bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Patient Factors and Perioperative Outcomes Affect Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey Response Rates After Primary Total Hip Replacement
Authors: Mercier Michael R. , Pathak Neil , Adrados Murillo , Galivanche Anoop R. , Malpani Rohil , Hilibrand Ari S. , Rubin Lee E. , Grauer Jonathan N.
Published: April 2021

Introduction:

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey is a federally mandated survey that assesses patient satisfaction after hospitalization. It has been noted that a minority of patients actually return the survey. Potential bias in who does and does not respond to the survey (nonresponse bias) after total hip arthroplasty (THA) may affect the survey results.

Methods:

All adult patients undergoing inpatient elective primary THA between February 2013 and May 2020 at a single institution were selected for retrospective analysis. After discharge, all had been mailed the HCAHPS survey, and the primary outcome for the current study was survey return. Patient characteristics and 30-day perioperative outcomes were assessed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine correlations between the above variables and HCAHPS survey return status.

Results:

Of 3,310 THA patients analyzed, 1,049 (31.69%) returned the HCAHPS surveys. On multivariate regression analyses, patients who did not return the survey were more likely to have a higher American Society of Anesthesia score (score of three or higher, odds ratio [OR] = 2.27; P < 0.001), be more functionally dependent (OR = 2.69; P = 0.005), or be Black/African American (OR = 3.40; P < 0.001). Similarly, patients who did not return the survey were more likely to have had any adverse event (OR = 1.80; P = 0.012), major adverse event (OR = 2.88; P = 0.007), readmission (OR = 2.13; P < 0.001), be discharged to a place other than home (OR = 1.71; P < 0.001), or stay in the hospital for longer than 3 days (OR = 1.89; P < 0.001).

Discussion:

After THA, the HCAHPS survey response rate was only 31.69% and completion of the survey correlated with demographic and perioperative variables. These findings suggest that the HCAHPS survey results should be interpreted as a skewed sample of the true surgical patient population. Nonresponse bias is an important factor to consider when evaluating healthcare quality, patient satisfaction survey results, and their effects on federal hospital reimbursement rates.
Gynecological laparoscopic surgeries in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: a prospective study
Authors: Saha Sushmita , Roy Kallol Kumar , Zangmo Rinchen , Das Anamika , Bharti Juhi , Rai Rakhi , Kumari Archana , Suresh Gayatri , Noor Nilofar , Vanamail Perumal
Published: April 2021

Objective The novel coronavirus pandemic led to the suspension of elective surgeries and the diversion of resources and manpower towards pandemic control. However, gynecological emergencies and malignancies must be addressed despite the restricted resources and the need for protective measures against COVID-19. This study aimed to determine the types of gynecological surgeries performed, difficulties encountered, and their outcomes in the setting of the pandemic.Methods We performed a prospective cohort study over 6 months at a single tertiary center, including 60 women with gynecological complaints, categorized as emergencies and semi-emergencies, who underwent further surgery. Their surgical outcomes were measured through various parameters.Results We found that 68.3% were emergency cases, while the rest were classified as semi-emergencies. Fibroid and adenomyosis with failed medical management (48.3%), followed by cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (10%), and malignancies (10%) accounted for the semi-emergency cases, while ruptured ectopic pregnancies (13.3%) and torsion and ovarian cysts (18.4%) comprised the emergency cases. The decision to incision time between emergency and semi-emergency cases varied widely due to the safety prerequisites during the pandemic, ranging from 1 hour in emergency cases to 48 hours in semi-emergency cases. In addition, we studied the ease of preoperative preparation, patient satisfaction, and the average number of personnel available to run the operation theaters at these times. No serious perioperative adverse events were observed in the present study.Conclusion In conclusion, gynecological surgeries could continue to be safely performed with all precautions in place against COVID-19 infection and related morbidities.
Mosquito survey reveals the first record of Aedes (Diptera: Culicidae) species in urban area, Annaba district, Northeastern Algeria
Authors: Arroussi Djamel Eddine Rachid , Bouaziz Ali , Boudjelida Hamid
Published: April 2021

The diversity, distribution and ecology of mosquitoes, especially arbovirus vectors are important indices for arthropod-borne diseases control. The mosquito larvae were collected in different habitats in four sites of Annaba district, Algeria, during the period of March 2018 to February 2019 and the properties of larval habitats were recorded for each site. The systematic study revealed the presence of 8 species belonging to 4 genera; including Culex pipiens (Linnaeus, 1758), Culex modestus (Ficalbi, 1889), Culex theileri (Theobald, 1903), Culiseta longiareolata (Macquart, 1838), Anopheles labranchiae (Falleroni, 1926), Anopheles claviger (Meigen, 1804), Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894). Among the species, C. pipiens presented the highest species abundance (RA %) (55.23%) followed by C. longiareolata (20.21%). The Aedes species are recorded for the first time in the study urban area. Variation of diversity in different sites depends on the type of breeding habitat. These results provided important information on species diversity, distribution and factors associated with breeding habitats. They could be used for the mosquito control and to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases to the population of the region.
The World Citizen and Democracy
Authors: Hashimoto Noriko ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

