bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Types for Complexity of Parallel Computation in Pi-calculus
Authors: Baillot Patrick , Ghyselen Alexis
Published: February 2022

Type systems as a technique to analyse or control programs have been extensively studied for functional programming languages. In particular, some systems allow one to extract from a typing derivation a complexity bound on the program. We explore how to extend such results to parallel complexity in the setting of pi-calculus, considered as a communication-based model for parallel computation. Two notions of time complexity are given: the total computation time without parallelism (the work) and the computation time under maximal parallelism (the span). We define operational semantics to capture those two notions and present two type systems from which one can extract a complexity bound on a process. The type systems are inspired both by sized types and by input/output types, with additional temporal information about communications.
A conversation with
Authors: McKusick Kirk , Seltzer Margo , Olson Michael Allen
Published: February 2022

The history of Berkeley DB.
Comic Spin: A Comic Creation Tool Enabling Self-expression for People with Aphasia
Authors: Tamburro Carla , Neate Timothy , Roper Abi , Wilson Stephanie
Published: February 2022

Comics, with their highly visual format, offer a promising opportunity for people who experience challenges with language to express humour and emotion. However, comic creation tools are not designed to be accessible to people with language impairments such as aphasia. We report the design and exploration of
Comic Spin
, an app for people with aphasia that supports the creation of comic strips by constraining the creative space. We explored the use of
Comic Spin
in two studies involving creative workshops. Findings showed that people were able to use
Comic Spin
successfully to create a range of narrative, humorous, and subversive comic strips, and that these enabled people to self-express in ways that went beyond the content of the comic strips themselves.
Accelerating AI
Authors: Monroe Don
Published: February 2022

Specialized hardware to boost the speed of machine learning also saves energy.
Copyright implications of emulation programs
Authors: Samuelson Pamela
Published: February 2022

How emulation programs might be affected by new claims of copyright infringement.
Traveling More Independently: A Study on the Diverse Needs and Challenges of People with Visual or Mobility Impairments in Unfamiliar Indoor Environments
Authors: Müller Karin , Engel Christin , Loitsch Claudia , Stiefelhagen Rainer , Weber Gerhard
Published: February 2022

It is much more difficult for people with visual or mobility impairments to prepare for a trip or visit unfamiliar places than it is for people without disabilities. In addition to the usual travel arrangements, one needs to know if the various parts of the travel chain are accessible. To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous work that examines in depth travel behavior for indoor environments for both trip planning and execution, highlighting the special needs of people with low vision, blindness, or mobility impairments (MIs). In this article, we present a survey of 125 participants with blindness, low vision, and MIs. We investigate how mobile they are, what strategies they use to prepare a journey to an unknown building, how they orient themselves there, and what materials they use. For all three groups, our results provide insights into the problem space of the specific information needs when planning and executing a trip. We found that most of our participants have specific mobility problems depending on their disability. Feedback from the participants reveals that there is a large information gap, especially for orientation in buildings, regarding availability of high-quality digital, tactile, and printable indoor maps; accessibility of buildings; and mobility supporting systems. In particular, there is a lack of available and high-quality indoor maps. Our analysis also points out that the specific needs differ for the three groups. Besides the expected between-group differences, large in-group differences can also be found. The current article is an expanded version of earlier work [
18
] augmented by data of people with MIs.
HRBF-Fusion: Accurate 3D Reconstruction from RGB-D Data Using On-the-fly Implicits
Authors: Xu Yabin , Nan Liangliang , Zhou Laishui , Wang Jun , Wang Charlie C. L.
Published: February 2022

Reconstruction of high-fidelity 3D objects or scenes is a fundamental research problem. Recent advances in RGB-D fusion have demonstrated the potential of producing 3D models from consumer-level RGB-D cameras. However, due to the discrete nature and limited resolution of their surface representations (e.g., point or voxel based), existing approaches suffer from the accumulation of errors in camera tracking and distortion in the reconstruction, which leads to an unsatisfactory 3D reconstruction. In this article, we present a method using on-the-fly implicits of Hermite Radial Basis Functions (HRBFs) as a continuous surface representation for camera tracking in an existing RGB-D fusion framework. Furthermore, curvature estimation and confidence evaluation are coherently derived from the inherent surface properties of the on-the-fly HRBF implicits, which are devoted to a data fusion with better quality. We argue that our continuous but on-the-fly surface representation can effectively mitigate the impact of noise with its robustness and constrain the reconstruction with inherent surface smoothness when being compared with discrete representations. Experimental results on various real-world and synthetic datasets demonstrate that our HRBF-fusion outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches in terms of tracking robustness and reconstruction accuracy.
Bursting a few balloons regarding the famous DARPA red balloon challenge
Authors: Madnick Stuart
Published: February 2022

A balloon's-eyeperspective on a unique distributed, time-critical, geo-location problem.
On the Dynamic Stability of Gold Electrodes Exposed to Alternative Voltages in Microfluidic Systems
Authors: Wang Qi , Song Shuren , Wang Wei , Zhou Jia , Riaud Antoine
Published: February 2022

