bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Parental knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward vaccinating their children against influenza: a cross-sectional study from China
Authors: He Shufeng , Zhu Caijin , Liu Xiaoyan , Wang Yanling
Published: July 2024

Aims

Influenza infection is a health burden in children, and the influenza vaccine is an important prevention strategy for flu illness. Parents play a crucial role in children’s influenza vaccination. The study aimed to assess parental knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to influenza illness for their children and explore factors that may impact their decisions.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou from November 2022 to April 2023. Answers to KAP questions regarding influenza illness and vaccination were summed, with a total KAP score of 20. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models and linear regression models were conducted to explore the factors associated with influenza vaccination. The results were presented as odds ratios (ORs), β, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results

Overall, 530 parents were respondents, of whom 162 (30.56%) had vaccinated their children during the past year. The mean KAP score (standard deviation) was 13.40 (3.57). Compared to parents who reported non-vaccinated for their children in the past year, the parents who reported an influenza vaccination have higher knowledge scores, attitude scores, practice scores, and total scores. Child body mass index, parental education level (under college), parental work (part-time), and more than two family members over 60 years old were negatively correlated with knowledge score. Child health condition and knowledge score were positively correlated with attitude score. Parental age was negatively associated with attitude score.

Conclusion

Though high awareness about influenza illness and vaccination for parents, the coverage rate of influenza vaccination in children was lower in Guangzhou. Implementing public health policies is necessary to spread knowledge about influenza illness and vaccination and to promote the practice of receiving the influenza vaccine in children. Education campaigns would help change the attitudes of parents toward vaccinating their children against the flu.
The relationship between self-efficacy and error orientation of nursing students during clinical internships: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Guo Yuanli , Fan Wenfeng , Dong Xiaofang , Yang Caixia , Wang Min , Gao Huanhuan , Lv Peihua , Ma Keke
Published: July 2024

Background

Nursing students often make clinical errors due to their limited clinical experience and their orientation toward errors, revealing their attitude and behavioral tendencies regarding nursing errors. Understanding how self-efficacy, motivation, and a sense of security influence the error orientation of nursing students is important for developing strategies to enhance their error orientation.

Objectives

This study aimed to explore the relationship between self-efficacy, motivation, and error orientation of nursing students during clinical internships.

Method

This was a cross-sectional study. An electronic questionnaire was distributed to nursing students from 14 September 2023 to 30 September at a comprehensive tertiary A teaching hospital in Zhengzhou, Henan province. The instruments used in this study included the General Information Questionnaire, General Self-efficacy Scale, Achievement Motives Scale, Security Scale, and Error Orientation Scale. Statistical Product and Service Software Automatically (SPSSAU) was used to perform statistical description, mediation analysis, and moderated mediation analyses.

Results

A total of 510 nursing students were included in this study. The motivation for success and failure-escaping fully mediated the relationships between self-efficacy and error orientation of nursing students, with a mediation effect of 0.101 (95% CI: 0.058–0.144). The security of nursing students moderated both the direct effect of this model and the indirect effect of motivation for failure-escaping. When security was high, the self-efficacy of nursing students was positively correlated with their error orientation, with an effect of 0.059 (95% CI: 0.003~0.116). When security was high, the moderation effect was significant, with an effect of −0.012 (95% CI: −0.026~-0.002). However, at low and median levels of security, the mediation effect was non-existent.

Conclusion

The motivation for success and failure escaping play different roles in the paths between self-efficacy and error orientation. Clinical nursing teachers should take measures to enhance the motivation for success but reduce the failure-escaping motivation to improve the error orientation of nursing students. Additionally, it is crucial to pay attention to and improve the sense of security of students during clinical internships.
A survey of ontology-enabled processes for dependable robot autonomy
Authors: Aguado Esther , Gomez Virgilio , Hernando Miguel , Rossi Claudio , Sanz Ricardo
Published: July 2024

Autonomous robots are already present in a variety of domains performing complex tasks. Their deployment in open-ended environments offers endless possibilities. However, there are still risks due to unresolved issues in dependability and trust. Knowledge representation and reasoning provide tools for handling explicit information, endowing systems with a deeper understanding of the situations they face. This article explores the use of declarative knowledge for autonomous robots to represent and reason about their environment, their designs, and the complex missions they accomplish. This information can be exploited at runtime by the robots themselves to adapt their structure or re-plan their actions to finish their mission goals, even in the presence of unexpected events. The primary focus of this article is to provide an overview of popular and recent research that uses knowledge-based approaches to increase robot autonomy. Specifically, the ontologies surveyed are related to the selection and arrangement of actions, representing concepts such as autonomy, planning, or behavior. Additionally, they may be related to overcoming contingencies with concepts such as fault or adapt. A systematic exploration is carried out to analyze the use of ontologies in autonomous robots, with the objective of facilitating the development of complex missions. Special attention is dedicated to examining how ontologies are leveraged in real time to ensure the successful completion of missions while aligning with user and owner expectations. The motivation of this analysis is to examine the potential of knowledge-driven approaches as a means to improve flexibility, explainability, and efficacy in autonomous robotic systems.
Evaluation of a passive wearable arm ExoNET
Authors: Ryali Partha , Wilson Valentino , Celian Courtney , Srivatsa Adith V. , Ghani Yaseen , Lentz Jeremy , Patton James
Published: July 2024