A number of devastating disasters have occurred in Japan since 2017, including heavy rains, wide ranging floods, a large typhoon, earthquakes, and landslides. Such disasters are beyond our imagination and our scientific assumptions. All of these come from global warming, which comes from human economic activities with CO2 emissions. There are interdependencies around the globe, between sea and land, ocean and air currents, and so on. In the twentieth century, we pushed technological innovation to conquer nature, but it only partly succeeded—and was actually almost in vain. We must recognize that human beings are a part of nature and must rethink our attitude towards nature. As citizens of the world, human beings must have a keen sensibility to find new virtue, “living together on the same globe.” It is the new ideal beyond boundaries and beyond differences between the rich and the poor, looking for the possibility of democracy.
The Cinematic Chiasm
Authors: Gupta Nisha ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

This paper is a recommendation for phenomenologists to use film as a perceptually-faithful language with which to disseminate research and in­sights about lived experience. I use Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy to illus­trate how film can evoke a state of profound, embodied empathy between self-and-other, which I refer to as “the cinematic chiasm”. I incorporate a case study of my experience as audience member becoming intertwined with the flesh of the film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” I discuss four aesthetic techniques of this film through which I became enveloped in a state of visceral empathy towards the “other” on-screen. The cin­ematic chiasm offers exciting, creative possibilities for phenomenologists, particularly those who are interested in evoking widespread empathy for social justice purposes.
“Oh, a friend!” Psychotherapy and the Other in the Light of Montaigne’s Essays
Authors: Starr Rachel ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

The irrepressible 16th century humanist and essayist, Michel de Montaigne, wrote a self-portrait with such unprecedented candour and conversational flair, that he all but jumps from the page and shakes your hand. At Mon­taigne’s invitation, I bring together psychotherapists and the Essays in a conversation that revives the notion of friendship, and evokes the pleasure of mutual revelation in the search for understanding. In the light of the Essays’ “gay and sociable wisdom”, I see essaying and therapy as discrete yet closely intertwined cultural tasks. Each is an openhearted work of being together, of making room for alterity rather than conquering it with theory. Only in a world made coherent through the practices of friendship and hospitality can we come to cultivate the otherness of painful separations, tolerate the strangeness of our ordinary foibles, and draw closer to life.
Dead Tilt: Playing for Keeps at “The Blue Hotel,” the Prize and the Price
Authors: Splendora Anthony ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

Stephen Crane had not advanced beyond his teenage years before twelve of the sixteen original members of his immediate family had died, and by his early twenties he was becoming symptomatic with the tuberculosis that would kill him at twenty eight. Death, ever present, overshadowed his life and like a threatening eclipse looms, markedly, in his best work. “The Blue Hotel,” a crowning realization of the short story form, is a site for the expurgation of that relentless spectre, its alienated and adversarial Swede a personification of Crane’s own dissolution, forthwith to be ritualistically purged. Such sacrifice is shown to be psychosocially well founded, historical in long practice and supported by current theory as a means of restoring order to exigent chaos; here Crane in 1898, nearing his unruly end, implemented sacrificial victimization allegorically, with cardplaying rather than the casting of lots his aleatory selector, for the most vital personal reason.
“Misplaced Men: Aging and Change in Coetzee’s Disgrace and McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men”
Authors: Stewart Robert Scott , Manson Michael ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

“That is no country for old men” is the famous first line of Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium,” which reflects upon aging, art, and immortality. Yeats sug­gests in his poem that the aged ought to move from the sensual, physical world of their youth to a world of intellect and timeless beauty. We em­ploy this poem and that line to explore the aging male protagonists in two recent novels: Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men, and J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace. We suggest that though both of the novel’s pro­tagonists have aspirations to ’sail to Byzantium’, various factors ranging from their characters to the problematic realities of contemporary south­west America and South Africa make such a wholesale, successful journey impossible even though some progress is made.
Scattering the Articles of Textual Law
Authors: Harvey Lawrence ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

This article interrogates the poethical turn in the work of the later Levinas. In the first instance, this reading brings to the fore the extent to which Levinas’ early ethical position paradoxically repeats formerly deni­grated aspects of Heidegger’s philosophy. Secondly, through the aperture of Celan’s poetry, Levinas’ later ethical reformulation is examined. This article demonstrates that it is through a heightened attention to language that Levinas attempts to counter the tacit duplication of Heideggerian ideals. Crucially, this article seeks to establish that it is only when Levinas fully embraces the ‘poetry of language’ that the residual Heideggerian re-inscription is finally redressed; this process of redress being mediated via what Celan refers to as ‘the not-to-be-deciphered’ free-floating poetic word.
Dialogical Dasien
Authors: Warfield Bradley ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

