bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quamtum Mechanical Study on Structural and Electronic Properties of Tert-Butyl Based Bridged Dithiophene Oxide Derivatives
Authors: Mary Ajao Adejoke
Published: July 2024

Computational modeling is vital to designing and creating organic semiconductors used in solar cells, organic field-effect transistors, and other areas. This work studied the structural and electronic features of a group of substituted tert-butyl bridged dithiophene oxide derivatives using Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. Geometry improvements were carried out using the B3LYP hybrid functional and the 6-31G(d,p) basis set in Gaussian 09. Molecular shapes, bond lengths, bond angles, and dihedral angles were studied to find out how substitution patterns change the packing and conformation of molecules. Energy levels, distribution, and makeup of frontier molecular orbitals were found. This calculation also included finding other electronic qualities, such as electronic charges, dipole moments, and polarizabilities. Findings show that tert-butyl substitution makes the molecular backbone stiffer and limits its ability to twist compared to similar molecules that have not been replaced. The chemical geometry stays mostly the same when electron-withdrawing or electron-donating substituents are added to the tert- butyl groups. Nevertheless, the strength and location of substituents have a significant impact on frontier orbital energies. The HOMO-LUMO gap grew significantly when the nitro or cyano groups firmly pulled electrons away from derivatives. For successful charge transport, electron density plots show that the HOMO and LUMO are mainly located on the thiophene and substituent moieties, respectively. Molecular dipole moments are also strongly affected by the electronic features of substituents. This research shows how to change the optoelectronic properties of tert-butyl-based dithiophene oxide derivatives and how their structure-property relationships can be improved. The results help makes new organic semiconductors that work better in various electronic and optoelectronic uses.
Turner Syndrome: An Update Review
Authors: Alam Jahangir , Shalini Devarakonda
Published: July 2024

Turner syndrome was first described by Oklahoman physician Henri Turner in 1938. This syndrome can occur in females who have an absent X chromosome, either completely or partially. The two primary forms of TS are mosaic and classical. Data from newborn genetic screening and epidemiology in the US, Europe, and Japan suggest that it affects 1% to 3% of live female infants. Webbed neck, swollen hands and feet, shield-shaped chest, low hairline, droopy eyelids, high- arched palate, and elevated elbow carrying angle are among the physical traits associated with TS. Standard karyotyping, which looks at the chromosomes of 30 peripheral cells, can confirm the presence of Turner syndrome. Cardiovascular irregularity, hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, infertility, skeletal abnormalities, and autoimmune illnesses are among the complications associated with TS. The main treatment for TS is growth hormone therapy, with different approaches based on the organ involved.
Controls of Atmospheric Methane on Early Earth and Inhabited Earth-like Terrestrial Exoplanets
Authors: Akahori Aika , Watanabe Yasuto , Tajika Eiichi
Published: July 2024

Methane (CH4) is a primarily biogenic greenhouse gas. As such, it represents an essential biosignature to search for life on exoplanets. Atmospheric CH4 abundance on Earth-like inhabited exoplanets is likely controlled by marine biogenic production and atmospheric photochemical consumption. Such interactions have been previously examined for the case of the early Earth where primitive marine ecosystems supplied CH4 to the atmosphere, showing that the atmospheric CH4 response to biogenic CH4 flux variations is nonlinear, a critical property when assessing CH4 reliability as a biosignature. However, the contributions of atmospheric photochemistry, metabolic reactions, or solar irradiance to this nonlinear response are not well understood. Using an atmospheric photochemical model and a marine microbial ecosystem model, we show that the production of hydroxyl radicals from water vapor photodissociation is a critical factor controlling the atmospheric CH4 abundance. Consequently, atmospheric CH4 partial pressure (pCH4) on inhabited Earth-like exoplanets orbiting Sun-like stars (F-, G-, and K-type stars) would be controlled primarily by stellar irradiance. Specifically, irradiance at wavelengths of approximately 200–210 nm is a major controlling factor for atmospheric pCH4 when the carbon dioxide partial pressure is sufficiently high to absorb most stellar irradiance at 170–200 nm. Finally, we also demonstrated that inhabited exoplanets orbiting near the outer edge of K-type stars’ habitable zones are better suited for atmospheric pCH4 buildup. Such properties will provide valuable support for future detection of life signatures.
Geometry, Dissipation, Cooling, and the Dynamical Evolution of Wind-blown Bubbles
Authors: Lancaster Lachlan , Ostriker Eve C. , Kim Chang-Goo , Kim Jeong-Gyu , Bryan Greg L.
Published: July 2024

