué qu’il est avantageux de se fonder sur l’infrastructure technologique existante pour établir avec succès des réseaux Wi-Fi municipaux et communautaires. Par surcroît, il faut tenir compte des besoins municipaux et communautaires dans un projet. En outre, il est nécessaire d’avoir une cohorte de défenseurs provenant de la région impliquée.
Structural Performance of Polymer Fiber Reinforced Engineered Cementitious Composites Subjected to Static and Fatigue Flexural Loading
Authors: Sherir Mohamed A. A. , Hossain Khandaker M. A. , Lachemi Mohamed
Published: July 2021

This paper presents the influence of silica sand, local crushed sand and different supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) to Portland cement (C) ratio (SCM/C) on the flexural fatigue performance of engineered cementitious composites (ECCs). ECC is a micromechanically-based designed high-performance polymer fiber reinforced concrete with high ductility which exhibits strain-hardening and micro-cracking behavior in tension and flexure. The relative high cost remains an obstacle for wider commercial use of ECC. The replacement of cement by SCMs, and the use of local sand aggregates can lower cost and enhance greenness of the ECC. The main variables of this study were: type and size of aggregates (local crushed or standard silica sand), type of SCMs (fly ash “FA” or slag), SCM/cement ratio of 1.2 or 2.2, three fatigue stress levels and number of fatigue cycles up to 1 million. The study showed that ECC mixtures produced with crushed sand (with high volume of fly ash and slag) exhibited strain hardening behavior (under static loading) with deformation capacities comparable with those made with silica sand. Class F-fly ash combined with crushed sand was the best choice (compared to class CI fly ash and slag) in order to enhance the ECC ductility with slag–ECC mixtures producing lowest deflection capacity. FA–ECC mixtures with silica sand developed more damage under fatigue loading due to higher deflection evolution than FA–ECC mixtures with crushed sand.
Beyond Television: Children’s Engagement with Online Food and Beverage Marketing
Authors: Brady Jennifer , Farrell Amber , Wong Sharon , Mendelson Rena
Published: July 2021

Background: Food and beverage marketing has been implicated
in the childhood obesity “pandemic.” Prior studies have established the negative impact of television advertising on
children’s dietary intake, yet few have considered the role of online food and beverage marketing, particularly within the
Canadian context.

Objective: This study explores children’s engagement in
online marketing and investigates the potential impact on their dietary intake.

Methods: Participants were recruited from the Ryerson
University Summer Day Camp to participate in a single one-on-one semi-structured interview.

Results: A total of 83 children (age 7 to13 years; mean
9.99 years; 56.3% boys, 43.8% girls) participated in the study. Fewer children thought that there is food, drink, or candy
advertising on the internet (67.7%) than on television (98.8%) (p 0.001). Awareness of online
marketing increased with age: 7 to 8 year olds (23.67%; 4), 9 to10 years
(63.89%; 23), 11 to12 years (86.96%; 20); 13 years
(100%; 9). Over one-third of children had visited a website after seeing the
address advertised on television (n = 32; 38.55%) or on product package (n = 29; 34.94%).

Conclusions: Branded internet sites, commonly featured on television and
product packaging, offer new opportunities for marketers to reach
children with messages promoting commercial food and beverage items. These
websites are subsequently spread via
word-of-mouth through children’s peer networks. The independent impact of
web-based food, drink and candy marketing, as well as
the synergistic effect of multi-channel product promotion, on children’s
dietary intake merits further investigation.
Determining the Radiation Enhancement Effects of Gold Nanoparticles in Cells in a Combined Treatment with Cisplatin and Radiation at Therapeutic Megavoltage Energies
Authors: Yang Celina , Bromma Kyle , Sung Wonmo , Schuemann Jan , Chithrani Devika B.
Published: July 2021