In this paper I argue that the Heidegger of Being and Time is a dialogist, and ought to be situated in the tradition of other twentieth-century dialogists like Bakhtin and Gadamer. Specifically, I claim that Heidegger’s conceptions of the “Being-with,” “discourse,” and “solicitude” of Dasein in BT illustrate his endorsement of a conception of dialogicality. There are three advantages to proposing that Heidegger is a dialogist in BT. First, this paradigm offers a more perspicuous vocabulary for describing the discursive nature of Dasein’s Being-in-the-world as a Being-with others. Second, it provides a better way of understanding the normative dimensions of “solicitude.” Lastly, it helps to underscore how Dasein’s identity remains social even in the seemingly individualizing moment of becoming authentic.
Toward a Feminist Critic of Science
Authors: Barua Archana ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

It is undeniable that aspects of postmodernist thought are also useful to the feminist goal of unseating the hegemonic dominance of traditional male authority. The threat of moral relativism hangs over the Postmodernist head, and this stance is strongly criticized within feminist circles: As Carol Gilligan has said,” Life can’t just be continually reconstructed; ...There is a complex reality, yes, but there is something called reality, and there is something called a you.” A postmodern feminism can cope with the collapsed notions of foundationalist premises, such as that of the stable and unified self-concept. This article makes an attempt at re-visiting feminist critic of science in light of phenomenological and hermeneutical attempts at bridging the gap between science and life either in the Husserlian project of restoring the structures of the Life World, or in the Heideggerian quest for liberating the ‘Being’ from the prison house of language. Do they share similar concerns for overcoming the limitations of binary structures of understanding? The article makes an attempt at understanding the one from the perspective of the other and vice versa.
Space, language, and the limits of knowledge
Authors: Pannese Alessia ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

William Thomas Beckford’s Vathek chronicles the eponymous Caliph’s struggle and ultimate fall into hell as a divine punishment for his unre­strained desire for knowledge. Around the time Beckford wrote Vathek, Immanuel Kant released the Critique of Pure Reason, whose central implication is that human knowledge is restricted to appearances. Drawing on textual evidence from Vathek’s first three editions and from Kant’s Critique, I explore ways in which knowledge is negotiated and mediated by the limits of human intellect and sensory perception as they intersect with the protean boundary between reality and appearance, and suggest that Beckford’s Vathek may be viewed as a literary instantiation of Kant’s transcendental idealism, as they both - albeit in different ways - impose severe limits on man’s epistemic ability.
Spinozan Realism
Authors: Adams Don ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

This essay argues that the critically neglected work of the American mid-twentieth-century writer Jane Bowles is a rare attempt at realism in modern fiction that takes as its metaphysical premise the reality referred to in Spinoza’s pronouncement, “By reality and perfection I understand the same.” Bowles’ innately allegorical fiction is an effort to reveal the perfect reality of the world by prophetically creating the future rather than mimetically preserving the present and recovering the past, expressing a world that is existentially founded rather than representationally endured. The realism of perfection her prophetic creations strive to apprehend serves as a necessary reproof of the all too actual world reflected in merely mimetic fiction.
On What Matters for African Americans: W. E. B. Du Bois’s “Double Consciousness” in the Light of Derek Parfit’s Reasons and Persons
Authors: Wainwright Michael ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

In Reasons and Persons (1984), the greatest contribution to utilitarian philosophy since Henry Sidgwick’s The Methods of Ethics (1874), Derek Parfit supports his Reductionist contention “that personal identity is not what matters” by turning to the neurosurgical findings of Roger Wolcott Sperry. Parfit’s scientifically informed argument has important implications for W. E. B. Du Bois’s contentious hypothesis of African-American “double-consciousness,” which he initially advanced in “Strivings of the Negro People” (1897), before amending for inclusion in The Souls of Black Folk (1903). An analysis of “Of the Coming of John,” chapter 13 in The Souls of Black Folk, helps to trace these ramifications, resituating Du Bois’s notion from the pragmatist to the utilitarian tradition, and revealing how his concept effectively prefigured Parfit’s scientifically informed Reductionism.
The Touch of Meaning
Authors: Cipriani Gerald ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

The academic world, at least in the West, has traditionally always been suspicious when it comes to introducing in its quest for knowledge notions of materiality, touch, texture, or “haptics” – in other words what is generally associated with sensory-experience. In the human sciences and the artistic fields the practice of research has always privileged “textual reason” over “sensory texture,” the textual over the textural. Only in the recent past have so-called postmodern theories of all kinds attempted to overcome the hierarchical dichotomy between discursive reason and embodied thought. Unfortunately, this has very often created an unprecedented ragbag of epistemological confusions and identity crises. This essay shall attempt to explain and clarify the epistemological nature of materiality, touch, texture, or “haptics,” and the role it can play in academic research in the artistic fields with particular reference to ideas developed by French philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Levinas.
Kafka’s “categorical imperative” and his sense of “being and non-being”
Authors: Crisp Ross ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