Bubbles driven by energy and mass injection from small scales are ubiquitous in astrophysical fluid systems and essential to feedback across multiple scales. In particular, O stars in young clusters produce high-velocity winds that create hot bubbles in the surrounding gas. We demonstrate that the dynamical evolution of these bubbles is critically dependent upon the geometry of their interfaces with their surroundings and the nature of heat transport across these interfaces. These factors together determine the amount of energy that can be lost from the interior through cooling at the interface, which in turn determines the ability of the bubble to do work on its surroundings. We further demonstrate that the scales relevant to physical dissipation across this interface are extremely difficult to resolve in global numerical simulations of bubbles for parameter values of interest. This means the dissipation driving evolution of these bubbles in numerical simulations is often of a numerical nature. We describe the physical and numerical principles that determine the level of dissipation in these simulations; we use this, along with a fractal model for the geometry of the interfaces, to explain differences in convergence behavior between hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations presented here. We additionally derive an expression for momentum as a function of bubble radius expected when the relevant dissipative scales are resolved and show that it still results in efficiently cooled solutions, as postulated in previous work.
Single-epoch and Differential Astrometric Microlensing of Quasars
Authors: Forés-Toribio R. , Mediavilla E. , Muñoz J. A. , Jiménez-Vicente J. , Fian C. , del Burgo C.
Published: July 2024

We propose and discuss a new experimental approach to measure the centroid shift induced by gravitational microlensing in the images of lensed quasars (astrometric microlensing). Our strategy is based on taking the photocenter of a region in the quasar large enough as to be insensitive to microlensing as reference to measure the centroid displacement of the continuum. In this way, single-epoch measurements of astrometric microlensing can be performed. Using numerical simulations, we show that, indeed, the centroid shift monotonically decreases as the size of the emitting region increases, and only for relatively large regions, like the broad line region (BLR), does the centroid shift become negligible. This opens interesting possibilities to study the stratification of the different emitters in the accretion disk and the BLR. We estimate the amplitude of the centroid shifts for 79 gravitationally lensed images and study more thoroughly the special cases Q2237+030 A, RXJ1131-1231 A, PG1115+080 A2, and SDSS J1004+4112 A. We propose to use spectro-astrometry to simultaneously obtain the photocenters of the continuum and of different emission line regions since, with the precision of forthcoming instruments, astrometric microlensing by ∼1 M
⊙ mass microlenses may be detected in many quasar lensed images. When we consider more massive micro/millilenses, M ≳ 10 M
⊙, often proposed as the constituents of dark matter, the BLR becomes sensitive to microlensing and can no longer be used as a positional reference to measure centroid shifts. Differential microlensing between the images of a lensed quasar along several epochs should be used instead.
Possible Supercritical Accretion on the Ultraluminous X-Ray Source in the Metal-poor Galaxy I Zw 18
Authors: Yoshimoto Marina , Yoneyama Tomokage , Noda Hirofumi , Odaka Hirokazu , Matsumoto Hironori
Published: July 2024

We present an analysis of X-ray observations of the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) in I Zw 18 based on archival data taken with Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku. This ULX is considered to be an intermediate-mass black hole candidate simply because it is in the lowest-metallicity environment among ULXs, where the formation of heavy black holes is facilitated. However, actual study of the ULX based on observations spanning for a long period has been too limited to determine its nature. In this study, we investigate the spectral evolution of the ULX up to 2014, combining the previously unpublished Suzaku data with those from the other two satellites. We derive a positive correlation of

L
∝

T

in

2.1
±
0.4

between the bolometric luminosity L and inner-disk temperature T
in on the basis of the multicolor disk blackbody model, where we exclude the Chandra data, which have the lowest luminosity and systematic residuals in the fitting. The nominal relation

L
∝

T

in

4

for the standard disk is rejected at a significance level of 1.5%. These results suggest that the ULX was in the slim-disk state during these observations except at the time of the Chandra observation, in which the ULX was likely to be in a different state. The apparent inner-disk radius appears negatively correlated with the inner-disk temperature. Moreover, we find a radial dependence of the disk temperature of T(r) ∝ r
−p
with p < 0.75, which also supports the hypothesis that the ULX has a slim disk. Therefore, the I Zw 18 ULX is most likely to be powered by a stellar-mass compact object in supercritical accretion.
jetsimpy: A Highly Efficient Hydrodynamic Code for Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow
Authors: Wang 王 Hao 灏 , Dastidar Ranadeep G. , Giannios Dimitrios , Duffell Paul C.
Published: July 2024

Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows are emissions from ultrarelativistic blast waves produced by a narrow jet interacting with surrounding matter. Since the first multimessenger observation of a neutron star merger, hydrodynamic modeling of GRB afterglows for structured jets with smoothly varying angular energy distributions has gained increased interest. While the evolution of a jet is well described by self-similar solutions in both ultrarelativistic and Newtonian limits, modeling the transitional phase remains challenging. This is due to the nonlinear spreading of a narrow jet to a spherical configuration and the breakdown of self-similar solutions. Analytical models are limited in capturing these nonlinear effects, while relativistic hydrodynamic simulations are computationally expensive, which restricts the exploration of various initial conditions. In this work, we introduce a reduced hydrodynamic model that approximates the blast wave as an infinitely thin two-dimensional surface. Further assuming axial symmetry, this model simplifies the simulation to one dimension and drastically reduces the computational costs. We have compared our modeling to relativistic hydrodynamic simulations and semianalytic methods, and applied it to fit the light curve and flux centroid motion of GRB 170817A. These comparisons demonstrate good agreement and validate our approach. We have developed this method into a numerical tool, jetsimpy, which models the synchrotron GRB afterglow emission from a blast wave with arbitrary angular energy and Lorentz factor distribution. Although the code is built with GRB afterglow in mind, it applies to any relativistic jet. This tool is particularly useful in Markov Chain Monte Carlo studies and is provided to the community.
Désobéir et s’unir : l’étude de cas pragmatique, notre alliée
Authors: Belasco Florence
Published: July 2024