While gold is a stable metal in water, it is not uncommon for microfluidic experimenters using biologically-relevant fluids such as phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) to witness their precious gold electrodes quickly vanish from the microchannel once the voltage exceeds a few volts. This stability issue concerns multiple fields where high voltage provides superior actuator or sensor performance, such as resistive pulse sensing (RPS), electroosmosis, electrowetting and so on. One solution to protect metallic electrodes is using alternative voltages (AV) as opposed to continuous voltages. After recalling that gold dissolution is enabled by the chloride ions present in most biologically-relevant solutions, we explore the stability conditions of the electrodes for voltages from 1 to 20 V
pp
(Peak to Peak voltage amplitude), actuation frequencies between 0 and 5 kHz, and for various pH and electrolytes (NaCl, Na2SO4, HCl). We find that the dissolution threshold voltage depends on the ratio of reaction to diffusion rate given by the Damkhöler number Da. In mass-transfer limited regime, the dissolution threshold is independent of the frequency, whereas the dissolution voltage is observed to grow as Da−1/2 in the reaction limited regime. These findings provide guidelines to design more reliable electrowetting, electroosmosis, dielectrophoresis and resistive pulse sensing devices.
Mitigation of Carbon Crossover in CO2 Electrolysis by Use of Bipolar Membranes
Authors: Eriksson Björn , Asset Tristan , Spanu Francesco , Lecoeur Frédéric , Dupont Marc , Garcés-Pineda Felipe A. , Galán-Mascarós José Ramón , Cavaliere Sara , Rozière Jacques , Jaouen Frédéric
Published: February 2022

The selectivity of CO2 electrolyzers has hitherto mainly been associated with the cathode selectivity. A few recent studies have shown that the nature of the polymer membrane can impact the system ionic selectivity, with anion exchange membranes (AEM) leading to high crossover of (bi)carbonates during operation and a CO2 pumping effect. In the present work, we investigate and compare CO2 crossover during operation through an AEM and a bipolar membrane (BPM) in a flow cell fed with gaseous CO2. With AEM, starting with 1 M KHCO3 catholyte and 1 M KOH anolyte, the anolyte pH rapidly drops from 14 to 8. This triggers an increase of 1.2 V in cell voltage at 45 mA·cm−2, due to increased OER overpotential and anolyte resistance. Steady-state operation at 45 mA·cm−2 with the AEM results in a CO2/O2 ratio of 3.6 at the anode. With BPM, the anolyte pH decreases more slowly, and the CO2/O2 ratio at the anode under steady-state at 45 mA·cm−2 is only 0.38. Overall, the cell voltage is lower with the BPM than with the AEM at steady-state. These results show the potential of BPMs to mitigate carbon crossover, which could be further reduced by optimizing their design.
Review—Recent Advances in Understanding Potassium Metal Anodes
Authors: Popovic J.
Published: February 2022

In the recent years, together with sodium, potassium-based batteries are raising a considerable attention as a possible alternative for replacing lithium batteries. This concise review gives an insight in the particularities of the interphases (solid electrolyte interphase) and interfaces (dendrite growth) in battery cells where potassium metal is in contact with liquid electrolytes, based on available theories and very recent experimental evidence. In addition, the electrochemical background of issues occurring in solid-state batteries with K metal anodes are touched upon.
Serially passaged, conditionally reprogrammed nasal epithelial cells as a model to study epithelial functions and SARS-CoV-2 infection
Authors: Schmidt Hanna , Guthjahr Lara , Sauter Alexander , Zech Fabian , Nchioua Rayhane , Stenger Steffen , Frick Manfred , Kirchhoff Frank , Dietl Paul , Wittekindt Oliver H.
Published: February 2022

Primary airway epithelial cells (pAECs) cultivated at air-liquid interface (ALI) conditions are widely used as surrogates for human in vivo epithelia. To extend the proliferative capacity and to enable serially passaging of pAECs, conditional reprogramming (cr) has been employed in recent years. However, ALI epithelia derived from cr cells often display functional changes with increasing passages. This highlights the need for thorough validation of the ALI cultures for the respective application. In our study, we evaluated the use of serially passaged cr nasal epithelial cells (crNECs) as a model to study SARS-CoV-2 infection and effects on ion and water transport. NECs were obtained from healthy individuals and cultivated as ALI epithelia derived from passages 1, 2, 3, and 5. We compared epithelial differentiation, ion and water transport, and infection with SARS-CoV-2 between passages. Our results show that epithelia maintained major differentiation characteristics and physiological ion and water transport properties through all passages. However, the frequency of ciliated cells, short circuit currents reflecting epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) and cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) activity and expression of aquaporin 3 and 5 decreased gradually over passages. crNECs also expressed SARS-CoV-2 receptors angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serin2 protease 2 (TMPRSS2) across all passages and allowed SARS-CoV-2 replication in all passages. In summary, we provide evidence that passaged crNECs provide an appropriate model to study SARS-CoV-2 infection and also epithelial transport function when considering some limitations that we defined herein.
Postexercise serum from humans influences the biological tug of war of APP processing in human neuronal cells
Authors: Marko Daniel M. , Finch Michael S. , Mohammad Ahmad , MacNeil Adam J. , Klentrou Panagiota , MacPherson Rebecca E. K.
Published: February 2022