In this article, I begin with Kant’s notion of a “categorical imperative” as a framework from which to discuss the ontology of Franz Kafka’s writing. Since Kant’s moral law is a device for reflecting on our responses to challenging circumstances rather than one that tells us what we should always do in every situation, I draw inferences concerning Kafka’s own descriptions of his sense of being a writer in opposing phenomenal and spiritual worlds. Since Kafka cannot be understood exclusively from a Kantian perspective of autonomous will, I discuss Kafka’s experiencing in terms of the reciprocal interplay of being and non-being, and his awareness of finitude and the possibility of transcendence. I argue for a humanistic-existential vision of the reading of a literary text as an encounter that responds to the alterity of the Other and which, consistent with Kafka’s oeuvre, privileges being faithful to one’s own experiencing.
Chasing After Nothingness—Reading Zhang Ailing Through Žižek’s Interpretation of Lacan
Authors: Lin Wei-Hsin ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

This article provides a Lacanian reading of one of the short stories of Zhang Ailing, a Chinese writer. It is intended to explore the possibility of employing Lacan’s theory of the symbolic order to the interpretation of a Chinese text, as well as to broaden our understanding of Zhang’s work and to unlock the potential of the applicability of Lacan’s ideas. The final part of the article will draw on Žižek’s interpretation of Lacan to illustrate how Zhang, unlike most of her contemporaries, is exempted from the obsession with China and how this obsession can lead us to the conclusion that whatever we chase obsessively in life is nothing but nothingness.
Motivations and Causes of the Climax and Decline of Classical Music
Authors: Kraenzel Frederick ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

Biological, social, and technical causes of the splendor and decline of classical music are examined and found insufficient. Evidence shows that music involves unconscious motivation. The classical summit predominantly included part of the German Awakening, showing that this motivation was, at least in part, collective. The German Awakening was a phase of the Western turn from religion to a world view centered on conscious human experience and power. The decline of classical music parallels developments in literature, science, and history as this world view approaches a stage of exhaustion.
Subjects of Desire
Authors: Ball Andrew ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

In the latter period of his work, Samuel Beckett began to devote much of his writing to exploring the nature of the voice and the gaze. Even those works that directly concerned silence and blindness implicitly thematized the voice and the gaze by embodying their absence. With later works, Beckett began to call into question the way in which these phenomena contributed to the constitution of subjects, modes of self-identification, and their relation to chosen objects of desire. In the 1950s and 1960s, Beckett produced dozens of short pieces of prose and theatrical works that wholly dispensed with traditional plot and character in favor of a series of experimental reductions, for example, to breath and light (Breath), to a disembodied voice (Company, Eh Joe, That Time, Cascando), or to a mouth illuminated by a point of light (Not I). Jacque Lacan, who would come to secure the place of the voice and the gaze in the philosophical canon, wrote and lectured on these concepts at the same time. If brought into dialogue, the work of each thinker—each highly nuanced and complex in its own right—can serve as a hermeneutic tool for better elucidating the function of the voice and the gaze and the role that they play in the formation of subjects. A great deal of critics have erroneously overlooked Lacan’s insistence that when he invokes these concepts he is not speaking about the phenomenal voice or the gaze of perception as such; similarly, Beckett’s work, though it directly thematizes their phenomenal aspects, treats these concepts in a thoroughly Lacanian manner.
Madness as Prophecy in Dystopia
Authors: Catlett Beverley ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

Madness has long been an object of fascination in the Western cultural, literary, medical, and philosophical consciousness, and rightfully so; the human mind is the incredibly powerful, profoundly dynamic lens through which we inevitably perceive reality, and when that lens is corrupted by a defect of health or experience, the results are astounding. Illnesses such as schizophrenia continue to confound scientists to this day, whereas the cause-and-effect designs of other disorders such as PTSD are easily understood.
Vampires, Viruses, and Verbalisation
Authors: Zwart Hub ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

This paper considers Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, published in 1897, as a window into techno-scientific and sociocultural developments of the fin-de-siècle era, ranging from blood transfusion and virology up to communication technology and brain research, but focusing on the birth of psychoanalysis in 1897, the year of publication. Stoker’s literary classic heralds a new style of scientific thinking, foreshadowing important aspects of post-1900 culture. Dracula reflects a number of scientific events which surfaced in the 1890s but evolved into major research areas that are still relevant today. Rather than seeing science and literature as separate realms, moreover, Stoker’s masterpiece encourages us to address the ways in which techno-scientific and psycho-cultural developments mutually challenge and mirror one another, so that we may use his novel to deepen our understanding of emerging research practices and vice versa (Zwart 2008, 2010). Psychoanalysis plays a double role in this. It is the research field whose genealogical constellation is being studied, but at the same time (Lacanian) psychoanalysis guides my reading strategy. Dracula, the infectious, undead Vampire has become an archetypal cinematic icon and has attracted the attention of numerous scholars (Browning & Picart 2009). The vampire complex built on various folkloristic and literary sources and culminated in two famous nineteenth-century literary publications: the story The Vampyre by John Polidori (published in 1819)2 and Stoker’s version. Most of the more than 200 vampire movies released since Nosferatu (1922) are based on the latter (Skal 1990; Browning & Picart 2009; Melton 2010; Silver & Ursini 2010). Yet, rather than on the archetypal cinematic image of the Vampire, I will focus on the various scientific ideas and instruments employed by Dracula’s antagonists to overcome the threat to civilisation he represents. Although the basic storyline is well-known, I will begin with a plot summary.
Psychological Perceptiveness in Pushkin’s Poetry and Prose
Authors: Hertler Steven C. ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