Exposant de façon détaillée l’étude de cas pragmatique, l’autrice souligne comment ce type de méthodologie permet de désobéir à l’injonction de devoir choisir entre entrer dans un processus d’évaluation des psychothérapies opposé aux valeurs humanistes de la gestalt-thérapie ou bien récuser toute recherche. Basée sur la richesse de l’observation d’une thérapie singulière plutôt que la confirmation d’une théorie, elle permet d’expliciter les éléments sur lesquels s’appuie le thérapeute pour penser, agir et s’ajuster. Ce faisant, elle redonne à l’expertise clinique du praticien toute sa valeur.
La délicatesse comme antidote à toutes formes de violence en thérapie
Authors: Baronetto Brigitte
Published: July 2024

Présente au plus profond de moi, la délicatesse colore le fond de mon être thérapeute, m’aide à accompagner la détresse et parfois la violence exprimée par mes patients. Elle se décline en fonction du contexte, parfois accueillante, parfois bienveillante, parfois patiente ou encore contenante, mais aussi confrontante. Au travers de quelques cas choisis pour illustrer chacun de ces qualificatifs, l’autrice tente de montrer comment la délicatesse permet un ajustement créateur et la coconstruction de nouveauté pour le patient et le thérapeute : l’admirable énergie de l’obstination dans la douceur.
La résidence alternée : bénéfices, limites et enjeux pour les familles séparées
Authors: Dupont Sébastien
Published: July 2024

Les recherches internationales sur la résidence alternée relèvent de disciplines multiples (psychologie, sciences sociales, droit de la famille, économie, politiques sociales, etc.) et abordent cette pratique sous des angles complémentaires (le bien-être des enfants et des parents, la procédure judiciaire, le maintien des liens sur le long terme, le rapport aux normes sociales, la sécurité économique, le partage des prestations sociales, etc.). Cet article propose un panorama synthétique de ces études, nécessaire à une vision globale des atouts et des limites de ce mode de résidence et à l’identification des enjeux de politique publique qui l’entourent.
Threshold dynamics and density function of a stochastic cholera transmission model
Authors: He Ying , Bi Bo
Published: July 2024

Cholera, as an endemic disease around the world, has imposed great harmful effects on human health. In addition, from a microscopic viewpoint, the interference of random factors exists in the process of virus replication. However, there are few theoretical studies of viral infection models with biologically reasonable stochastic effects. This paper studied a stochastic cholera model used to describe transmission dynamics in China. In this paper, we adopted a special method to simulate the effect of environmental perturbations to the system instead of using linear functions of white noise, i.e., the transmission rate of environment to human was satisfied Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes, which is a more practical and interesting. First, it was theoretically proved that the solution to the stochastic model is unique and global, with an ergodic stationary distribution. Moreover, by solving the corresponding Fokker–Planck equation and using our developed algebraic equation theory, we obtain the exact expression of probability density function around the quasi-equilibrium of the stochastic model. Finally, several numerical simulations are provided to confirm our analytical results.
Analysis and forecasting of electricity prices using an improved time series ensemble approach: an application to the Peruvian electricity market
Authors: Gonzales Salvatore Mancha , Iftikhar Hasnain , López-Gonzales Javier Linkolk
Published: July 2024

In today's electricity markets, accurate electricity price forecasting provides valuable insights for decision-making among participants, ensuring reliable operation of the power system. However, the complex characteristics of electricity price time series hinder accessibility to accurate price forecasting. This study addressed this challenge by introducing a novel approach to predicting prices in the Peruvian electricity market. This approach involved preprocessing the monthly electricity price time series by addressing missing values, stabilizing variance, normalizing data, achieving stationarity, and addressing seasonality issues. After this, six standard base models were employed to model the time series, followed by applying three ensemble models to forecast the filtered electricity price time series. Comparisons were conducted between the predicted and observed electricity prices using mean error accuracy measures, graphical evaluation, and an equal forecasting accuracy statistical test. The results showed that the proposed novel ensemble forecasting approach was an efficient and accurate tool for forecasting monthly electricity prices in the Peruvian electricity market. Moreover, the ensemble models outperformed the results of earlier studies. Finally, while numerous global studies have been conducted from various perspectives, no analysis has been undertaken using an ensemble learning approach to forecast electricity prices for the Peruvian electricity market.
The Effect of LED Lighting on Lettuce Growth in a Vertical IoT-Based Indoor Hydroponic System
Authors: Kuankid Sanya , Aurasopon Apinan
Published: July 2024