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are becoming more prevalent in our aging society. One specific neuropathological hallmark of this disease is the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides, which aggregate to form extraneuronal plaques. Increased Aβ peptides are often observed well before symptoms of AD develop, highlighting the importance of targeting Aβ-producing pathways early on in disease progression. Evidence indicates that exercise has the capacity to reduce Aβ peptide production in the brain; however, the mechanisms remain unknown. Exercise-induced signaling mediators could be the driving force behind some of the beneficial effects observed in the brain with exercise. The purpose of this study was to examine if postexercise serum and the factors it contains can alter neuronal amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing. Human SH-SY5Y neuronal cells were differentiated with retinoic acid for 5 days and treated with 10% pre- or postexercise serum from humans for 30 min. Cells were collected for analysis of acute (30 min; n = 6) or adaptive (24 h posttreatment; n = 6) responses. There were no statistical differences in a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 10 (ADAM10) and β-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) mRNA or protein expression with postexercise serum treatment at either time point. However, there was an increase in the ratio of soluble amyloid precursor protein α (sAPPα) to soluble amyloid precursor protein β (sAPPβ) protein content ( P = 0.05) after 30 min of postexercise serum treatment. In addition, 30 min of postexercise serum treatment increased ADAM10 ( P = 0.01) and BACE1 ( P = 0.02) activity. These findings suggest that postexercise serum modulates important enzymes involved in APP processing, potentially pushing the cascade toward the nonamyloidogenic arm.
A separable neural code in monkey IT enables perfect CAPTCHA decoding
Authors: Katti Harish , Arun S. P.
Published: February 2022

Many websites ask us to recognize distorted letters to deny access to malicious computer programs. Why is this task easy for our brains but hard for the computers? Here, we show that, in the monkey inferior temporal cortex, an area critical for recognition, single neurons encode distorted letter strings according to highly systematic rules that enable perfect distorted letter decoding. Remarkably, the same rules were present in neural networks trained for text recognition.
Sensorimotor ability and inhibitory control independently predict attainment in mathematics in children and adolescents
Authors: Pickavance John P. , Giles Oscar T. , Morehead J. Ryan , Mushtaq Faisal , Wilkie Richard M. , Mon-Williams Mark
Published: February 2022

Previous research downplays the role of sensorimotor skills in the development of higher-order cognitive domains such as mathematics: using inadequate sensorimotor measures, differences in “executive function” account for any shared variance. Utilizing a high-resolution, kinematic measure of a sensorimotor skill previously linked to mathematics attainment, we show that inhibitory control alone cannot account for this relationship. The practical implication is that the development of children’s sensorimotor skills must be considered in their intellectual development.
Physical and Rheological Properties of Asphalt Binder Modified with Recycled Fibers
Authors: Yousif Rana A. , Tayh Sady A. , Al-Saadi Israa F. , Jasim Abbas F.
Published: February 2022

The price of asphalt binder has increased dramatically due to the increase in oil prices and the increase in traffic volumes occurring worldwide. This situation has prompted calls for greater viscosity, lower‐cost asphalt for pavement construction, and the development of alternative materials that have a good rheological effect, are less expensive, and have a reduced negative impact on human health and the environment. The application of fibers in asphalt mixes has been studied over the past few decades to improve pavement performance around the world. This study was conducted on three types of asphalt binders that were modified with two types of fibers: brown recycled wool fiber (BRWF), available locally in Iraq, and China polyester fiber (CPF), which is considered as waste, to produce fiber‐modified asphalt binders. The samples were conducted using traditional physical testing (penetration, softening point, and rotational viscosity tests) as well as the Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) test. In comparison to the original asphalt binders, the fiber‐enhanced asphalt binders had greater softening point, viscosity, and complex modulus but decreased penetration. The tests revealed that using both kinds of fibers as modifiers for asphalt binders improves their high‐temperature performance by increasing the grade of the control binders (PG). This increase in asphalt binder stiffness is anticipated to enhance pavement rutting resistance. Consequently, these fibers can be used as additives for asphalt binders and asphalt mixtures to enhance their performance.
Image Quality Predictor with Highly Efficient Fully Convolutional Neural Network
Authors: Yu-Dong Cao , Xin-Lin Liao , Hai-Yan Liu
Published: February 2022