This is the first of five papers celebrating the psychological complexity of nineteenth century Russian novels authored by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, and Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. Using biography, letters, narratives, and literary criticism, the life and writings of each author will be reviewed as they contribute to the understanding of the human mind and the apperception of the human condition. More subtly than the case study, more fully than the clinical anecdote, more profoundly than the apt example, these novels animate sterile, empirical findings and add dimension to the flatness all too prevalent among psychological description. Herein, Pushkin’s tempestuous upbringing, cavalier belligerence, and eccentric oddities show that the Russian author, as much as his work, sustains and rewards close psychological study.
“Moral Enigma” in Shakespeare’s Othello? An Exercise in Philosophical Hermeneutics
Authors: Swazo Norman ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

Literary criticism of Shakespeare’s Othello since the early 20th century leaves us with various complaints that Shakespeare fails to achieve poetic justice therein, or that this work leaves us, in the end, with a moral enigma—despite what seems to be Shakespeare’s intent to represent a plot and characters having moral probity and, thereby, to foster our moral edification through the tragedy that unfolds. Here a number of interpretive views concerning the morality proper to Othello are reviewed. Thereafter, it is proposed that Heidegger’s thought about the relation of appearance, semblance, and reality enables a novel interpretation of the moral significance of this tragedy, thereby to resolve the question of moral enigma.
Into The Void
Authors: Lewis Clay ,   Philosophy Documentation Center
Published: April 2021

This paper looks at authoritarianism as an expression of nihilism. In spite of his rigorous critique of Platonism, I suggest that Nietzsche shares with Plato an authoritarian vision that is rooted in the cyclical experience of time. The temporality of the eternal return unveils a vista of cosmic nihilism that cannot possibly be endured. In the absence of metaphysical foundations, the vital will to power is assigned an impossible task – to create meaning from nothing. I suggest that when confronted with the horror of the ungrounded void, the self-overcoming of nihilism reverts to self-annihilation. The declaration that God is dead becomes the belief that death is God. I trace Nietzsche’s cosmic nihilism back to Plato’s myths and the poetic vision of Sophocles and Aeschylus. I argue that Nietzsche’s overcoming of nihilism is itself nihilistic. However, this does not mean that Nietzsche’s project is as a complete failure. On the contrary, I suggest that Nietzsche’s deepest insight is that the good life does not consist of the pursuit of truth, but the alleviation of suffering.
Comparative study of chemical pathology sample collection tubes at the largest hospital in South Africa
Authors: Khoza Siyabonga , Ford Sarah , Buthelezi Ernest , Tanyanyiwa Donald
Published: April 2021

Background: BarricorTM Lithium heparin plasma tubes are new blood tubes that have been introduced to overcome the effects of gel in serum separator tubes (SST) and the shortcomings of standard Lithium heparin plasma. We aimed to evaluate BarricorTM tubes as an alternative to serum separator tubes and compare the stability between the tubes. Methods: Forty-four paired samples were collected using both BarricorTM and SST. We compared five analytes at baseline (<6 h) and after every 24 h using the PassingBablok and Bland-Altman plots. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), potassium (K), phosphate (PO4) , lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and creatinine were analysed in both tubes. We calculated the percentage difference for each analyte between the baseline and time intervals to assess analyte stability. The percentage difference was compared to the desirable specification for bias and reference change value (RCV). Results: All analytes were comparable at baseline. Statistical differences (p<0.001) became evident after 24 h. PO4, K, and creatinine had a mean difference that exceeded the desirable specification for bias (-9.59%, - 9.35%, and -4.59%, respectively). Potassium was stable up to 24 h in both tubes. LDH showed better stability in SST (144 h vs 96 h). PO4 concentrations were more stable in both tubes with the SST (96 h vs 72 h). Creatinine and AST had the longest stability in both tubes compared to other analytes (144 h). Conclusions: Data demonstrated variability and similarities in analyte concentrations and stability, respectively, in both tubes.
Recalibration intervals for radiation detection instruments
Authors: Pibida L , Estes B , Mejias M , Klemic G
Published: April 2021

In this work we provide a summary of the National Conference of Standards Laboratories (NCSL) Recommended Practice RP-1 calibration interval analysis method, and examples of the method applied to three sets of available NIST data (two models of radiation survey meters and an electronic dosimeter). Information is provided for how to develop control charts to monitor individual instruments' performance over time in order to determine when instrument requires recalibration; examples are provided for a survey meter and a gamma-ray spectrometer.
16S amplicon sequencing of microbial communities in enriched and non-enriched sediments of non-volcanic hot spring with temperature gradients
Authors: Yasir Muhammad , Qureshi Arooj K. , Azhar Esam I.
Published: April 2021