Wearable ExoNETs offer a novel, wearable solution to support and facilitate upper extremity gravity compensation in healthy, unimpaired individuals. In this study, we investigated the safety and feasibility of gravity compensating ExoNETs on 10 healthy, unimpaired individuals across a series of tasks, including activities of daily living and resistance exercises. The direct muscle activity and kinematic effects of gravity compensation were compared to a sham control and no device control. Mixed effects analysis revealed significant reductions in muscle activity at the biceps, triceps and medial deltoids with effect sizes of −3.6%, −4.5%, and −7.2% rmsMVC, respectively, during gravity support. There were no significant changes in movement kinematics as evidenced by minimal change in coverage metrics at the wrist. These findings reveal the potential for the ExoNET to serve as an alternative to existing bulky and encumbering devices in post-stroke rehabilitation settings and pave the way for future clinical trials.
The (re)production of health in climate change
Authors: Schröder Judith , Moebus Susanne
Published: July 2024

To date, health in the context of climate change has mainly been considered from a biomedical perspective, whose pathogenic focus on health risks has primarily promoted curative and/or behavioral problem-solving strategies. This article therefore examines health in climate change from a perspective of Urban Public Health and political science, which has received less attention so far. The aim is to address existing constructions of health in climate change and their implications for dealing with the climate crisis, in particular regarding the design of urban environments. In doing so, it adopts a regulation-theoretical approach that allows for a theoretically grounded analysis of health in climate change, taking the triangle of nature, society and the individual as the object of research and revealing the significance of existing constructions of health—understood as a social relation—and its (re)production in climate change. This theoretical approach is extended to aspects of different spatial forms and the productions of space in social relations. The theoretical foundation makes it possible to recognize that there are understandings of health in climate change discourse that largely exclude the causes of climate change and thus make its treatment selective. As a result, broad socio-ecological transformation processes are obstructed, while the structural causes of climate change are preserved and stabilized despite their crisis character. An understanding of health that also sees health as a resource in a salutogenic sense and that strengthens the promotion of health by means of structural changes is being pushed into background. Positioning climate change as a public health issue requires a shift from curative, individual and behavioral interventions toward a focus on structural health promotion, especially through the development of health-promoting, just and climate-friendly urban environments. It also means that health must once again become more of a political issue and that existing boundaries between the private and public spheres must be questioned.
Gender and postcolonial studies: history of the concept and debate
Authors: Strazzeri Irene
Published: July 2024

The debate on the concept of gender in postcolonial studies is extremely complex and involves a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives. Postcolonial studies has shown the connection between gender identity, colonial power, and decolonisation processes. This paper will explore the social construction of gender in colonial contexts, the way in which colonial practises have influenced gender dynamics, and the struggles for resistance and freedom in which women and gender-nonconforming people have engaged in postcolonial countries. The issue will be raised of how gender is interpreted and experienced in different cultures and social contexts. Furthermore, the analysis of colonisation and decolonisation processes will provide a starting point to understand how gender hierarchies have been built and criticised in postcolonial contexts, leading to the development of the most recent ecofeminist and decolonial perspectives.
Research on identification of nucleus-shaped anomaly regions in space electric field
Authors: Li Xing-Su , Li Zhong , Huang Jian-Ping , Han Ying , Huo Yu-Meng , Song Jun-Jie , Hao Bo
Published: July 2024

The presence of nucleus-shaped anomalous regions in the power spectrum image of the electric field VLF frequency band has been discovered in previous studies. To detect and analyze these nucleus-shaped abnormal areas and improve the recognition rate of nucleus-shaped abnormal areas, this paper proposes a new nucleus-shaped abnormal area detection model ODM_Unet (Omni-dimensional Dynamic Mobile U-net) based on U-net network. Firstly, the power spectrum image data used for training is created and labeled to form a dataset of nucleus-shaped anomalous regions; Secondly, the ODConv (Omni-dimensional Dynamic Convolution) module with embedded attention mechanism was introduced to improve the encoder, extracting nucleus-shaped anomaly region information from four dimensions and focusing on the features of different input data; An SDI (Semantics and Detail Infusion) module is introduced between the encoder and decoder to solve the problem of detail semantic loss in high-level images caused by the reduction of downsampling image size; In the decoder stage, the SCSE (Spatial and Channel Squeeze-and-Excitation) attention module is introduced to more finely adjust the feature maps output through the SDI module. The experimental results show that compared with the current popular semantic segmentation algorithms, the ODM_Unet model has the best detection performance in nucleus-shaped anomaly areas. Using this model to detect data from November 2021 to October 2022, it was found that the frequency of nucleus-shaped anomaly areas is mostly between 0 and 12.5KHz, with geographic spatial distribution ranging from 40° to 70° south and north latitudes, and magnetic latitude spatial distribution ranging from 58° to 80° south and north latitudes. This method has reference significance for detecting other types of spatial electromagnetic field disturbances.
A qualitative exploration of perceived challenges and opportunities in the implementation of injury prevention and management in amateur female sport
Authors: Walshe Ayrton , Daly Ed , Ryan Lisa
Published: July 2024