A highly efficient deep fully convolutional neural network (DFCN) for image quality assessment (IQA) is designed in this paper. The DFCN consists of two branches, one scoring local patches and the other estimating the weights of local patches to enhance quality prediction. Then, the DFCN outputs quality score of the whole image with aggregate weighted average pooling. There are no fully connected layers in the DFCN, resulting in far fewer parameters. In addition, the network model utilizes multiscale images as inputs to enrich the extracted distortion information. Furthermore, the parameters of the model are optimized in two steps to reduce the requirement for computing power and the risk of overfitting. The parameters of the shared layers and the quality module are optimized firstly, and then, the parameters of the weight module are optimized with the designed loss function. The extensive experimental results show that the proposed DFCN outperforms other competing IQA methods and has strong generalization ability.
Evolution Patterns of Frost-Heaving Pressure with Partial Ponding in Cold Region Tunnels
Authors: Zheng Xinyu , Xu Fei , Shi Songtao , Gao Yang , Li Qi
Published: February 2022

The calculation of the frost-heaving pressure is one of the key issues in the frost-resistant design of tunnels in cold regions. To reveal the frost heave mechanism of partial ponding behind the tunnel linings, a three-dimensional geo-mechanical model test was developed that only considered the frost heave load. A self-designed water bladder equipment was set up to simulate the partial ponding. The frost heave response characteristics of the surrounding rock with partial ponding were simulated to analyze the change law of temperature field and frost-heaving pressure under freezing by using air-conditioning to reduce the ambient temperature of the model test. The changes in the internal temperature of the surrounding rock and the evolution of the frost-heaving pressure over time under different thicknesses of partial ponding and different levels of surrounding rock were compared. The theoretical calculation value of frost-heaving pressure and the test values of the model test were compared and analyzed using the numerical simulation method. The results showed that the temperature of the surrounding rock presented three-stage changes, which showed a lagging characteristic relative to the environmental temperature. The empirical equation for the relationship between the frost-heaving pressure and time was obtained by nonlinear fitting of the experimental results. Taking advantage of the regular tetrahedron calculation model, the paper established a semiempirical frost-heaving pressure model considering time and space effects, which was identical with the frost-heaving phenomenon from the experiments. Theoretical analysis, experiments, and numerical simulation show that the frost-heaving pressure increased along with the depth of partial ponding and the elastic resistance coefficient of surrounding rock, which could provide references for revealing the frost-heaving pressure of partial ponding behind tunnels of cold regions and has a significant meaning in the engineering application.
Determination of the Fractal Dimension of CO2 Adsorption Isotherms on Shale Samples
Authors: Qi Hongyan , Wang Zhenlin , Yu Jianglong , Yu Peirong , Zheng Guoqing
Published: February 2022

The fractal theory has been widely applied to the analysis of gas adsorption isotherms, which are used for the pore structure characterization in unconventional reservoirs. Fractal dimension is a key parameter that can indicate the complexity of the pore structures. So far, most fractal models for gas adsorption are for N2 adsorption, while fractal models for CO2 adsorption are rarely reported. In this paper, we built a fractal model for CO2 adsorption by combining a thermodynamic model and the Dubinin–Astakhov model. We then applied the new model to three CO2 adsorption isotherms measured on shale samples. The results show that the fractal dimension from the new model lies between 2 and 3, which agrees with the fractal geometry. The new model presented in this paper can be used for the CO2 adsorption analysis, which allows characterizing micropore structures in shales.
Overexpression of PTPRZ1 Regulates p120/
β
-Catenin Phosphorylation to Promote Carcinogenesis of Oral Submucous Fibrosis
Authors: Ma Liwei , Shen Ting , Peng Hui , Wu Jianjun , Wang Wenjin , Gao Xing
Published: February 2022

Background. Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a potentially malignant disease of the oral cavity. New molecular predictors are needed to identify the high risk of malignant transformation in potentially malignant oral lesions. Our purpose is to explore PTPRZ1 and p120/

β

-catenin pathogenesis in the carcinogenesis of OSF to identify novel drug targets. Methods. The expression of PTPRZ1, p120, and

β

-catenin in clinical tissues was detected. Then, PTPRZ1, p120,

β

-catenin, RhoA, Rac1, CDC42, cyclin D1, and c-myc expressions were detected by qRT-PCR and western blot. CCK-8 was applied to measure hOMF cells viability. Wound healing and transwell assay were applied to measure cell migration and invasion. Western blot and IF detected the distribution of p-p120 and p-

β

-catenin. Tumor formation experiment explored PTPRZ1 effects on OSF. Results. PTPRZ1, p120, and

β

-catenin were abnormally expressed in cancer tissues. PTPRZ1 regulated the phosphorylation of p120/

β

-catenin. Western blot and IF showed that in the oe-NC group, p-p120 and p-

β

-catenin were expressed in the cell membrane. p-p120 and p-

β

-catenin were expressed in the cytoplasm and nucleus of the oe-PTPRZ1 group. In vitro experimental results revealed overexpression of PTPRZ1 and

β

-catenin, and silencing of p120 promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. The tumor volume and weight in the sh-PTPRZ1 group were significantly reduced. IHC revealed the positive rate of PTPRZ1 was also low. Conclusions. Overexpression of PTPRZ1 regulated the phosphorylation of p120/