Microorganisms in geothermal springs can offer insights into the fundamental and applied study of extremophiles. However, low microbial abundance and culturing requirements limit the ability to analyze microbial diversity in these ecosystems. In this study, culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques were used to analyze sediment samples from the non-volcanic Tatta Pani hot springs in district Poonch of Azad Kashmir. Microbial composition, temperature gradient, and enrichment effects on rare taxa were evaluated. In total, 31 distinct bacterial phyla and 725 genera were identified from the non-enriched Tatta Pani hot spring sediment samples, and 33 distinct bacterial phyla and 890 genera from the enriched sediment samples. Unique phyla specimens from the enriched samples included Candidatus Cloacimonetes, Caldiserica, and Korarchaeota archaea. The enriched samples yielded specific microbiota including 805 bacteria and 42 archaea operational taxonomic units with 97% similarity, though decreased thermophilic microbiota were observed in the enriched samples. Microbial diversity increased as temperature decreased. Candidate novel species were isolated from the culture-dependent screening, along with several genera that were not found in the 16S amplicon sequencing data. Overall, the enriched sediments showed high microbial diversity but with adverse changes in the composition of relatively dominant bacteria. Metagenomic analyses are needed to study the diversity, phylogeny, and functional investigation of hot spring microbiota.
A total of 219 metagenome-assembled genomes of microorganisms from Icelandic marine waters
Authors: Jégousse Clara , Vannier Pauline , Groben René , Glöckner Frank Oliver , Marteinsson Viggó
Published: April 2021

Marine microorganisms contribute to the health of the global ocean by supporting the marine food web and regulating biogeochemical cycles. Assessing marine microbial diversity is a crucial step towards understanding the global ocean. The waters surrounding Iceland are a complex environment where relatively warm salty waters from the Atlantic cool down and sink down to the deep. Microbial studies in this area have focused on photosynthetic micro- and nanoplankton mainly using microscopy and chlorophyll measurements. However, the diversity and function of the bacterial and archaeal picoplankton remains unknown. Here, we used a co-assembly approach supported by a marine mock community to reconstruct metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from 31 metagenomes from the sea surface and seafloor of four oceanographic sampling stations sampled between 2015 and 2018. The resulting 219 MAGs include 191 bacterial, 26 archaeal and two eukaryotic MAGs to bridge the gap in our current knowledge of the global marine microbiome.
Effectiveness of Quantitative Monetary Policy Implementation in the Success of Full Employment in Nigeria: 1986-2018
Authors: Origin Chukwu Kenechukwu , Oghenetega Ezekiel Okoh , Ubah Chimarume Blessing
Published: April 2021

This study investigated the effectiveness of quantitative monetary policy implementation in the success of full employment in Nigeria (1986-2018) using secondary data from Statistical bulletin of Central Bank of Nigeria. The research work used the ARDL Auto-regressive Distributed lag models to test the effect of the independent variables (Cash Reserve Ratio, Broad Money Supply, Monetary Policy Rate, Exchange Rate and Liquidity Ratio) on the dependent variable (Employment Rate). The research discovered that quantitative monetary policy instruments had insignificant but positive effect on the employment rate in Nigeria. The research therefore advocates that Government should embark on joint harmonization of fiscal and monetary policy. Central Bank should adopt expansionary monetary policy in order to infuse more funds in the economy. Equally Central Bank should build an efficient and sustained low interest rate intervention fund to support the real sector, especially small and medium enterprises. Government should try to operate a single exchange rate unlike multiple exchange rates it operates within the period of the study.
Factors Associated with the Occurrence of Skin Diseases among Children Attending the Children’s Outpatient Clinic in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Southern Nigeria
Authors: Azubogu Uju S. , Ojule Inumanye
Published: April 2021

Aims: To determine the factors associated with the occurrence of skin diseases among children attending the Children’s Outpatient Clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).

Study Design: A Cross sectional study design was used. It was both descriptive and analytical.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out in the Children’s Outpatient Clinic of the Department of Paediatrics, UPTH from June to August 2020 (3 months).

Methodology: We studied 370 children aged less than 18 years. A semi structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain all relevant data. This was followed by dermatological examination of the children to make diagnosis of skin diseases. Relevant samples for laboratory confirmation were also obtained where necessary.

Results: Among the 88 children (23.7%) who had skin diseases, our study showed that the socio-demographic factors associated with the occurrence of skin diseases includes: male gender (p=0.001) and low socio-economic class (p<0.001). Hygiene-related factors associated with occurrence of skin diseases includes: lack of water within the home (p=0.001), bath frequency < twice per day (p=0.001) and sharing of personal items (p<0.001). On multiple logistic regression analysis of these factors, the factors predictive of skin diseases were: male gender (p=0.000), low and middle socioeconomic class (p=0.004) and lack of water within the home (p=0.013).