Introduction

Coaches, practitioners, and leadership in amateur female sport must navigate many obstacles in the pursuit of athlete availability and optimal performance. The present study aims to evaluate opportunities and challenges to both injury prevention and management in amateur female sport, as experienced by mixed-gender coaches, allied healthcare professionals, and general practitioners.

Methods

Semi-structured virtual interviews of coaches, allied healthcare professionals, and general practitioners (N = 25), recruited via convenience snowball sample. Data transcribed verbatim with reflexive thematic analysis through a critical realism framework.

Results

Female-specific issues, education, and resource capital were challenges to the implementation of injury prevention and management in amateur female sport, thus negatively impacting on performance, prevention, and rehabilitation. Opportunities for improved care for female athletes were developing communication and relationships, outsourcing responsibility, and providing greater education, in response to desires for such, and lastly exposure to elite sport and national governing bodies’ protocols.

Discussion

In amateur female sport, developing communication pathways and relationships, along with upskilling coaches, can help better support female athletes, coaches, and healthcare professionals. Leaders and stakeholders must advocate for and support greater education, resourcing, and an understanding of female-specific issues in amateur female sport. It is intended that these findings will provide evidence and opportunities for discourse between stakeholders in amateur female sport to improve standard of supports for female athletes, coaches, and healthcare professionals. These findings may also help practitioners better exploit opportunities and circumvent challenges to improve the welfare and performance of amateur female athletes.
Changes in the economics of coffee production between 2008 and 2019: a tale of two Central American countries
Authors: Leiva Benjamín , Vargas Adrián , Casanoves Fernando , Haggar Jeremy
Published: July 2024

Increasing costs of coffee production relative to coffee prices has led to concern across the industry of lack of profitability of coffee production especially for smallholders who comprise a large majority of producers. This study compares coffee production costs and income over a decadal interval of 2008 versus 2019 for coffee farmers in some of the main coffee growing regions of Costa Rica and Guatemala. Costs and income were collected by farmer recall using a standard questionnaire with trained research surveyors. Net income as assessed by EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased by about 30% in Costa Rica, but declined to a third of its 2008 level in Guatemala. Agronomic costs of production per hectare increased by 31% in Costa Rica and 62% in Guatemala, mostly due to increased labor costs (higher daily wage rates), while fertilizer usage increased but unit costs remained stable. Gross income was stable in Guatemala but increased in Costa Rica due to receiving significantly higher prices for their coffee in 2019 compared to 2008, while in Guatemala prices declined. Nevertheless, the response was not uniform between farms in Costa Rica while high and medium productivity groupings of farms had higher EBITDA, low and very low productivity farms experienced a decline similar to Guatemala. The difference in performance of farm groups in Costa Rica was due to a decline in production per hectare of the lower productivity group; while the difference between Guatemala and Costa Rica was firstly due to price differences, and secondarily due to lower productivity of some farm groups. The investment of Costa Rican farmers was undoubtedly supported by the substantially increased price received by farmers (as compared to Guatemala), reflected in the increase in export price of coffee from Costa Rica relative to Guatemala. This shows the importance of farmers receiving higher prices for their produce in enabling them to cover increasing production costs, invest in increasing productivity and maintain profitability.
Modeling the feasibility of fermentation-produced protein at a globally relevant scale
Authors: Fletcher Andrew J. , Smith Nick W. , Hill Jeremy P. , McNabb Warren C.
Published: July 2024

Introduction

Fermentation-produced protein (FPP) is gaining global interest as a means of protein production with potentially lower cost and environmental footprint than conventionally-produced animal-sourced proteins. However, estimates on the potential performance of FPP vary substantially, limiting assessment of its scalability and utility.

Methods

We integrate life cycle analysis data with nutritional and economic data in an interactive online tool, simulating the requirements and consequences of fermentation at a globally-relevant scale.

Results

The tool demonstrates that production of an additional 18 million tons of protein annually via fermentation (~10% of 2020 global consumption) would necessitate 10–25 million hectares of feedstock cropland expansion/reallocation, utilize up to 1% of global electricity generation, produce 159 million tons CO2 equivalents, and have a total process input cost of 53.77 billion USD, with a negligible impact on nutrient supply beyond protein.