β

-catenin to promote OSF malignancy.
Sevoflurane Suppresses the Growth, Metastasis, and Invasion of Endometrial Carcinoma Cells via miR-195-5p/JAK2 Axis
Authors: Fu Guowei , Huang Junlan , Wu Zhouquan , Zhao Lin
Published: February 2022

Background. Highly invasive and destructive endometrioma is one of the most familiar primary malignant tumors among women. It has been studied that sevoflurane can influence the development of various malignancies. But whatever sevoflurane could influence endometrial tumors is unknown. Materials and Methods. Through CCK8 and transwell analysis, we investigated the influence of sevoflurane on the development of endometrial tumors in vitro. Then, we studied the function of miRNA-195-5p to promote sevoflurane to inhibit the development of endometrial tumors. Then, we predicted the target genes of miRNA-195-5p by online software and focused on JAK2. Through luciferase assay, we proved the direct binding and regulation of miRNA-195-5p to JAK2. Results. We showed that sevoflurane could inhibit the growth, metastasis, and invasion of endometrial tumors via miRNA-195-5p/JAK2 axis. Conclusions. Our research shows the function of sevoflurane in inhibiting the development of endometrial tumors via miRNA-195-5p/JAK2 axis. Our findings proved that sevoflurane is potentially beneficial for endometrial carcinoma patients with surgery and may be helpful for the choice of anesthetics in endometrial carcinoma operations.
A Motion Capture Data-Driven Automatic Labanotation Generation Model Using the Convolutional Neural Network Algorithm
Authors: Yao Jiang , Chen Yang
Published: February 2022

All human movements can be effectively represented with labanotation, which is simple to read and preserve. However, manually recording the labanotation takes a long time, so figuring out how to use the labanotation to accurately and quickly record and preserve traditional dance movements is a key research question. An automatic labanotation generation algorithm based on DL (deep learning) is proposed in this study. The BVH file is first analyzed, and the data are then converted. On this foundation, a CNN (convolutional neural network) algorithm for generating the dance spectrum of human lower-limb movements is proposed, which is very good at learning action space information. The algorithm performs admirably in terms of classification and recognition. Finally, a spatial segmentation-based automatic labanotation generation algorithm is proposed. To begin, every frame of data is converted into a symbol sequence using spatial law, resulting in a very dense motion sequence. The motion sequence is then regulated according to the minimum beat of motion obtained through wavelet analysis. To arrive at the final result, the classifier is used to determine whether each symbol is reserved or not. As a result, we will be able to create more accurate dance music for simple human movements.
Time-Driven Scheduling Based on Reinforcement Learning for Reasoning Tasks in Vehicle Edge Computing
Authors: Lin Bing , Chen Qiaoxin , Lu Yu
Published: February 2022

Significant challenges for reasoning tasks scheduling remain, including the selection of an optimal tasks-servers solution from the possible numerous combinations, due to the heterogeneous resources in edge environments and the complicated data dependencies in reasoning tasks. In this study, a time-driven scheduling strategy based on reinforcement learning (RL) for reasoning tasks in vehicle edge computing is designed. Firstly, the reasoning process of vehicle applications is abstracted as a model based on directed acyclic graphs. Secondly, the execution order of subtasks is defined according to the priority evaluation method. Finally, the optimal tasks-servers scheduling solution is chosen by Deep Q-learning (DQN). The extensive simulation experiments show that the proposed scheduling strategy can effectively reduce the completion delay of reasoning tasks. It performs better in algorithm convergence and runtime compared with the classic algorithms.
Hybridizing Grid Search and Support Vector Regression to Predict the Compressive Strength of Fly Ash Concrete
Authors: Tang Fei , Wu Yanqi , Zhou Yisong
Published: February 2022

Support vector regression (SVR) has been applied to the prediction of mechanical properties of concrete, but the selection of its hyperparameters has been a key factor affecting the prediction accuracy. To this end, hybrid machine learning combines the SVR model and grid search (GS), namely, the GS‐SVR model was proposed to predict the compressive strength of concrete and sensitivity analysis in this work. The hybrid model was trained and tested on a total of 98 datasets retrieved from literature, and the model performance was compared with the original SVR model under the same datasets. The obtained results in terms of R of 0.981, MSE of 3.44, RMSE of 1.85, MAE of 1.17, and MAPE of 0.05 demonstrate that the GS‐SVR model proposed can be a candidate method for compressive strength prediction in subsequent related studies. Additionally, a graphical user interface (GUI) was developed to conveniently provide some initial estimates of the outcomes before performing extensive laboratory or fieldwork. Finally, the effect of each variable on the compressive strength in a random environment was analyzed.
Hysterosalpingography with Oil-Soluble Contrast Medium Does Not Increase Newborn Hypothyroidism
Authors: Mathews Divya M. , Peart Jane M. , Johnson Neil P. , Sim Robert G. , Heather Natasha L. , Webster Dianne , O’Sullivan Susannah , Hofman Paul L.
Published: February 2022