Conclusion: Several socio-demographic and hygiene-related factors were identified to be associated with the occurrence of skin diseases among children in our study. These factors provide an important window for interventions to prevent and control the burden of skin diseases among children in our setting.
Modeling the Effect of Public Awareness in Local Dialects in the Spread of Corona Virus in Nigeria
Authors: Nwasuka S. C. , Ignatius O. A. , Nwala K. T. , Ogbonna J. C. , Nwamuruamu G. U.
Published: April 2021

To study Corona virus, a non-linear deterministic mathematical model is formulated and analyzed to study a measure which will be efficient and sufficient to control corona virus combining the already existing control measures. In this model, all individuals are susceptible having the tendency of being infected if control measures are not implemented. The disease-free equilibrium point, feasible region of the model’s solutions was carried out and proves the systems uniqueness and existence.  Numerical solutions of this model indicate that the combination of already existing control measures of corona virus and public awareness in local dialects) is an efficient method to control the spread of corona virus.
Therapeutics Activities of Amazonian Plant Himatanthus sucuuba (Spruce ex Müll. Arg.) Woodson (Apocynaceae): A Review
Authors: Silva Milene Barbosa da , Silva Márcia Pinheiro da , Júnior José Dobles Dias dos Reis , Lima Carlos Antônio Couto , Souza Anderson de Oliveira
Published: April 2021

Several compounds extracted from medicinal plants and their active ingredients can relieve symptoms and even cure diseases, although they occasionally have adverse effects. The knowledge of their properties has been transmitted over the centuries within and among human communities. Himatanthus sucuuba is an Amazon plant that has its value attributed to the different herbal impacts popularly reported. This review presents significant biological activities such as antibacterial, antifungal, anthelmintic, antileishmanial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidepressant, immunoregulatory, cytotoxic, and genotoxic. Thus, provides a synopsis of the literature exploring the extracts of H. sucuuba to the Amazon region that could efficiently prevent pathologies associated with leishmaniosis, infection for bacteria or fungus, depression, oxidative stress, and cytotoxicity or genotoxicity.
Risk Factors and Quality of Life of Lung Cancer Survivors in Lahore, Pakistan
Authors: Sherwani Rehan Ahmad Khan , Gill Sajjad Ali , Younus Saba , Saeed Sana , Saeed Nadia , Shahid Hira
Published: April 2021

Introduction: The objectives of this study is to determine the risk factors of lung cancer were patients and investigate the quality of life of lung cancer survivors. The occupational, smoking, personal, environmental and family history of the survivors are investigated. The well-being of the survivors with physical and social norms not were also studied.

Methods: Risk factors and quality of life from a sample of 50 lung cancer patients investigated through a self-administered questionnaire after getting consent from the hospital management and the patients. All the analysis has been done in SPSS 21.

Results: Most of the lung cancer patients were male smokers with a strong history of smoking, and more than half of the respondents inhaled while smoking cigarettes. The significant risk factors among non-smokers are occupational history, personal history, environmental history, and family history. The impact of environmental history with smoking history is observed in lung cancer patients. The physical well-being of the patients is considerably affected by the disease and the pain in their daily activities.

Conclusion: Smoking remained the leading risk factor of lung cancer patients followed by radon. However, family history is found statistically significant in the prevalence of lung cancer. Authorities should draw and implement some guiding rules to control smoking, radon, and air pollution, particularly in residential areas.
More on the Model: Building on the Ruins of Representation
Authors: Hubert Christian
Published: April 2021

New York‐based architectural designer and critic Christian Hubert discusses the change in status of the architectural model since he wrote his seminal text ‘The Ruins of Representation’, published in the Idea as Model exhibition catalogue in 1981. The previous notion of the model as object and representation has become much more complex as contemporary concepts of worldmodelling have been investigated and established.
Handmade Worlds: Constructing an Inhabitable Modelscape
Authors: Bronner Pascal , Hillier Thomas
Published: April 2021

Co‐founders of FleaFollyArchitects, Pascal Bronner and Thomas Hillier specialise in the disarming effect of distorting the standard rules of architectural scale. Their propositions consist of wondrous, complex models often based on fictitious stories that they take into the outside world to contribute to the story of the city.
Zero Zero Ze(r)ro(r): How the Cartographic Thirst to Project the Real Reveals Spaces for the Creation of New Worlds
Authors: Dillon Ryan
Published: April 2021

Through a cartographic dérive of Greenwich, home of the Prime Meridian, Architectural Association Head of Communications Ryan Dillon reveals lines, variances, elisions, paradoxes and lies in a world that cannot be totally known or described. His trajectory provokes musings on the inconsistencies of the map and the modelling of any terrain.
Spatially Orthogonal 2D Sidechains Optimize Morphology in All‐Small‐Molecule Organic Solar Cells
Authors: Shan Tong , Ding Kui , Yu Liyang , Wang Xin , Zhang Yi , Zheng Xiaoyang , Chen Chun‐Chao , Peng Qiang , Zhong Hongliang
Published: April 2021