Discussion

This tool should be used to inform the debate on the future use of fermentation in the food system.
Prevalence of type 2 inflammation in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Aldajani Ahmad , Alroqi Ahmad , Alramyan Rana , Alhejin Nujud , Alswayyed Mohammed , Alrajban Waleed A. , Alromaih Saud , Aloulah Mohammad O. , Alrasheed Abdulaziz S. , Aldousary Surayie , Alsaleh Saad
Published: July 2024

Background

Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a common condition causing a significant worldwide burden, affecting 5%–12% of the general population. CRS is classified into type 2 and non-type 2 disease based on endotype dominance. Type 2 inflammation is distinguished by the presence of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 cytokines, along with eosinophil and mast cell activation and recruitment. Evidence of type 2 inflammation is ascertained by tissue eosinophil count >10/high-power field (HPF) or serum eosinophil >250 cells/mcL or total immunoglobulin E (IgE) > 100 IU/ml.

Objectives

To investigate the prevalence and characteristics of type 2 inflammation in patients who presented with nasal polyps and underwent Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (ESS) in Saudi Arabia.

Design

A retrospective cross-sectional Study.

Methods

This study was conducted among patients who presented with nasal polyps and underwent ESS at King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC) from 2015 to 2020. Patients with nasal/sinus diseases other than Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyps (CRSwNP) were excluded. Demographic data, olfaction status, and co-morbidities were collected, and radiological images were evaluated. Type 2-CRS was determined by meeting at least one of three predictor criteria (blood eosinophils ≥250 cells/mcL, tissue eosinophils ≥10/HPF, or total IgE levels ≥100 IU/ml). Blood parameters and histopathologic analysis were obtained for each patient.

Results

Of the 381 patients included in the study, the prevalence of type 2-CRS, based on the EPOS2020 criteria, was 99.7% in our population. Among these patients, 47.5% had hyposmia, 38.8% had anosmia, and 13.6% had normal olfaction. The most prevalent co-morbidity was allergic rhinitis, followed by bronchial asthma.

Conclusion

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of type 2 inflammation among patients Diagnosed with CRSwNP and underwent ESS in Saudi Arabia. The results showed a prevalence of 99.7%, indicating that almost all recorded patients with CRSwNP in our population had type 2 inflammation.
Coupling quantitative systems pharmacology modelling to machine learning and artificial intelligence for drug development: its pAIns and gAIns
Authors: Folguera-Blasco Núria , Boshier Florencia A. T. , Uatay Aydar , Pichardo-Almarza Cesar , Lai Massimo , Biasetti Jacopo , Dearden Richard , Gibbs Megan , Kimko Holly
Published: July 2024

Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) has become a powerful tool in the drug development landscape. To facilitate its continued implementation and to further enhance its applicability, a symbiotic approach in which QSP is combined with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) seems key. This manuscript presents four case examples where the application of a symbiotic approach could unlock new insights from multidimensional data, including real-world data, potentially leading to breakthroughs in drug development. Besides the remarkable benefits (gAIns) that the symbiosis can offer, it does also carry potential challenges (pAIns) such as how to assess and quantify uncertainty, bias and error. Hence, to ensure a successful implementation, arising pAIns need to be acknowledged and carefully addressed. Successful implementation of the symbiotic QSP and ML/AI approach has the potential to serve as a catalyst, paving the way for a paradigm shift in drug development.
Launch of the first canine mobile blood donation center in Asia: development, outcomes, and influence of an animal bloodmobile
Authors: Choi Hee-Jae , Han Hyun-Jung
Published: July 2024

Introduction

A mobile blood donation station allows a maximum number of donors to donate blood at any location. In veterinary medicine, no previous studies have reported the use of bloodmobiles for blood donation in animals. We assessed Asia’s first canine mobile blood donation center, which was trialed using a modified vehicle in South Korea.

Methods

A vehicle was modified into a canine bloodmobile with two sections: the front as a laboratory and the back as a blood collection room with necessary equipment. To recruit companion dogs nationwide, the campaign was advertised on television and promoted via social media. Applications of the dogs meeting the following criteria were accepted: in general good health, between 2-8 years old, body weight above 25kg, vaccinated, regularly on heartworm and ectoparasite prophylactics. Pre-donation procedures included medical screening and informed consent, followed by blood collection in a routine fashion. Post-donation, dogs were monitored for complications and owners completed a post-donation survey.

Results

Of the 750 applicants, 48 donor dogs were selected for investigation. Ten failed to donate blood owing to the following issues: behavioral problems (2/48), positive results on vector-borne disease screening tests (5/48), in-tubing clot formation (2/48), and absence on the relevant appointment date (1/48). Blood collection took approximately 12 minutes, and the entire procedure lasted an average of 1.5 hours per donor. The prevalence rates of dog erythrocyte antigen 1-negative and 1-positive blood were 32.6% and 67.4%, respectively. There were no donation-related complications, except for one dog that had contact dermatitis induced by clipper irritation. The post-donation survey completed by 46 owners revealed that most were satisfied with the campaign. The convenience of the mobile blood drive (93.5%) was a key factor contributing to high owner satisfaction and willingness to participate in future campaigns (95.7%), in line with findings from prior veterinary and human blood donation motivation research.