Combined use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy is commonly used in cancer treatment, but the toxic effects on normal tissue are a major limitation. This study assesses the potential to improve radiation therapy when combining gold nanoparticle (GNP) mediated radiation sensitization with chemoradiation compared to chemoradiation alone. Incorporation of GNPs with 2 Gy, 6 MV (megavoltage) radiation resulted in a 19 ± 6% decrease in survival of MDA-MB-231 cells. Monte-Carlo simulations were performed to assess dosimetric differences in the presence of GNPs in radiation. The results show that physics dosimetry represents a small fraction of the observed effect. The survival fraction of the cells exposed to GNPs, cisplatin, and radiation was 0.16 ± 0.007, while cells treated with cisplatin and radiation only was 0.23 ± 0.011. The presence of GNPs resulted in a 30 ± 6% decrease in the survival, having an additive effect. The concentration of the GNPs and free drug used for this study was 0.3 and 435 nM, respectively. These concentrations are relatively lower and achievable in an in vivo setting. Hence, the results of our study would accelerate the incorporation of GNP-mediated chemoradiation into current cancer therapeutic protocols in the near future
Efficient computation of spaced seeds
Authors: Ilie Silvana
Published: July 2021

Background
The most frequently used tools in bioinformatics are those searching for similarities, or local alignments, between biological sequences. Since the exact dynamic programming algorithm is quadratic, linear-time heuristics such as BLAST are used. Spaced seeds are much more sensitive than the consecutive seed of BLAST and using several seeds represents the current state of the art in approximate search for biological sequences. The most important aspect is computing highly sensitive seeds. Since the problem seems hard, heuristic algorithms are used. The leading software in the common Bernoulli model is the SpEED program.

Findings
SpEED uses a hill climbing method based on the overlap complexity heuristic. We propose a new algorithm for this heuristic that improves its speed by over one order of magnitude. We use the new implementation to compute improved seeds for several software programs. We compute as well multiple seeds of the same weight as MegaBLAST, that greatly improve its sensitivity.

Conclusion
Multiple spaced seeds are being successfully used in bioinformatics software programs. Enabling researchers to compute very fast high quality seeds will help expanding the range of their applications.
Designing and delivering facilitated storytelling interventions for chronic disease self-management: a scoping review
Authors: Gucciardi Enza , Jean-Pierre Nicole , Karam Grace , Sidani Souraya
Published: July 2021

Background
Little is known about how to develop and deliver storytelling as an intervention to support those managing chronic illnesses. This scoping review aims to describe the core elements of storytelling interventions in order to help facilitate its implementation.

Methods
A scoping review was conducted in seven databases for articles published up to May 2014 to identify interventions that describe in detail how storytelling was used to support people in disease self-management interventions.

Results
Ten articles met all inclusion criteria. Core elements consistently observed across the storytelling interventions were: reflection and interactive meaning-making of experiences; principles of informality and spontaneity; non-directional and non-hierarchical facilitation; development of group norms and conduct to create a community among participants; and both an individual and collective role for participants. Differences were also observed across interventions, such as: the conceptual frameworks that directed the design of the intervention; the type and training of facilitators; intervention duration; and how session topics were selected and stories delivered. Furthermore, evaluation of the intervention and outcome assessment varied greatly across studies.

Conclusion
The use of storytelling can be a novel intervention to enhance chronic disease self-management. The core elements identified in the review inform the development of the intervention to be more patient-centred by guiding participants to take ownership of and lead the intervention, which differs significantly from traditional support groups. Storytelling has the potential to provide patients with a more active role in their health care by identifying their specific needs as well as gaps in knowledge and skills, while allowing them to form strong bonds with peers who share similar disease-related experiences. However, measures of impact differed across interventions given the variation in chronic conditions. Our findings can guide future development and implementations of storytelling interventions.
Development of framework for aggregation and visualization of three-dimensional (3D) spatial data
Authors: Miu Mihal , Zhang Xiaokun , Dewan M. Ali Akber , Wang Junye
Published: July 2021