Indoor vertical hydroponics is one of the most recent agricultural technologies to be introduced as it is a method of growing plants in vertically stacked layers using water and nutrient solution instead of soil. When cultivating such a system, the technique used to utilize and maintain the quality of water and nutrients is critical for plant growth. Additionally, the use of LED growth lights has a significant effect on plants. Despite developments in LED lighting and IoT-based smart agriculture systems, there is a lack of information on the use of LED lighting for hydroponically grown crops in vertical culture, due to the fact that vertical agriculture is a relatively new field of study. Thus, the aim of this research was to develop an IoT-based agricultural system to automated control LED-based artificial lighting on crop cultivation, as well as to explore the effects of different LED light on plant growth. In terms of the IoT-based system, numerous sensors were installed and monitored to measure the pH, EC, and other parameters. Using the Blynk application, those who can remotely control the LEDs and monitor the entire sensor and actuator. As for the effects of LED light, particularly the red and blue light, we utilize a case study of three LED grow light models from the manufacturer as light treatments for cultivating green leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa). The result showed that increased R light (R/B = 2:1) resulted in an increase in plant height, leaf width, and leaf length on both harvesting days (10 and 20 DAT). The lettuce plant shape and size signify that the lettuces in each tier are of good standard and comparable in size.
Remote Laboratory NetLab for Effective Teaching of 1st Year Engineering Students
Authors: Nedic Zorica , Machotka Jan F
Published: July 2024

Practical skills are important attributes of every engineering graduate. The Internet has provided tertiary education with the opportunity to develop innovative learning environments. The teaching and learning of practical skills has gained a new dimension with the emergence of remote laboratories. The rapidly growing number of remote laboratories (RL) worldwide is the evidence that the educational community has recognized their potential to develop into a creative, flexible, engaging, and student-cantered learning environment. Even a brief review of the existing RLs shows a large diversity in their structure, design and implementation. However, not many researchers disclose how their RLs are integrated within their curricula. Therefore, an important question still remains to be answered: how to optimize the design of RLs and their integration in a course curriculum for the best learning outcomes? This problem is particularly important when RLs are used in teaching 1st year students who have limited technical knowledge and practical experience in using real equipment. In this paper we would like to share our experiences with NetLab, an RL developed at the University of South Australia (UniSA) for teaching 1st year engineering students and make recommendations for improvements in teaching practices based on it.
An SDRAM test education package that embeds the factory equipment into the e-learning server
Authors: Ferreira Jose M. M.
Published: July 2024

SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) demand has grown exponentially since the 1980s, as a result of technological factors and new areas of application, particularly concerning communication and consumer electronics. The SDRAM market represented in 2007 c. 20% of the total semiconductor business and is seen as a strategic area, justifying private and public investment in the western and far-eastern economic communities. SDRAM test education is therefore an important subject, but very high purchase and maintenance costs keep test equipment beyond reach of most university test courses. This paper presents a pilot project addressing an SDRAM test education course developed jointly by Qimonda and the University of Porto (FEUP), where the company offers remote access to one if its Advantest SDRAM automatic test equipments. Access to this remote tester was embedded into the Moodle e-learning server that supports a new course entitled Electronic Systems Testing (TSEL), which is part of the Integrated Masters degree on Electrical and Computer Engineering at FEUP. The excellent feedback received from students encouraged us to extend this cooperation into an educational network, which is also introduced in this paper.
Grid Technologies for Virtual Laboratories in Engineering Education
Authors: Schmid Christian
Published: July 2024

In this paper, Grid technologies are introduced to build e-Learning environments for engineering education. Service-oriented Grids open new fields of applications, the Learning Grids. The learning services concept based on a learning model and their deployment through Grid technologies are excellent means to integrate virtual laboratories into e-Learning environments for engineering education. The paper goes into the most important technical details, introduces into the used learning model, and shows the au-thoring of Grid resources for virtual laboratories. Examples from a virtual laboratory demonstrate the advantages of a Grid.
Experimental Study of Groundwater Flow
Authors: Marques José Couto , Ferreira César Romão
Published: July 2024

This paper describes an experimental setup for groundwater flow studies with small scale models, developed for the Soil Mechanics course offered to Civil Engineering Master students at FEUP. Relevant quantities, such as the piezometric head and total discharge, can be measured, while flow lines may be visualized. It is also possible to recreate hydraulically induced instability phenomena, namely illustrating the disastrous effects caused on an embankment dam by overtopping. The experimental studies are replicated by a finite element model and both are available for use on line during lectures.
Virtual Laboratories for a Course on Indoor Environmental Quality
Authors: Gameiro da Silva Manuel Carlos
Published: July 2024

Abstractâ?? This paper describes a set of software tools developed by the author to support the teaching of a course on Indoor Environmental Quality, given to the Master programme on Energy for Sustainability and PhD programme on Sustainable Energy Systems at the University of Coimbra, which are included on the MIT-Portugal Initiative educational programme. The course includes materials about Thermal Environment, Indoor Air Quality, Noise, Vibration, Lighting and the combined effect of these previous stressors. The software tools were developed both with Microsoft Excel and the programming platform LabVIEW
Guest Editorial
Authors: Restivo Maria Teresa
Published: July 2024