Discussion

The bloodmobile effectively increased engagement in canine blood donation by enhancing accessibility. To optimize canine mobile blood drives, procuring larger vehicles and enhancing infrastructure for future campaigns would be beneficial. In conclusion, this study showed that Asia’s first canine bloodmobile was successful in terms of improving the convenience, accessibility, and efficacy of canine blood donation. Although the concept is still unfamiliar to the public, active promotion of canine blood donation can help ensure a robust blood donation culture in the veterinary field.
Exploring the additive effect of Ampelopsis grossedentata flavonoids and Tween 80 on feeding Nubian goats
Authors: Zhu Junhong , Lu Ying , Gao Zhendong , Chong Yuqing , Li Mengfei , Deng Weidong , Xi Dongmei
Published: July 2024

Introduction

The ban on antibiotics in animal husbandry underscores the crucial need for safe, natural feed additives. This study investigates the effects of Ampelopsis grossedentata flavonoids (AGF) and Tween 80 on the growth performance, blood indexes, and rumen microbiota of Nubian goats, evaluating their potential as alternative feed additives in livestock management.

Methods

Thirty-two goats were randomly divided into four groups. The control group (CON group) was provided with a basal diet, while the experimental groups received diets supplemented with various dietary additives for a duration of 100 days: either a basal diet supplemented with 25 mg/kg of monensin (MN group), a basal diet containing 2.0 g/kg of Ampelopsis grossedentata flavonoids (AGF group), or a basal diet containing 7.5 mL/kg of Tween 80 (TW group). Blood and rumen fluid samples were collected for analysis at the end of the feeding period. Growth performance was monitored through regular weighing and feed intake measurements. Blood indexes were analyzed using standard biochemical techniques, while the microbial composition of the rumen fluid was determined through high throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing to assess microbial diversity and function. The effects of the dietary treatments on growth performance, blood indexes, and rumen microbial composition were then evaluated.

Results

The AGF group exhibited significantly increased average daily gain, and decreased feed-to-gain ratio (p < 0.05). Blood indexes analysis revealed no differences between the CON and AGF groups, with both showing higher concentrations of triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, and lactate dehydrogenase compared to the monensin group (p < 0.05). The TW group had significantly higher glucose, glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase levels than the MN group (p < 0.05). Microbial diversity analysis revealed that the TW group had significantly greater alpha-diversity than other groups, while beta-diversity analysis showed closer similarity between the rumen microbiota of the AGF and CON groups. LEfSe analysis identified Proteobacteria, Deferribacteres, Ehryarchaeoia, and Elusimicrobia as biomarkers distinguishing the rumen microbiota among the groups. In conclusion, AGF supplementation increased the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria in the rumen of Nubian goats, and thus enhanced the growth performance. TW supplementation significantly increased rumen microbial diversity and abundance, suggesting benefits for rumen health despite poor palatability. These findings highlight the potential of AGF as a new green additive with important implications for the efficiency and development of animal husbandry.
Overexpression of the Mas1 gene mitigated LPS-induced inflammatory injury in mammary epithelial cells by inhibiting the NF-κB/MAPKs signaling pathways
Authors: Yan Shuping , Ju Xianghong , Lao Jianlong , Wen Zhaohai , Yong Yanhong , Li Yin , Li Youquan
Published: July 2024

Breast infection is the primary etiology of mastitis in dairy cows, leading to a reduction in the quality of dairy products and resulting in substantial economic losses for animal husbandry. Although antibiotic treatment can eliminate the pathogenic microorganisms that induce mastitis, it cannot repair the inflammatory damage of mammary epithelial cells and blood milk barrier. Mas1 is a G protein-coupled receptor, and its role in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) -induced inflammatory injury to mammary epithelial cells has not been studied. LPS treatment of EpH4 EV cells led to a significant downregulation of Mas1 transcript levels, which attracted our great interest, suggesting that Mas1 may be an important target for the treatment of mastitis. Therefore, this study intends to verify the role of Mas1 in the inflammatory injury of EpH4 EV cells by gene overexpression technology and gene silencing technology. The findings demonstrated that the overexpression of the Mas1 gene effectively reversed the activation of the nuclear factor-κB/mitogen-activated protein kinase (NF-κB/MAPK) signaling pathways induced by LPS, while also suppressing the upregulation of pro-inflammatory mediators. Furthermore, overexpression of the Mas1 gene reversed the downregulation of zonula occludens 1 (ZO-1), Occludin, and Claudin-3 caused by LPS, suggesting that Mas1 could promote to repair the blood-milk barrier. However, the silencing of the Mas1 gene using siRNA resulted in a contrasting effect. These results indicated that Mas1 alleviated the inflammatory injury of mammary epithelial cells induced by LPS.
Fault Diagnosis of Unmanned Aerial Systems Using the Dempster–Shafer Evidence Theory
Authors: Liu Nikun , Zhou Zhenfeng , Zhu Lijun , He Yixin , Huang Fanghui
Published: July 2024