Geospatial information plays an important role in environmental modelling, resource management, business operations, and government policy. However, very little or no commonality between formats of various geospatial data has led to difficulties in utilizing the available geospatial information. These disparate data sources must be aggregated before further extraction and analysis may be performed. The objective of this paper is to develop a framework called PlaniSphere, which aggregates various geospatial datasets, synthesizes raw data, and allows for third party customizations of the software. PlaniSphere uses NASA World Wind to access remote data and map servers using Web Map Service (WMS) as the underlying protocol that supports service-oriented architecture (SOA). The results show that PlaniSphere can aggregate and parses files that reside in local storage and conforms to the following formats: GeoTIFF, ESRI shape files, and KML. Spatial data retrieved using WMS from the Internet can create geospatial data sets (map data) from multiple sources, regardless of who the data providers are. The plug-in function of this framework can be expanded for wider uses, such as aggregating and fusing geospatial data from different data sources, by providing customizations to serve future uses, which the capacity of the commercial ESRI ArcGIS software is limited to add libraries and tools due to its closed-source architectures and proprietary data structures. Analysis and increasing availability of geo-referenced data may provide an effective way to manage spatial information by using large-scale storage, multidimensional data management, and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) capabilities in one system.
A Hybrid Spatio-Temporal Data Indexing Method for Trajectory Databases
Authors: Ke Shengnan , Gong Jun , Li Songnian , Zhu Qing , Liu Xintao , Zhang Yeting
Published: July 2021

In recent years, there has been tremendous growth in the field of indoor and outdoor positioning sensors continuously producing huge volumes of trajectory data that has been used in many fields such as location-based services or location intelligence. Trajectory data is massively increased and semantically complicated, which poses a great challenge on spatio-temporal data indexing. This paper proposes a spatio-temporal data indexing method, named HBSTR-tree, which is a hybrid index structure comprising spatio-temporal R-tree, B*-tree and Hash table. To improve the index generation efficiency, rather than directly inserting trajectory points, we group consecutive trajectory points as nodes according to their spatio-temporal semantics and then insert them into spatio-temporal R-tree as leaf nodes. Hash table is used to manage the latest leaf nodes to reduce the frequency of insertion. A new spatio-temporal interval criterion and a new node-choosing sub-algorithm are also proposed to optimize spatio-temporal R-tree structures. In addition, a B*-tree sub-index of leaf nodes is built to query the trajectories of targeted objects efficiently. Furthermore, a database storage scheme based on a NoSQL-type DBMS is also proposed for the purpose of cloud storage. Experimental results prove that HBSTR-tree outperforms TB*-tree in some aspects such as generation efficiency, query performance and query type.
Peptide mediated in vivo tumor targeting of nanoparticles through optimization in single and multilayer in vitro cell models
Authors: Yang Celina , Bromma Kyle , Chithrani Devika B.
Published: July 2021

Optimizing the interface between nanoparticles (NPs) and the biological environment at various levels should be considered for improving delivery of NPs to the target tumor area. For NPs to be successfully delivered to cancer cells, NPs needs to be functionalized for circulation through the blood vessels. In this study, accumulation of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) functionalized gold nanoparticles (GNPs) was first tested using in vitro monolayer cells and multilayer cell models prior to in vivo models. A diameter of 10 nm sized GNP was selected for this study for sufficient penetration through tumor tissue. The surfaces of the GNPs were modified with PEG molecules, to improve circulation time by reducing non-specific uptake by the reticuloendothelial system (RES) in animal models, and with a peptide containing integrin binding domain, RGD (arginyl-glycyl-aspartic acid), to improve internalization at the cellular level. A 10–12% accumulation of the injected GNP dose within the tumor was observed in vivo and the GNPs remained within the tumor tissue up to 72 h. This study suggests an in vitro platform for optimizing the accumulation of NP complexes in cells and tissue structures before testing them in animal models. Higher accumulation within the tumor in vivo upon surface modification is a promising outcome for future applications where GNPs can be used for drug delivery and radiation therapy.
Seeds for effective oligonucleotide design
Authors: Ilie Lucian , Ilie Silvana , Khoshraftar Shima , Bigvand Anahita Mansouri
Published: July 2021

Background
DNA oligonucleotides are a very useful tool in biology. The best algorithms for designing good DNA oligonucleotides are filtering out unsuitable regions using a seeding approach. Determining the quality of the seeds is crucial for the performance of these algorithms.

Results
We present a sound framework for evaluating the quality of seeds for oligonucleotide design. The F - score is used to measure the accuracy of each seed. A number of natural candidates are tested: contiguous (BLAST-like), spaced, transitions-constrained, and multiple spaced seeds. Multiple spaced seeds are the best, with more seeds providing better accuracy. Single spaced and transition seeds are very close whereas, as expected, contiguous seeds come last. Increased accuracy comes at the price of reduced efficiency. An exception is that single spaced and transitions-constrained seeds are both more accurate and more efficient than contiguous ones.