IRF'09
The Book of Mrs Noah (1987) de Michèle Roberts : un roman aux sentiers qui bifurquent
Authors: Guignery Vanessa
Published: July 2024

Cet article se propose d’analyser les tours et détours de la narration dans The Book of Mrs Noah de Michèle Roberts où la ligne narrative principale, elle-même serpentine, est sans cesse interrompue par des lignes secondaires, digressives, qui semblent retarder indéfiniment la perspective d’un telos. L’étude porte d’une part sur les figures de l’entropie en tant que désordre, brouillage et régression, et d’autre part sur la structure répétitive et circulaire de l’ouvrage. Il ressort de cette rencontre de forces contradictoires un parcours résolument créatif qui mène à l’avènement d’écrivains et d’écritures, et célèbre la « vitalité du chaos » (Glissant).
Comparaison de trois évaluations de la compréhension en France
Authors: Bishop Marie-France , Picard Thomas
Published: July 2024

L’article présente une analyse comparée de trois évaluations de la compréhension des textes élaborées pour les élèves du cycle 3, en France. Grâce à la comparaison des tâches demandées aux élèves, deux conceptions très différentes de la compréhension et de son enseignement apparaissent. Ces différences qui ne sont pas anodines ont des effets importants pour les professeurs et pour les élèves, car elles déterminent des seuils de réussite qui peuvent connaitre de grandes variations. Les évaluations étant utilisées comme des outils de pilotage pédagogique, elles déterminent ce qui est travaillé en formation des enseignants, et ce qui doit être enseigné dans les classes. À ce titre, elles jouent un rôle politique important.
La morpho-dynamique des côtes meubles de l’île de Jerba (Tunisie) : des enjeux multiples et une vulnérabilité en accentuation depuis un siècle
Authors: Akacha Zahra , Morhange Christophe , Delanghe Doriane , Fleury Jules
Published: July 2024

A Jerba (Sud-Est tunisien), l’érosion marine pose un problème majeur qui menace les côtes d’une île aussi célèbre et les belles plages sableuses de cette destination touristique internationale. La frange littorale est aussi particulièrement riche en vestiges archéologiques présentant une grande vulnérabilité face à l’érosion des rivages. La superposition des traits de côte multi-dates des côtes meubles montre une tendance vers la régression qui se manifeste à travers leur rétrécissement et leur migration vers l’intérieur. Cette dynamique est due à la vulnérabilité du cadre naturel mais aussi à l’essor touristique et à la densification de l’occupation du littoral, à l’origine de différentes formes de dégradation et de menaces pour des aménagements récents ou pour des vestiges archéologiques.
Cybercrime and Public Health Safety Risks to Children in Cyberspace
Authors: Burrell Darrell Norman , Nobles Calvin , Jones Angel J. , Ferreras Jennifer , Gervacio Graf Danielle , Richardson Kevin , Duncan Terrence D. , Weitoish Tiffany , Vassilakos Andreas , McLester Quatavia , Wright Jorja B.
Published: July 2024

This chapter explores the dangers of cybercrime and how to keep children's health and safety online. The risks of cybercrime and exposure to cybersecurity threats have grown with adolescent technology use. The study examines the dangers linked to social media sites, including cyberbullying, exposure to objectionable material, and unrealistic expectations, which may impact children's mental health and general well-being. Limiting children's use of social media and educating parents about potential cyber-psychological risks and public health hazards are just a few of the methods suggested in the piece to keep kids safe and healthy online. The study also emphasizes the need for parents, researchers, and others to take proactive steps to protect adolescents from the mental health risks and public health hazards associated with excessive online use. The methodology used in the chapter is a narrative review of the literature, consolidating and synthesizing the findings of various discussions' conclusions into one relevant and comprehensive debate.
Transformations to and Implications for the Human Rights Concept in the Internet Age
Authors: Padmanabhan Abhishek Sharma , S. Sapna
Published: July 2024

The critical shifts in the utility, implementation, and enforcement of human rights have been achieved as a result of the rise of cutting-edge technological innovation. As a result, there has been a plethora of research on the expansion of beneficiaries of the human rights and the subject matter of such rights. The authors of this chapter contend that in this era of technology, we need to reevaluate our approach to human rights, broaden the scope of those to whom obligations relating to human rights apply by including corporations and other organizations, and be ready to consider the possibility that artificial intelligence will become a topic of discussion in public relations and fundamental rights. In this chapter, a three-pronged approach to thinking about digital rights is presented. This method takes into consideration the subtle structural impact that considering human rights in the digital age has on the job that the courts do.
Proposed mix design improvements of compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB) with particle packing optimization and coir reinforcement
Authors: Malkanthi S.N. , Sathsara K.G.K. , Dharmaratne P.D. , Galabada H.
Published: July 2024