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) find diverse applications across military, civilian, and commercial sectors, including military reconnaissance, aerial photography, environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, logistics, and rescue operations, offering efficient, safe, and cost-effective solutions to various industries. To ensure the stable and reliable operation of UASs, fault diagnosis is essential, which can enhance safety, and minimize potential risks and losses. However, most existing fault diagnosis methods rely on a single physical quantity as the primary information source or solely consider fault data at a single moment, leading to challenges of low diagnostic accuracy and limited reliability. Aimed at this problem, this paper presents a fault diagnosis method based on time–space domain weighted information fusion for UASs. First, the Gaussian fault model is constructed for the data with different fault features in the space domain. Next, the weighted coefficient method is used to generate the basic probability assignment (BPA) by matching the fault data with the Gaussian fault model. Then, the Dempster’s combination rule, which enables the Dempster–Shafer (D-S) evidence theory, is adopted to fuse the generated BPAs. Based on this, the pignistic probability transformation is performed to determine the fault type. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed fault diagnosis method in accurately identifying the fault types of UASs.
A Review of Training Procedures for Simulated Engine Failure after Take-Off Exercises with Twin-Engine Aircraft under 5700 kg
Authors: Sabadas Stephanie , Fothergill Selina , Silva Jose , Boston Nathalie
Published: July 2024

Engine failure after take-off (or one engine being inoperative) is an exercise conducted as part of multi-engine flight training and on-going competency checking. To prepare pilots to manage a real in-flight emergency, this exercise has traditionally been conducted immediately after take-off. This has led to increased risks of fatal accidents due to the reduced height at which these exercises are typically conducted. Yet, there is variation in the heights stipulated in training procedures published by different stakeholders worldwide. Additionally, the conduct of the exercise has resulted in fatal accidents worldwide. This paper aims to review the previous literature on aviation training and aviation occurrence data to determine what empirical data exists to support the method of conducting simulated engine failures. Peer-reviewed academic publications on aviation training, aviation occurrence databases such as aviation investigation reports, and guidance materials published by aviation authorities on simulated training exercises will be included in this paper. It was found that the previous research on these exercises has focused on the transfer of motion cues or pilot responses to abnormal situations, but did not include specific data comparing pilot performance at different heights above ground level. A review of aviation occurrences found that actual engine failures occurred at higher heights that those used in simulated engine failures. A comparison of the guidance published by aviation authorities identified variations in the minimum altitude published and differing justifications for the minimum height chosen. Future research is needed to compare pilot performance during simulated engine failures to determine the ideal height to conduct the exercise to be representative of an actual engine failure while maintaining safety margins.
Experimental Study on the Influence of Microwave Energy Pulse Width and Duty Cycle on Evaporation and Ignition Characteristics of ADN-Based Liquid Propellant Droplets
Authors: Yu Dezhao , Yao Jiale , Ma Jiafu , Hou Yangyang , Zhang Shaoyun , Yu Yusong
Published: July 2024

This study investigates the evaporation and ignition characteristics of a single droplet of ammonium dinitramide (ADN)-based liquid propellant utilizing a waveguide resonant cavity device, in conjunction with a high-speed photographic imaging system and testing system. Experimental methods are employed to analyze the impact of microwave pulse width and duty cycle on the puffing and meicro-explosion phenomena of the droplet, as well as the delay time and duration of ignition. The experimental findings reveal that increasing the duty cycle enhances the ignition success rate and diminishes flame development time. Specifically, elevating the microwave duty cycle from 60% to 80% reduces the ignition delay time of the droplet from 132.8 ms to 88.1 ms, and the ignition duration from 23.1 ms to 19.9 ms. Furthermore, an increase in microwave energy pulse width expedites the combustion process of the flame and influences plasma generation. Increasing the pulse width of microwave energy from 20 µs to 40 µs prolongs the ignition delay time from 140.3 ms to 200.5 ms and extends the ignition duration from 56.7 ms to 77.8 ms. Additionally, it is observed that a higher duty cycle leads to a more pronounced puffing phenomenon that initiates earlier. In contrast, a higher pulse width results in a more pronounced puffing phenomenon that commences later. This study provides a thorough investigation into the microwave ignition mechanism of ADN-based liquid propellants, offering theoretical insights into the ignition and combustion stability of such propellants in microwave-assisted ignition systems.
Interactive Effect of Cover Crop, Irrigation Regime, and Crop Phenology on Thrips Population Dynamics and Plant Growth Parameters in Upland Cotton
Authors: Sapkota Raju , Parajulee Megha N. , Cradock Kenwyn R.
Published: July 2024