Conclusions
Our work confirms another application where multiple spaced seeds perform the best. It will be useful in improving the algorithms for oligonucleotide design.
Uses and gratifications factors for social media use in teaching: Instructors’ perspectives
Authors: Gruzd Anatoliy , Haythornthwaite Caroline , Paulin Drew , Gilbert Sarah , Esteve del Valle Marc
Published: July 2021

This research was motivated by an interest in understanding how social media are applied in teaching in higher education. Data were collected using an online questionnaire, completed by 333 instructors in higher education, that asked about general social media use and specific use in teaching. Education and learning theories suggest three potential reasons for instructors to use social media in their teaching: (1) exposing students to practices, (2) extending the range of the learning environment, and (3) promoting learning through social interaction and collaboration. Answers to open-ended questions about how social media were used in teaching, and results of a factor analysis of coded results, revealed six distinct factors that align with these reasons for use: (1) facilitating student engagement, (2) instructor’s organization for teaching, (3) engagement with outside resources, (4) enhancing student attention to content, (5) building communities of practice, and (6) resource discovery. These factors accord with a Uses and Gratifications perspective that depicts adopters as active media users choosing and shaping media use to meet their own needs. Results provide a more comprehensive picture of social media use than found in previous work, encompassing not only the array of media used but also the range of purposes associated with use of social media in contemporary teaching initiatives.

Keywords: Adoption of technology, educational technology, higher education, instructor experiences, social media, teaching, Uses and Gratifications
Scoping Review: online gaming interventions for congenital heart patients
Authors: Fredericks Suzanne
Published: July 2021

Online patient education gaming interventions should be designed for the adult cohort with congenital heart disease since current resources are not optimal. To date, these types of interventions are currently being used throughout the healthcare environment. Even though my area of expertise encompasses the design and evaluation of patient education interventions, I have primarily focused on face-to-face and/or telephone based interventions. My knowledge in the area of online gaming is severely limited. As a result a scoping review was undertaken in order for the acquisition of a better understanding of what online gaming is; its associated characteristics, and the most common outcomes associated with these interventions. This case study presented an overview of a scoping review that was conducted
with the main goal of summarizing and disseminating research findings, identifying research gaps, and making recommendations for future intervention design and evaluation. The stages for the conducting a scoping review were presented along with some practical lessons learned.
Finding Zeros of Quartic Polynomials by Using Radicals
Authors: Sahin Sureyya
Published: July 2021

We present a technique for finding roots of a quartic general polynomial equation of a single variable by using radicals. The solution of quartic polynomial equations requires knowledge of lower degree polynomial equations; therefore, we study solving polynomial equations of degree less than four as well. We present self-reciprocal polynomials as a specialization and additionally solve numerical example.
Naive Bayes classifiers for verbal autopsies: comparison to physician-based classification for 21,000 child and adult deaths
Authors: Miasnikof Pierre , Giannakeas Vasily , Gomes Mireille , Aleksandrowicz Lukasz , Shestopaloff Alexander Y. , Alam Dewan , Tollman Stephen , Samarikhalaj Akram , Jha Prabhat
Published: July 2021

Background: Verbal autopsies (VA) are increasingly used in low- and middle-income countries where most causes of death (COD) occur at home without medical attention, and home deaths differ substantially from hospital deaths. Hence, there is no plausible “standard” against which VAs for home deaths may be validated. Previous studies have shown contradictory performance of automated methods compared to physician-based classification of CODs. We sought to compare the performance of the classic naive Bayes classifier (NBC) versus existing automated classifiers, using physician-based classification as the reference.

Methods
We compared the performance of NBC, an open-source Tariff Method (OTM), and InterVA-4 on three datasets covering about 21,000 child and adult deaths: the ongoing Million Death Study in India, and health and demographic surveillance sites in Agincourt, South Africa and Matlab, Bangladesh. We applied several training and testing splits of the data to quantify the sensitivity and specificity compared to physician coding for individual CODs and to test the cause-specific mortality fractions at the population level.