The use of the earth as a building material has been practiced since the beginning of human civilization. Unburnt bricks, rammed earth, adobe, and burnt bricks are some of them. As a result of technological development, adobe has developed into a compressed stabilized earth block (CSEB). The clay percentage of the soil significantly affects the strength of the CSEB. This study focused on controlling the clay percentage by adding larger particles externally using building construction waste and reinforcing them with coconut coir. Different coir amounts by weight from 0.1% to 0.5% with different lengths of 2 cm, 4 cm, 6 cm, and 8 cm were considered for block production. For dry compressive strength and wet compressive strength, the combination of 0.3% coir amount with 6 cm coir length gave the maximum strength, and it also satisfied the required water absorption limit as per the Grade 1 category of the SLS 1382, part 1. After that, using the above combination, the industrial scale (350 × 100 ×175) mm size block was prepared, and its strength also satisfied the SLS 1382 Grade 1 requirements. According to the study, the manufacturing cost for the CSEB is lower than that of cement blocks and clay bricks. The cost for a 1 m2 wall panel preparation using CSEB is 41.52% lower than preparing using burnt clay brick and 8.56% lower than preparing using cement blocks. Therefore, the CSEB can be used as a load-bearing walling material at a low cost and with eco-friendliness.
Determination of noise level and acoustic analysis of toys for children in Sri Lanka market
Authors: Kalansuriya C.M. , Weerasingha R.M. , Jayaratne D.C. , Darshana K.K.N.
Published: July 2024

This study was conducted to determine the existing noise levels and perform acoustic analysis on different toys in the Sri Lankan market. The study was carried out using international references, and the noise level descriptors LpAeq, LpCpeak, and LpAFmax were recorded during measurement. A total of 205 toys were selected, and 1986 measurements were taken for analysis. The study reveals that 59 (28.8%) of the 205 toys in different categories had noise levels that exceeded two parameters, and 35 (17.1%) exceeded one parameter, considering the LpAeq, LpCpeak, and LpAFmax parameter values as described in BS EN 71-1:2011+A3:2014 Safety of toys. Measurements indicate that cap firing, wind, and squeeze toys have higher noise levels than international standards (reference values for cap firing: 125 dB, squeeze and cap firing: 110 dB). The study clearly indicates that when measuring noise levels in the frequency range compared to our normal reference hearing range (150 Hz to 5 kHz), it may affect the hearing levels. The study demonstrates the necessity for awareness, warning signs, and enforcing toy acoustic standards and regulations to improve the situation in Sri Lanka.
Scientific literacy in the age of misinformation
Authors: Abeysekera Ajit
Published: July 2024

Many of the important issues that confront society today such as mitigating climate change, alternative energy sources, genetically modified organisms and the use of pesticides and weedicides in agriculture, require the general public to possess scientific literacy to understand and decide amongst different proposals presented by policy makers and politicians. However, it is clear that in today’s world, scientific literacy which is limited only to a knowledge of some basic theories and facts regarding the natural world does not enable society to take reasonable decisions on these issues.
This is mainly due to the fact that the controls that existed in the flow of scientific information, such as boards of scientific and academic organizations, editors and knowledgeable science journalists are now being by-passed via social media and the internet. Various ideological and political campaigns are now behind much of what passes as “science”. Fidelity to the truth is no longer a concern. The anti-vaccine drive in many technologically advanced countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the banning of chemical fertilizers in Sri Lanka in 2021 stand as illustrative examples. An unfortunate by-product of the digital revolution has been the current age of misinformation. 
While the implications of these developments for democracy and freedom of expression are being debated, it is evident that being a scientifically literate person implies the ability to evaluate the trustworthiness of science-related information that is so readily available on the internet. The different fields of science are so highly specialized today, that it may not be possible even for a scientist to evaluate the evidence for a particular claim outside one’s own specialty with certainty. Thus, the starting point for both scientists and the general public has to be to assess the trustworthiness of their sources of information. This may not be as straightforward as it seems, but the kinds of questions that should be looked into are conflict of interest, ideological bias, credentials for expertise and level of agreement with other experts in the field. Being able to evaluate ‘who’ is making a claim becomes as important as considering ‘what’ is being claimed.
Secondary ab interno stenting to manage early tube-related hypotony
Authors: Venkataraman Prasanna , Shroff Anahita
Published: July 2024

Trabeculectomy is the gold standard procedure to achieve control of intraocular pressure surgically. However, glaucoma drainage devices have their place in certain refractory glaucomas not amenable to control by the standard trabeculectomy. These devices come with their own set of complications, cognizance of which is critical to anticipate and manage appropriately. With the nonvalved devices, hypotony is one difficult problem to deal with. Several modifications have been described to manage refractory hypotony after tubes. We present here a simple, less invasive surgical technique of secondary ab interno suture stenting to manage tube-related early hypotony.
ViMedNER: A Medical Named Entity Recognition Dataset for Vietnamese
Authors: Duong Pham Van , Trinh Tien-Dat , Nguyen Minh-Tien , Vu Huy-The , Pham Minh Chuan , Tuan Tran Manh , Son Le Hoang
Published: July 2024