Objective. Hysterosalpingography (HSG) with oil-soluble contrast medium (OSCM) improves pregnancy rates in women with idiopathic infertility. However, OSCM has high iodine content and slow clearance resulting in potential iodine excess. If pregnancy occurs, this could impact fetal thyroid gland development and function. We aim to determine the effect of a preconceptional OSCM HSG on the thyroid function of the neonate. Design and Patients. This was a retrospective analysis of newborn TSH data for a cohort of neonates conceived within six months of an OSCM HSG in the Auckland region, New Zealand, from the years 2000 to 2019. Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels of these newborns were obtained from newborn screening, which is routinely performed for all children at 48–72 hours of life. The primary outcome was the incidence of permanent or transient congenital hypothyroidism in this cohort. Results. Of 146 babies included, all had normal TSH levels with values ranging from 1 to 7 mIU/L on the whole blood analysis of a capillary heel sample using the Perkin–Elmer AutoDelfia assay. Conception during the first 3 cycles following an OSCM HSG was 76%; however, TSH levels in this group were not higher than those conceived in later cycles. Conclusion. Preconceptional OSCM HSG did not increase the risk of congenital hypothyroidism in the New Zealand scenario.
Coupled Thermo-Structural Analysis Model of Solid Rocket Motor Nozzle considering the Variation of Friction Coefficient under Operating Conditions
Authors: Sun Lin , Jia Huiyin , Zhang Nan , Zhao Yu , Bao Futing
Published: February 2022

Multi-interface is a typical feature of solid rocket motor nozzles, and the interface evolution law is an important aspect to analyze the thermo-structural response of solid rocket motor nozzles. In this paper, based on the friction coefficient test at different temperatures, a coupled thermo-structural analysis model of solid rocket motor nozzle considering the variation of friction coefficient under operating conditions was established. Firstly, the friction coefficient was tested to model the variation at different temperatures. Then, by adopting structure gap, variable friction coefficient, thermal contact resistance, and friction heat production, a strongly coupled non-linear model was established. Simulations using the non-linear model and traditional model were performed, in which the stress of the throat insert was within the required stress range of the material. The ground firing test result demonstrated the validity of the analysis model, and the non-linear model was in a better agreement with the firing test than the traditional model. Therefore, it can be concluded that with a more specific friction coefficient to represent the friction behaviour of the different parts of the nozzle, the strongly coupled non-linear model established in this paper can reflect the essence of thermo-structural response of solid rocket motor nozzle.
Dialysis Disequilibrium: Is Acidosis More Important than Urea?
Authors: Athavale Akshay , Wyburn Kate R , Snelling Paul L , Chadban Steven J
Published: February 2022

Dialysis disequilibrium syndrome is a severe complication associated with dialysis treatment. Manifestations may range from mild such as headache to severe such as seizures and coma. Risk factors for development include initial dialysis treatment, uraemia, metabolic acidosis, and extremes of age. We report a case of dialysis disequilibrium in a patient with a failing kidney transplant secondary to the recurrence of IgA nephropathy. Disturbance in cognition and neurologic functioning occurred six hours after the completion of initiation of intermittent haemodialysis. During two sessions of intermittent haemodialysis of 3 and 4 hours, urea was reduced by 21.9 and 17.2 mmol/L and measured serum osmolality was reduced by 25 and 14 mOsm/kg, respectively. Subsequent admission to the intensive care unit and initiation of continuous renal replacement therapy for 48 hours resulted in complete resolution of symptoms. In this case report, we discuss atypical clinical and radiologic features of dialysis disequilibrium occurring with modest reductions in urea and serum osmolality.
Eye Donation: Awareness, Knowledge, Willingness, and Barriers among Paramedical and Allied Health Science Students at a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in South India
Authors: Kacheri Aimanfatima , Mudhol Rekha , Chougule Sanjeev , Reny Rhema , Kamath Sagarika , Kamath Rajesh
Published: February 2022

Background. Visual impairments have physical, emotional, social, and economical consequences and are a crucial element influencing one's quality of life. A total of 1.285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide of which 39 million are categorised as blind. These figures are startling, given that 80 percent of known vision impairments are either treatable or preventable. Corneal transplants appear to be our best hope for resolving this problem; however, a global shortage of available donors continues to dampen efforts addressing this issue. Methods. This two-year cross-sectional study employed a convenience sampling technique and a standardised questionnaire to survey 150 paramedical and allied health science students at a tertiary care teaching hospital and assessed the awareness, knowledge, willingness and barriers regarding eye donation. Results. The study revealed a 93.3% awareness rate of the donation procedure, of which 46% attributed their awareness to media sources. However, other aspects assessed had much lower awareness rates; when the eyes are donated (53.3%), optimal time period for retrieval of tissue/organ (54%), ideal part transplanted (54%), age limit not restricting donation (67%), donation by donors using spectacles (48%), confidentiality of the donor and recipient (54%), hospital having the facility of an eye bank (63%). 49 percent of the respondents were willing to pledge themselves as eye donors, and a majority of the unwilling respondents reported that familial opposition was the reason for their hesitation. Conclusion. Knowledge levels appear to be below expectations, and more effort is required to ensure that knowledge is imparted to our healthcare practitioners, who will then transfer this knowledge to the population, resulting in an increase in donation rates.
A Novel Risk-Prediction Scoring System for Sepsis among Patients with Acute Pancreatitis: A Retrospective Analysis of a Large Clinical Database
Authors: Feng Aozi , Ao Xi , Zhou Ning , Huang Tao , Li Li , Zeng Mengnan , Lyu Jun
Published: February 2022