Results
The NBC achieved comparable sensitivity (median 0.51, range 0.48-0.58) to OTM (median 0.50, range 0.41-0.51), with InterVA-4 having lower sensitivity (median 0.43, range 0.36-0.47) in all three datasets, across all CODs. Consistency of CODs was comparable for NBC and InterVA-4 but lower for OTM. NBC and OTM achieved better performance when using a local rather than a non-local training dataset. At the population level, NBC scored the highest cause-specific mortality fraction accuracy across the datasets (median 0.88, range 0.87-0.93), followed by InterVA-4 (median 0.66, range 0.62-0.73) and OTM (median 0.57, range 0.42-0.58).

Conclusions
NBC outperforms current similar COD classifiers at the population level. Nevertheless, no current automated classifier adequately replicates physician classification for individual CODs. There is a need for further research on automated classifiers using local training and test data in diverse settings prior to recommending any replacement of physician-based classification of verbal autopsies.
Review of web mapping: eras, trends and directions
Authors: Veenendaal Bert , Brovelli Maria Antonia , Li Songnian
Published: July 2021

Web mapping and the use of geospatial information online have evolved rapidly over the past few decades. Almost everyone in the world uses mapping information, whether or not one realizes it. Almost every mobile phone now has location services and every event and object on the earth has a location. The use of this geospatial location data has expanded rapidly, thanks to the development of the Internet. Huge volumes of geospatial data are available and daily being captured online, and are used in web applications and maps for viewing, analysis, modeling and simulation. This paper reviews the developments of web mapping from the first static online map images to the current highly interactive, multi-sourced web mapping services that have been increasingly moved to cloud computing platforms. The whole environment of web mapping captures the integration and interaction between three components found online, namely, geospatial information, people and functionality. In this paper, the trends and interactions among these components are identified and reviewed in relation to the technology developments. The review then concludes by exploring some of the opportunities and directions.

Keywords: web mapping; Web GIS; Internet; online; web services; digital earth; GeoWeb; semantic web; collaborative; development era
Factors contributing to attrition behavior in diabetes self-management programs: A mixed method approach
Authors: Gucciardi Enza , De Melo Margaret , Offenheim Ana , Stewart Donna E.
Published: July 2021

Background:

Diabetes self-management education is a
critical component in diabetes care. Despite worldwide efforts to develop
efficacious DSME programs, high attrition rates are often reported in clinical
practice. The objective of this study was to examine factors that may
contribute to attrition behavior in diabetes self-management programs.

Methods:

We conducted telephone interviews with
individuals who had Type 2 diabetes (n = 267) and attended a diabetes education
centre. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors
associated with attrition behavior. Forty-four percent of participants (n =
118) withdrew prematurely from the program and were asked an open-ended
question regarding their discontinuation of services. We used content analysis
to code and generate themes, which were then organized under the Behavioral
Model of Health Service Utilization.

Results:

Working full and part-time, being over 65 years
of age, having a regular primary care physician or fewer diabetes symptoms were
contributing factors to attrition behaviour in our multivariable logistic
regression. The most common reasons given by participants for attrition from
the program were conflict between their work schedules and the centre's hours
of operation, patients' confidence in their own knowledge and ability when
managing their diabetes, apathy towards diabetes education, distance to the
centre, forgetfulness, regular physician consultation, low perceived
seriousness of diabetes, and lack of familiarity with the centre and its
services. There was considerable overlap between our quantitative and
qualitative results.

Conclusion:

Reducing attrition behaviour requires a range
of strategies targeted towards delivering convenient and accessible services,
familiarizing individuals with these services, increasing communication between
centres and their patients, and creating better partnerships between centres
and primary care physicians
Network Challenges for Cyber Physical Systems with Tiny Wireless Devices: A Case Study on Reliable Pipeline Condition Monitoring
Authors: Ali Salman , Bin Qaisar Saad , Saeed Husnain , Khan Muhammad Farhan , Naeem Muhammad , Anpalagan Alagan
Published: July 2021