Organic semiconductors consist of a conjugated backbone and flexible sidechains. Compared to the meticulous design of backbones, less attention has been paid to the investigation of sidechains, in particular their spatial orientation. Herein, three non‐fullerene acceptors, anti‐PDFC, syn‐PDFC, and PDFC‐Ph, are applied in all‐small‐molecule organic solar cells (ASM‐OSCs) to reveal the varied effects of sidechains on morphology and device performance. With spatially orthogonal alkyl chains, anti‐PDFC and syn‐PDFC show unique bimodal lamellar packing and moderate crystallinity. When blending with an efficient binary BTR‐Cl/Y6 system, anti‐PDFC as well as syn‐PDFC not only form their own crystal phase but also improve the packing order of BTR‐Cl, consequently enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ternary ASM‐OSC to be 14.56%. However, although PDFC‐Ph has an identical backbone with anti‐PDFC, the alternated sidechains make it relatively amorphous, which is prone to damage the original packing of the host donor/acceptor, and thus deteriorating the device performance. When PC71BM is added to optimize the morphology further, the triple‐acceptor device involving anti‐PDFC realizes a PCE of 15.67%, which is among the best efficiencies in ASM‐OSCs. This study demonstrates that a multi‐dimensional sidechain can optimize the morphology of a bulk heterojunction as effective as a conjugated backbone.
Scavenging Energy Sources Using Ferroelectric Materials
Authors: Li Hongyu , Bowen Chris R. , Yang Ya
Published: April 2021

Ferroelectric materials have attracted interest for over a hundred years as a result of their spontaneous polarization and a polarization orientation that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. In addition, the degree of polarization can be affected by external stimuli such as vibrations, stress, heat, and light. These properties enable ferroelectric materials to be used to fabricate nanogenerators, which are devices used in energy scavenging applications and provide an opportunity to obtain electrical energy from a variety of external stimuli. This review discusses the development of ferroelectric‐based nanogenerators for scavenging mechanical, thermal, and solar energies through the piezoelectric effect, pyroelectric effect, and photovoltaic effect, respectively. The mechanisms of the effects and the pathways to optimize the output performance of the nanogenerators are analyzed in detail. Recent developments in energy harvesting using ferroelectric materials are discussed with the objective to motivate attention and efforts in this growing field.
Oxygen Vacant Semiconductor Photocatalysts
Authors: Hao Lin , Huang Hongwei , Zhang Yihe , Ma Tianyi
Published: April 2021

Semiconductor photocatalysis acts as a sustainable green technology to convert solar energy for environmental purification and production of renewable energy. However, the current photocatalysts suffer from inefficient photoabsorption, rapid recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes, and inadequate surface reactive sites. Introduction of oxygen vacancies (OVs) in photocatalysts has been demonstrated to be an efficacious strategy to solve these issues and improve photocatalytic efficiency. This review systematically summarizes the recent progress in the oxygen vacant semiconductor photocatalysts. Firstly, the formation and characterizations of OVs in semiconductor photocatalysts are briefly introduced. Then, highlighted are the roles of OVs in the photocatalytic reactions of three types of typical oxygen‐containing semiconductors, including metal oxides (TiO2, ZnO, WO3, W18O49, MoO3, BiO2‐x, SnO2, etc), hydroxides (In(OH)3, Ln(OH)3 (Ln=La, Pr, and Nd), Layered double hydroxides) and oxysalts (bismuth‐based oxysalts and others) photocatalysts. Moreover, the advanced photocatalytic applications of oxygen vacant semiconductor photocatalysts, such as pollutant removal, H2 production, CO2 reduction, N2 fixation and organic synthesis are systematically summarized. Finally, an overview on the current challenges and a prospective on the future of oxygen vacant materials is proposed.
Weak Ionization Induced Interfacial Deposition and Transformation towards Fast‐Charging NaTi2(PO4)3 Nanowire Bundles for Advanced Aqueous Sodium‐Ion Capacitors
Authors: Tan Jianfeng , Zhu Weihua , Gui Qiuyue , Li Yuanyuan , Liu Jinping
Published: April 2021

Aqueous sodium‐ion capacitors (ASICs) offer great promise for inexpensive and safe energy storage. However, their development is plagued by a kinetics imbalance at high rates between battery and capacitive electrodes and a narrow voltage window due to water electrolysis. Here a unique nanowire bundles anode is designed that simultaneously affords ultrahigh rate capability and manifests robust Na+ insertion to suppress hydrogen evolution, enabling an advanced ASIC. The NaTi2(PO4)3 (NTP) is grown on thin titanium foil by elaborately utilizing the weak ionization chemistry of NaH2PO4 (NHP), where single‐agent NHP not only partially etches titanium to release TiO2+, but also induces the interfacial phase‐transformation of pre‐deposited orthomorphic Na4Ti(PO4)2(OH)2 cubes to hexagonal NTP nanowires. This anode has hierarchical architectures to facilitate charge and mass transport, thus working stably at considerably high rates of 15–150 C with high capacities. The first 2.4 V flexible solid‐state NTP‐based ASIC is designed with high energy densities (5.8–12.8 mWh cm−3; 57.9–62.1 Wh kg−1; total mass loading up to 8.1 mg cm−2) comparable to NASICON‐based devices using organic electrolytes, demonstrating outstanding stability of 10 000 cycles and no performance decay even after continuous bending at 180o. This work presents a versatile strategy to construct NASICON phosphate electrodes for advanced energy storage.