Background. The prognosis is poor when acute pancreatitis (AP) progresses to sepsis; therefore, it is necessary to accurately predict the probability of sepsis and develop a personalized treatment plan to reduce the disease burden of AP patients. Methods. A total of 1295 patients with AP and 43 variables were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) IV database. The included patients were randomly assigned to the training set and to the validation set at a ratio of 7 : 3. The chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test was used to test the distribution of categorical variables, and Student’s t-test was used for continuous variables. Multivariate logistic regression was used to establish a prognostic model for predicting the occurrence of sepsis in AP patients. The indicators to verify the overall performance of the model included the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), calibration curves, the net reclassification improvement (NRI), the integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and a decision curve analysis (DCA). Results. The multifactor analysis results showed that temperature, phosphate, calcium, lactate, the mean blood pressure (MBP), urinary output, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), sodium, platelet count, and albumin were independent risk factors. All of the indicators proved that the prediction performance and clinical profitability of the newly established nomogram were better than those of other common indicators (including SIRS, BISAP, SOFA, and qSOFA). Conclusions. The new risk-prediction system that was established in this research can accurately predict the probability of sepsis in patients with acute pancreatitis, and this helps clinicians formulate personalized treatment plans for patients. The new model can reduce the disease burden of patients and can contribute to the reasonable allocation of medical resources, which is significant for tertiary prevention.
A Smoothing SAA Method for Solving a Nonconvex Multisource Supply Chain Stochastic Optimization Model
Authors: Deng Chunlin , Xiong Yao , Yang Liu , Yang Yi
Published: February 2022

We construct a new multisource supply chain stochastic optimization model when the supply and demand are both uncertain. This model is nonconvex because the decision variables are truncated by the random variable in the objective function. It is a common technical challenge encountered in many operations management models. To address this challenge, we adopt a novel transformation technique to transform the nonconvex problem into an equivalent convex optimization problem. Then, we provide a smoothing sample average approximation (SAA) method to solve the transformed problem. The SAA model is a good approximation for the expected value function in the objective function when the number of samples is large enough. The smoothing technique can transfer the nonsmooth plus function into a smoothing function in the model, and thus, we can use the numerical methods for the common nonlinear integer programming to solve the transformed model. Numerical tests verify the effectiveness of the new model and the smoothing SAA method.
The Effects of Rso2 and PI Monitoring Images on the Treatment of Premature Infants Based on Deep Learning
Authors: Li Junran , Ma Jing , Liu Sudan , Qiao Yanxia , Shen Cuncun , Qiu Jingjing , Zhang Ming , He Lanlan , Fan Tao
Published: February 2022

In recent years, due to the combined effects of individual behavior, psychological factors, environmental exposure, medical conditions, biological factors, etc., the incidence of preterm birth has gradually increased, so the incidence of various complications of preterm infants has also become higher and higher. This article is aimed at studying the therapeutic effects of preterm infants and proposing the application of rSO2 and PI image monitoring based on deep learning to the treatment of preterm infants. This article introduces deep learning, blood perfusion index, preterm infants, and other related content in detail and conducts experiments on the treatment of rSO2 and PI monitoring images based on deep learning in preterm infants. The experimental results show that the rSO2 and PI monitoring images based on deep learning can provide great help for the treatment of preterm infants and greatly improve the treatment efficiency of preterm infants by at least 15%.
The Role of Confucian-Transformational Leadership in Shaping and Influencing Chinese MNEs
Authors: Hui Yu
Published: February 2022

The demand to comprehend leadership across the world is becoming necessary and more urgent since the inevitable trend of globalization. In today’s global arena, on the one hand, China has maintained its remarkable economic performance and Chinese culture will have a more powerful influence in the foreseeable future; on the other hand, due to the policy of reform and opening and the economy market, western management theories and practices have flowed into the Chinese market and influencing Chinese companies. Thus Chinese leadership needs to develop more compatible with western leadership, thereby Chinese MNEs become more adaptive and competitive in the current global business environment. Against this background, this paper focuses on Confucian leadership, the most important Chinese leadership shaped by traditional Confucianism for more than 3000 years, and attempts to explore the compatibility of Confucian leadership and transformational leadership. After a thorough case study of Haier Group and its CEO Zhang, Ruimin, the research found that the great success of Haier is due largely to Zhang’s Confucian-transformational leadership, which combines both the wisdom of traditional Chinese Confucianism and the essence of western transformational leadership theory. Therefore, it is demonstrated that Confucian leadership plays a vital role in shaping the management style and performance of Chinese companies, and there can be a high level of compatibility between Confucian leadership and transformational leadership.
Analysis of the Mechanism of Political Cost in the Complex Environmental Governance System
Authors: Li Xintao , Cheng Tongshun , Zhang Zaisheng , Zhao Li
Published: February 2022