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) requires a long growing period for fruit and fiber maturation, making it vulnerable to insect pests, thus affecting the seed cotton yield and fiber quality. Cotton-feeding thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) are one of the major insects impacting cotton yield throughout the U.S. cotton belt and worldwide. A two-year field research conducted at Texas A&M AgriLife Research farm in west Texas, USA quantified the interactive effect of three cover crops [wheat (Triticum aestivum), rye (Secale cereale), and no cover] and three irrigation regimes [rainfed, deficit irrigation (30%) and full irrigation] on thrips population dynamics across the phenologically susceptible stages of upland cotton and resulting impact on plant growth and yield parameters. Temporal densities of thrips, feeding injury from thrips, cotton growth and reproductive profiles, yield, and fiber quality varied with cover crops and irrigation levels. Thrips densities were conspicuously low due to harsh weather conditions, but the densities decreased with an increase in plant age. Terminated rye and wheat cover versus conventional-tilled, no-cover treatments showed marginal effects on thrips colonization and population dynamics. Similarly, full irrigation treatment supported higher thrips densities compared to rainfed and deficit irrigation treatments. Immature thrips densities increased through the successive sampling periods, indicating increased thrips reproduction following the initial colonization. Thrips feeding injury was significantly greater in no-cover plots in the early seedling stage, but the effect was insignificant across all cover crop treatments in subsequent sampling dates. The results of this study demonstrated increased seedling vigor, plant height, and flower densities in terminated cover crop plots across all irrigation regimes compared to that in no-cover plots. However, the cover crop x irrigation interaction significantly impacted the cotton lint yield, with increased lint yield on cover crop treatments. This study clearly demonstrates the value of cover crops in semi-arid agricultural production systems that are characterized by low rainfall, reduced irrigation capacity, and wind erosion of topsoil.
Optimal Design and Experiment of Electronically Controlled Inclined Spiral Precision Fertilizer Discharger
Authors: Dun Guoqiang , Sheng Quanbao , Ji Xinxin , Zhang Chaoxia , Gao Shang , Wei Yuhan , Han Yinan
Published: July 2024

In order to solve the traditional single-spiral fertilizer discharger issue of the fluctuation of fertilizer-discharge flow and the problem of precise fertilizer discharge, the innovative design of a cantilevered oblique placement of a fertilizer-discharging spiral structure in the form of an inclined spiral fertilizer discharger was realized, in which, through the fertilizer spiral’s full end-filled extrusion, uniform delivery of the discharge was achieved. Discrete element simulation was used to compare the fertilizer-discharge characteristics of inclined and traditional single-spiral fertilizer dischargers, and the results proved that the inclined spiral fertilizer discharger effectively reduced the fluctuation of the fertilizer-discharge flow rate. Through a theoretical analysis preformed to determine the theoretical fertilizer discharge and the main parameters affecting the uniformity of fertilizer discharge, we identified the tilting angle of the fertilizer discharger (θ) and the distance from the termination spiral blade to the fertilizer outlet (l). A two-factor, five-level quadratic generalized rotary combination experiment was conducted with two parameters (θ and l) as the experiment factors and the variation coefficient of fertilizer-discharge uniformity (σ) as the experiment indicator. The experimental results showed that for σ, θ was a highly significant effect, l was a significant effect, and σ was less than 8.5%; when θ was 35.02° and l was 16.87 mm, the fertilizer-discharge performance was better. A bench experiment was used to compare the traditional and inclined spiral fertilizer dischargers, and the results showed that the relative error of the variation coefficient between the bench and the simulation experiment under this combination was 2.28%. And compared with the traditional spiral fertilizer discharger’s σ average increase of 80.79%, the effect of fertilizer discharge was better than the traditional spiral fertilizer discharger. A fertilizer application controller was developed, and the bench performance was tested based on the measured fertilizer-discharge flow rate fitting equation of this combined inclined spiral fertilizer discharger. The results show that the electronically controlled inclined spiral fertilizer discharger has an average deviation of 3.12% from the preset value, which can be used to regulate the flow of fertilizer discharged through the fertilizer controller to realize precise fertilizer application, and this study can provide a reference for the optimal design of the spiral fertilizer discharger.
Lightweight Network of Multi-Stage Strawberry Detection Based on Improved YOLOv7-Tiny
Authors: Li Chenglin , Wu Haonan , Zhang Tao , Lu Jiahuan , Li Jiehao
Published: July 2024

The color features of strawberries at different growth stages vary slightly and occluded during growth. To address these challenges, this study proposes a lightweight multi-stage detection method based on You Only Look Once version 7-tiny (YOLOv7-tiny) for strawberries in complex environments. First, the size of the model is reduced by replacing the ordinary convolution of the neck network used for deep feature extraction and fusion with lightweight Ghost convolution. Then, by introducing the Coordinate Attention (CA) module, the model’s focus on the target detection area is enhanced, thereby improving the detection accuracy of strawberries. The Wise Intersection over Union (WIoU) loss function is integrated to accelerate model convergence and enhance the recognition accuracy of occluded targets. The advanced Adaptive nesterov momentum algorithm (Adan) is utilized for gradient descent, processing averaged sample data. Additionally, considering the small size of strawberry targets, a detection head specifically for small targets is added, performing detection on a 160 × 160 × 64 feature map, which significantly improves the detection performance for small strawberries. Experimental results demonstrate that the improved network model achieves an mAP@0.5 of 88.2% for multi-stage strawberry detection, which is 2.44% higher than the original YOLOv7-tiny algorithm. Meanwhile, GFLOPs and Params are reduced by 1.54% and 12.10%, respectively. In practical detection and inference, the improved model outperforms current mainstream target detection models, enabling a quicker and more accurate identification of strawberries at different growth stages, thus providing technical support for intelligent strawberry picking.
Automatic Identification of Sea Rice Grains in Complex Field Environment Based on Deep Learning
Authors: Deng Ruoling , Cheng Weilin , Liu Haitao , Hou Donglin , Zhong Xiecheng , Huang Zijian , Xie Bingfeng , Yin Ningxia
Published: July 2024