Named entity recognition (NER) is one of the most important tasks in natural language processing, which identifies entity boundaries and classifies them into pre-defined categories. In literature, NER systems have been developed for various languages but limited works have been conducted for Vietnamese. This mainly comes from the limitation of available and high-quality annotated data, especially for specific domains such as medicine and healthcare. In this paper, we introduce a new medical NER dataset, named ViMedNER, for recognizing Vietnamese medical entities. Unlike existing works designed for common or too-specific entities, we focus on entity types that can be used in common diagnostic and treatment scenarios, including disease names, the symptoms of the diseases, the cause of the diseases, the diagnostic, and the treatment. These entities facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of doctors for common diseases. Our dataset is collected from four well-known Vietnamese websites that are professional in terms of drag selling and disease diagnostics and annotated by domain experts with high agreement scores. To create benchmark results, strong NER baselines based on pre-trained language models including PhoBERT, XLM-R, ViDeBERTa, ViPubMedDeBERTa, and ViHealthBERT are implemented and evaluated on the dataset. Experiment results show that the performance of XLM-R is consistently better than that of the other pre-trained language models. Furthermore, additional experiments are conducted to explore the behavior of the baselines and the characteristics of our dataset.
Representaciones, estereotipos y discriminación hacia personas LGBTIQ+ en el PJUD
Authors: Fuentealba-Carrasco Pablo , Gauché-Marchetti Ximena , Cifuentes-Garrido Benjamín , Sánchez-Pezo Gabriela , Brevis-Cartes Priscilla , Bustos-Ibarra Cecilia , Pérez-Díaz Cecilia
Published: July 2024

El artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio empírico sobre las representaciones de género al interior del PJUD. La investigación identifica creencias, roles y estereotipos de género, tanto en el plano interno, es decir, entre personas funcionarias, como externo, esto es, hacia personas usuarias, que repercuten en actitudes discriminatorias hacia personas LGBTIQ+. Los resultados muestran que, aunque han existido cambios en los últimos años en la cultura organizacional de este poder del Estado, aún existe una marcada visión binaria, heteronormativa y cisnormativa que afecta tanto la carrera de personas funcionarias como el acceso a la justicia de personas usuarias pertenecientes a las diversidades y disidencias sexuales.
Yiqi Jiedu Huayu decoction inhibits precancerous lesions of chronic atrophic gastritis by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated pyroptosis
Authors: Zhou Peng , Zheng Zi-Han , Wan Tao , Liao Chuan-Wen , Wu Jie
Published: July 2024

BACKGROUND

Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is a prevalent chronic gastritis usually accompanied by precancerous lesions such as intestinal metaplasia and dysplasia. The increasing application of traditional Chinese medicine in CAG treatment has shown promising results with low side effects and significant efficacy.

AIM

To investigate the pharmacological effects of Yiqi Jiedu Huayu decoction (YJHD) on precancerous lesions of CAG.

METHODS

A CAG rat model was established by Helicobacter pylori bacteria solution combined with N-methyl-N’-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. Histopathological measurements were conducted by hematoxylin-eosin and alcian blue and periodic acid-Schiff staining. Serum levels of inflammatory factors and gastric mucosal-related factors were examined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Protein and mRNA levels were quantified via western blot and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis, respectively. Molecular interaction was verified by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay.

RESULTS

YJHD greatly attenuated pathological changes in the gastric mucosa and precancerous lesions in CAG rats. Meanwhile, YJHD treatment reduced serum levels of inflammatory factors [interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor-α and C-reactive protein] and increased serum levels of gastric mucosal-related factors (gastrin, pepsin, somatostatin and prostaglandin E2) in CAG rats. In addition, YJHD administration suppressed NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated cell pyroptosis, as well as the activation of TLR4/NF-κB and IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathways. Mechanically, ChIP experiments confirmed that NLRP3 transcription was regulated by TLR4/NF-κB and IL-6/STAT3 signaling.

CONCLUSION

Taken together, YJHD alleviated NLRP3 inflammasome formation and pyroptosis of epithelial cells in CAG, potentially through the inactivation of TLR4/NF-κB and IL-6/STAT3 pathways.
RBM5 suppresses proliferation, metastasis and glycolysis of colorectal cancer cells via stabilizing phosphatase and tensin homolog mRNA
Authors: Wang Chu-Xiang , Liu Feng , Wang Yi
Published: July 2024

BACKGROUND

RNA binding motif 5 (RBM5) has emerged as crucial regulators in many cancers.

AIM

To explore more functional and mechanistic exploration of RBM5 since the lack of research on RBM5 in colorectal cancer (CRC) dictates that is essential.