The emergence of conflicts between environmental safety incidents and protection rights generates sizeable political costs, which endangers the legitimacy of the government as well as political security and stability. This article further examines the role of political costs in environmental issues. First, political costs in relation to environmental issues are defined. An equilibrium strategic analysis is then presented using an evolutionary game model in which the strategic behavioral choices of government, enterprises, and citizens are investigated by embedding political costs in the environmental governance system. Furthermore, the small‐signal model was innovatively applied to simulate and analyze the stability of political costs under different equilibrium strategies in the system. The results show the following. (1) Pubic behavior and government are the dominant factors that impact stability and instability, respectively. Public behavior is the core element that affects political cost consumption. (2) When political costs are extremely depleted, the public will neglect economic interests, turn toward environmental interests, and choose the negative participation strategy, which destabilizes the system. (3) The political cost signal at the optimal equilibrium point not only warns the government not to take the desperate action of concealing information asymmetry but also allows the government to let go of its hands to deal with the environmental issues. Corresponding policy recommendations are proposed.
Zhibai Dihuang Pill Alleviates Ureaplasma urealyticum-Induced Spermatogenic Failure and Testicular Dysfunction via MAPK Signaling Pathway
Authors: Zhang Kai , Guo Junhua , Zhu Yong , Zhang Rui
Published: February 2022

The testicles and sperm are extremely susceptible to inflammation and oxidative stress. Although Zhibai Dihuang Pill (ZDP) has been reported to treat various infertilities including male infertility induced by Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU) infection, its mechanism is still poorly understood. This study is aimed at clarifying the underlying mechanism of ZDP to protect against UU-infected male infertility. We found that UU-infected infertile rats exhibited weight loss, reduced food intake, and decreased sperm count and vitality. The administration of ZDP improved the general state and sperm motility of rats. In addition, UU infection led to spermatogenesis disorders, impaired secretory function and blood-testis barrier (BTB) of Sertoli cells, and elevated inflammation and oxidative stress. As expected, ZDP suppressed inflammation and oxidative stress to alleviate spermatogenesis disorders. Our research showed that ZDP could improve spermatogenesis disorders and testicular function primarily through the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. ZDP exerts its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects via the MAPK signaling pathway, thus playing an important role in ameliorating spermatogenesis failure and testicular dysfunction.
Research on the Improvement Method of Music Education Level under the Background of AI Technology
Authors: Qiusi Mao
Published: February 2022

To improve the demand pressure of traditional music on space, music equipment, and funds in the teaching mode, this study presents a music education model based on the model view controller (MVC) framework structure based on AI technology; the model optimizes traditional music education by intelligent adjustment of computational audio and three-frequency equalizer, through the integration of artificial intelligence and music education; seven feasible explorations are put forward; and its effects and the value and future development trend of artificial intelligence in music education were also analyzed. Subsequently, the bivariate t-test was used to check and accept the teaching effect of the implemented music education classroom, and teacher and parent satisfaction with music education in the AI background was compared. The results show that, compared with traditional teaching models, music education based on AI background has high satisfaction among students, teachers, and parents. This study lays a solid foundation for the future integration of music education and intelligent technology, and the investment of artificial intelligence can effectively expand the popularization of high-quality music education, thus expanding the level of universal music education in China, improving the national music literacy, and providing valuable development ideas for the research of artificial intelligence technology in other teaching fields.
Comparison of Senior Leisure Activities in China and the United States from the Perspective of Cultural Differences
Authors: Yang Shuang , Ye Sheling , Li Haiyan
Published: February 2022

Leisure activities are important in older adults’ life. With the higher mobility and internationalization of population, the leisure behavior and habits of older adults in different countries have become a popular topic among international scholars. This study was to compare the different leisure activities of older adults in two countries—the US and China—to discuss the possible reasons for the differences from traditional and social-cultural aspects. The sample data (192 Chinese aged over 60) was collected in a metropolis in China—Hangzhou—and was compared with data undertaken by Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published in American Time Use Survey (ATUS). We found that older adults in the US and China spend similar daily leisure time on average; watching TV and walking are the most popular choices of indoor and outdoor leisure activities, respectively, by both Americans and Chinese. Surfing the Internet, communicating with others (indoor) and traditional activities (leisure activities from ancient China, like Taiji, sword dancing, etc.), and physical exercises (outdoor) are the second most popular choices of Chinese older adults; while socializing, reading, working out, and using sports technology equipment for outdoor exercising are popular among older adults in the US. Possible reasons for the differences were discussed from individual differences and collectivist cultures, independent and dependent habits, reliance on family, early education, and the value of young mentality versus conservative spirit.