The number of grains per sea rice panicle is an important parameter directly related to rice yield, and it is also a very important agronomic trait in research related to sea rice breeding. However, the grain number per sea rice panicle still mainly relies on manual calculation, which has the disadvantages of being time-consuming, error-prone, and labor-intensive. In this study, a novel method was developed for the automatic calculation of the grain number per rice panicle based on a deep convolutional neural network. Firstly, some sea rice panicle images were collected in complex field environment and annotated to establish the sea rice panicle image data set. Then, a sea grain detection model was developed using the Faster R-CNN embedded with a feature pyramid network (FPN) for grain identification and location. Also, ROI Align was used to replace ROI pooling to solve the problem of relatively large deviations in the prediction frame when the model detected small grains. Finally, the mAP (mean Average Precision) and accuracy of the sea grain detection model were 90.1% and 94.9%, demonstrating that the proposed method had high accuracy in identifying and locating sea grains. The sea rice grain detection model can quickly and accurately predict the number of grains per panicle, providing an effective, convenient, and low-cost tool for yield evaluation, crop breeding, and genetic research. It also has great potential in assisting phenotypic research.
Sixteen Years of Recurrent Selection of Ruzi Grass for Resistance to Spittlebugs (Hemiptera: Cercopidae)
Authors: Resende Tiago Teixeira , Sobrinho Fausto Souza , Campagnani Michelle Oliveira , Veríssimo Bruno Antônio , Calsavara Luís Augusto , Gonçalves Flávia Maria Avelar , Nunes José Airton Rodrigues , Auad Alexander Machado
Published: July 2024

The forage Urochloa ruziziensis ((R. Germ. and C.M. Evrard) Crins (synonym Brachiaria ruziziensis) (Poales: Poaceae)) has great potential to be adopted as pasture. However, this forage is susceptible to spittlebugs, the main insect pest of pastures in Brazil. Thus, the objective of this study was to select genotypes of U. ruziziensis resistant to Deois schach (Fabricius) and Mahanarva spectabilis (Distant) (Hemiptera: Cercopidae) through 16 cycles of recurrent selection. The resistance of 13,114 U. ruziziensis plants to spittlebugs was evaluated in experiments conducted between 2008 and 2023. Each plant was infested with six eggs of the insect pest at stage S4 and kept in a greenhouse for up to 40 days. After this period, surviving nymphs from the second to fifth instars were counted. The original population of U. ruziziensis (POP01-2008) presented a nymphal survival rate of 63%, while for the improved population (POP36-2023) the average nymphal survival rate was 32.8%. The estimated total genetic gain was 15%, and the annual genetic gain was 1%. After 16 selection cycles, in POP36-2023, approximately 63% of the genotypes (716 plants), had nymphal survival rates equal to or less than 33% and were considered resistant to D. schach and M. spectabilis nymphs.
Recognition Method of Crop Disease Based on Image Fusion and Deep Learning Model
Authors: Ma Xiaodan , Zhang Xi , Guan Haiou , Wang Lu
Published: July 2024

Accurate detection of early diseased plants is of great significance for high quality and high yield of crops, as well as cultivation management. Aiming at the low accuracy of the traditional deep learning model for disease diagnosis, a crop disease recognition method was proposed based on multi-source image fusion. In this study, the adzuki bean rust disease was taken as an example. First, color and thermal infrared images of healthy and diseased plants were collected, and the dynamic thresholding excess green index algorithm was applied to extract the color image of the canopy as the reference image, and the affine transformation was used to extract the thermal infrared image of the canopy. Then, the color image was fused with the thermal infrared image by using a linear weighting algorithm to constitute a multi-source fusion image. In addition, the sample was randomly divided into a training set, validation set, and test set according to the ratio of 7:2:1. Finally, the recognition model of adzuki bean rust disease was established based on a novel deep learning model (ResNet-ViT, RMT) combined with the improved attention mechanism and the Squeeze-Excitation channel attention mechanism. The results showed that the average recognition rate was 99.63%, the Macro-F1 was 99.67%, and the recognition time was 0.072 s. The research results realized the efficient and rapid recognition of adzuki bean rust and provided the theoretical basis and technical support for the disease diagnosis of crops and the effective field management.