METHODS

Through Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis, we analyzed RBM5 expression in colon adenocarcinoma and rectum adenocarcinoma tissues. For detecting the mRNA expression of RBM5, quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction was performed. Protein expression levels of RBM5, hexokinase 2, lactate dehydrogenase A, phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), phosphorylated-protein kinase B (p-AKT), and AKT were determined via Western blot. Functionally, cell counting kit-8 and 5-ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine (EDU) assay were performed to evaluate proliferation of CRC cells. Invasiveness and migration of CRC cells were evaluated through conducting transwell assays. Glucose consumption, lactate production and adenosine-triphosphate (ATP) production were measured through a glucose assay kit, a lactate assay kit and an ATP production assay kit, respectively. Besides, RNA immunoprecipitation assay, half-life RT-PCR and dual-luciferase reporter assay were applied to detect interaction between RBM5 and PTEN. To establish a xenotypic tumor mice, CRC cells were subcutaneously injected into the right flank of each mouse. Protein expression of RBM5, Ki67, and PTEN in tumor tissues was examined using immunohistochemistry staining. Haematoxylin and eosin staining was used to evaluate tumor liver metastasis in mice.

RESULTS

We discovered down-regulation of RBM5 expression in CRC tissues and cells. RBM5 overexpression repressed proliferation, migration and invasion of CRC cells. Meantime, RBM5 impaired glycolysis in CRC cells, presenting as decreased glucose consumption, decreased lactate production and decreased ATP production. Besides, RBM5 bound to PTEN mRNA to stabilize its expression. PTEN expression was positively regulated by RBM5 in CRC cells. The protein levels of PI3K and p-AKT were significantly decreased after RBM5 overexpression. The suppressive influences of RBM5 on glycolysis, proliferation and metastasis of CRC cells were partially counteracted by PTEN knockdown. RBM5 suppressed tumor growth and liver metastasis in vivo .

CONCLUSION

This investigation provided new evidence that RBM5 was involved in CRC by binding to PTEN, expanding the importance of RBM5 in the treatment of CRC.
Clinical and pathological features of advanced rectal cancer with submesenteric root lymph node metastasis: Meta-analysis
Authors: Wang Qi , Zhu Fu-Xiang , Shi Min
Published: July 2024

BACKGROUND

Advanced rectal cancer with submesenteric lymph node metastasis is a common complication of advanced rectal cancer, which has an important impact on the treatment and prognosis of patients.

AIM

To investigate the clinical and pathological characteristics of inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) root lymph node metastases in patients with rectal cancer. The findings of this study provided us with fresh medical information that assisted us in determining the appropriate treatment for these patients.

METHODS

Our study searched PubMed, Google Scholar, and other databases and searched the relevant studies and reports on the risk factors of IMA root lymph node metastasis of rectal cancer published in the self-built database until December 31, 2023. After data extraction, the Newcastle-Ottawa scale was used to evaluate the quality of the included literature, and RevMan5.3 software was used for meta-analysis and heterogeneity testing. The fixed effect modules without heterogeneity were selected to combine the effect size, and the random effect modules with heterogeneity were selected to combine the effect size. The cause of heterogeneity was found through sensitivity analysis, and the data of various risk factors were combined to obtain the final effect size, odds ratio (OR) value, and 95% confidence interval (CI). Publication bias was tested by drawing funnel plots.

RESULTS

A total of seven literature were included in this study. By combining the OR value of logistic multivariate regression and the 95%CI of various risk factors, we concluded that the risk factors for lymph node metastasis in the IMA region of rectal cancer were as follows: Preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) > 5 ng/mL (OR = 0.32, 95%CI: 0.18-0.55, P < 0.05), tumor located above peritoneal reflexive (OR = 3.10, 95%CI: 1.78-5.42, P < 0.05), tumor size ≥ 5 cm (OR = 0.36, 95%CI: 0.22-0.57, P < 0.05), pathological type (mucinous adenocarcinoma/sig-ring cell carcinoma) (OR = 0.23, 95%CI: 0.13-0.41, P < 0.05), degree of tumor differentiation (low differentiation) (OR = 0.17, 95%CI: 0.10-0.31, P < 0.05), tumor stage (T3-4 stage) (OR = 0.11, 95%CI: 0.04-0.26, P < 0.05), gender and age were not risk factors for IMA root lymph node metastasis in rectal cancer (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Preoperative CEA level, tumor location, tumor size, tumor pathologic type, tumor differentiation, and T stage were correlated with IMA root lymph node metastasis.
Challenges in early detection and endoscopic resection of esophageal cancer: There is a long way to go
Authors: Liu Shuang , Chen Liu-Xiang , Ye Lian-Song , Hu Bing
Published: July 2024

The publication by Qu et al provided a comprehensive discussion about the epidemiology, etiology, histopathology, early detection, and endoscopic treatment of esophageal carcinoma (EC) and summarized the progress in the advanced technologies for screening and endoscopic resection for EC. In this editorial, we will provide deeper insight into the challenges that hinder practical application of these advanced technologies along with the role of these technologies in upper endoscopy quality. More efforts need to be made to overcome the challenges and add the value of these technologies in upper endoscopy quality. Clinical outcomes of management strategies after noncurative endoscopic dissection for early EC patients need further investigation. The experiences with noncurative endoscopic resection of other organs may have certain implications for noncurative resection of early EC.