The synergy of computational and physical network components leading to the Internet of Things, Data and Services has been made feasible by the use of Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs). CPS engineering promises to impact system condition monitoring for a diverse range of fields from healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation to aerospace and warfare. CPS for environment monitoring applications completely transforms human-to-human, human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interactions with the use of Internet Cloud. A recent trend is to gain assistance from mergers between virtual networking and physical actuation to reliably perform all conventional and complex sensing and communication tasks. Oil and gas pipeline monitoring provides a novel example of the benefits of CPS, providing a reliable remote monitoring platform to leverage environment, strategic and economic benefits. In this paper, we evaluate the applications and technical requirements for seamlessly integrating CPS with sensor network plane from a reliability perspective and review the strategies for communicating information between remote monitoring sites and the widely deployed sensor nodes. Related challenges and issues in network architecture design and relevant protocols are also provided with classification. This is supported by a case study on implementing reliable monitoring of oil and gas pipeline installations. Network parameters like node-discovery, node-mobility, data security, link connectivity, data aggregation, information knowledge discovery and quality of service provisioning have been reviewed.
Improving Occupant Wellness in Commercial Office Buildings through Energy Conservation Retrofits
Authors: McArthur J. J. , Jofeh Chris , Aguilar Ann-Marie
Published: July 2021

There is increasing literature demonstrating the link between building indoor environmental quality, and occupant health and productivity, driving the corporate real estate industry to investigate how to integrate wellness features in both new and existing building stock. Meanwhile, new voluntary standards to promote occupant health are becoming adopted alongside sustainability standards. As commercial building owners and tenants seek to improve occupant conditions and incorporate wellness, apparently conflicting priorities must be balanced, particularly improving indoor environmental conditions has the potential to increase energy. This paper presents a framework to consider retrofits holistically and considering the benefit of improved conditions both qualitatively and quantitatively. Where poor conditions exist, published literature demonstrates a lost productivity cost that exceeds typical building energy costs, and this is quantified in the financial analysis presented. Energy retrofits provide a unique opportunity to integrate wellness-enabling features because the energy savings can offset marginal energy or operating cost increases for particular wellness interventions. This paper presents a flexible, customizable framework to develop potential retrofit bundles and evaluate them considering economic, sustainability, wellness, risk and occupant experience factors to identify the optimal zone of retrofit. An illustrative case study using real building data demonstrates how the framework might be applied to a real project and customized to achieve unique stakeholder priorities.
A randomized controlled dismantling trial of post-workshop consultation strategies to increase effectiveness and fidelity to an evidence-based psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder
Authors: Wiltsey Stirman Shannon , Shields Norman , Deloriea Josh , Landy Meredith S. H. , Belus Jennifer M. , Maslej Marta M. , Monson Candice M.
Published: July 2021

Background: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental health condition with substantial costs to individuals and society. Among military veterans, the lifetime prevalence of PTSD has been estimated to be as high as 20%. Numerous research studies have demonstrated that short-term cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies, such as Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), lead to substantial and sustained improvements in PTSD symptoms. Despite known benefits, only a minority of clinicians provide these therapies. Transferring this research knowledge into clinical settings remains one of the largest hurdles to improving the health of veterans with PTSD. Attending a workshop alone is insufficient to promote adequate knowledge transfer and sustained skill; however, relatively little
research has been conducted to identify effective post-training support strategies.

Methods: The current study investigates whether clinicians receiving post-workshop support (six-month duration) will deliver CPT with greater fidelity (i.e., psychotherapy adherence and competence) and have improved patient outcomes compared with clinicians receiving no formal post-workshop support. The study conditions are: technology-enhanced group tele-consultation; standard group tele-consultation; and fidelity assessment with no consultation. The primary outcome is independent assessment (via audio-recordings) of the clinicians’ adherence and competence in delivering CPT. The secondary outcome is observed changes in patient symptoms during and following treatment as a function of clinician fidelity. Post-consultation interviews with clinicians will help identify facilitators and barriers to psychotherapy skill acquisition. The study results will inform how best to implement and
transfer evidence-based psychotherapy (e.g., CPT) to clinical settings to attain comparable outcomes to those observed in research settings.

Discussion: Findings will deepen our understanding of how much and what type of support is needed following a workshop to help clinicians become proficient in delivering a new protocol. Several influences on clinician learning and patient outcomes will be discussed. An evidence-based model of clinical consultation will be developed, with the ultimate goal of informing policy and influencing best practice in clinical consultation.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01861769