bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of A2 and A2B Subgroups among Blood Groups A and AB in healthy donors
Authors: Khanum Ayesha , Farhan Saima , Saqlain Nazish , Arshad Sundas
Published: October 2023

Objective: To determine the frequency of A2 and A2B subgroups among blood groups A and AB in healthy donors.

Methods: It was a Cross-Sectional study, conducted at the Department of Hematology & Transfusion Medicine, UCHS, The Children’s Hospital Lahore and Sundas foundation Lahore from June 2022 to December 2022 including 13,120 healthy blood donors of both genders, after taking informed consent. Venous blood samples of donors were collected in EDTA vials (3ml) and serum gel vial for routine blood grouping which was done by standard tube method. Further testing of donors positive for an antigen (blood Group-A and AB) was performed using anti-A1 lectin by standard tube method as per manufacturer’s instruction. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.

Results: Among 13120 blood donors, 12857 (97.9%) were male and 263 (2.0%) were female with mean age of 36.7 years ± 15.04 years. Majority of them (91.7%) were of Punjabi ethnicity. Donors having blood group phenotype A and AB were 3890 (29.6%). Among blood Group-A donors, A1 was found in 97.8% and A2 in 2.2% donors. While among Blood Group-AB, 96.7% donors belonged to A1B blood group and 3.2% belonged to A2B blood group.

Conclusions: Blood group A2 and A2B do exist in blood donors of Punjabi ethnicity. The knowledge of presence of these blood groups’ phenotypes in our population can provide a better base for transfusion staff to do troubleshooting in compatibility testing and to avoid any rare but hazardous transfusion outcome.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.1.7916

How to cite this: Khanum A, Farhan S, Saqlain N, Arshad S. Prevalence of A2 and A2B Subgroups among Blood Groups A and AB in healthy donors. Pak J Med Sci. 2024;40(1):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.1.7916

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
A case of stuck mechanical Tricuspid Valve
Authors: ABDUL NASIR  , Rehman Mujeeb Ur , Salman Khan  , Ali Hamza
Published: October 2023

A 34-year-old non hypertensive, non-diabetic and ill looking weak woman came to our emergency department with shortness of breath NYHA III-IV, severe bilateral pedal edema extending up to the thighs and gross ascites. Physical examination revealed 3mm pitting ankle and leg edema and hemodynamically was stable with raised jugular venous pressure. There was a closing and opening mechanical click on Cardiac auscultation. At the lower left sternal border, there was grade 2/6 holodiastolic rumble and a grade 2/6 systolic murmur. She had history of mitral valve replacement and tricuspid valve replacement in 2017 with mechanical valves then she had Redo tricuspid valve replacement with mechanical prosthesis again after four months. No known food or drug allergy and psychosocial issues.

Her routine bloods Labs were normal and COVID-19 was negative. On chest X-ray P/A view images and echo showed markedly gross left sided pleural effusion. In Coronary angiogram showed normal coronaries and stuck tricuspid valve (Fig.1). Echocardiography report showed preserved LV systolic function (EF=57%), dilated left atrium and right atrium. Prosthetic mitral valve was seen at mitral position, well seated and well-functioning. The mechanical mitral valve was functioning well with normal disc motion with no thrombus formation. Prosthetic tricuspid valve was seen at tricuspid level with peak gradient of 22mmHg and shown stuck mechanical tricuspid discs stuck throughout the cardiac cycle, in a fully open position (Fig.2A and 2B). Atrial fibrillation was shown on ECG. The diagnosis was made as; pannus formation resulting in mechanical TV thrombosis.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.1.8362

How to cite this: Nasir A, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Khan S, Ali H. A case of stuck mechanical Tricuspid Valve. Pak J Med Sci. 2024;40(1):---------.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.1.8362

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preparing for the future of healthcare: Digital health literacy among medical students in Lahore, Pakistan
Authors: Imran Nazish , Farooq Zobia , Imran Ahad
Published: October 2023

Objective: Digital Health Literacy (DHL) is becoming a cardinal competence for all healthcare professionals (HCPs) including medical students for meaningful digital transformation of healthcare. As medical students need to navigate an increasingly digitalized healthcare environment, thus the study’s objective was to assess digital health literacy among medical students.

Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at King Edward Medical University, Lahore from October 2022 to August 2023. Medical students were asked to complete a pen and paper questionnaire of the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI) after informed consent. DHLI covers seven categories: operational skills, information searching strategy, analyzing the usefulness of online information, navigational abilities, contributing user-generated material to internet-based platforms, and privacy protection. SPSS was used for data analysis.

Results: Eight hundred ninety one medical students, from first year to final year, participated in the study. The overall mean score for DHL was 63.5 (SD=8.82). Medical students achieved a score of 83.2% of total score in their operational abilities, and 82.3% proficiency in privacy protection, which were deemed highly desirable. Furthermore, they achieved a satisfactory level in navigation skill (76.0%), information searching (73.1%), adding content (71.0%), determining the significance of data (70.1%), and assessing data reliability (68.7%), based on the overall score. A significant relationship was observed between the performance level of DHL domains and gender with higher scores in males in all domains except protecting privacy, which was higher in females and clinical years students (p-value < 0.05).

Conclusion: The assessment of the DHL of medical students was deemed desirable. But certain obstacles were encountered in few domains of DHL i.e., data reliability, relevance determination, and content augmentation. It is imperative to elevate the level of DHL of medical students to harness the potential of digital technologies in enhancing healthcare.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.1.8711

How to cite this: Farooq Z, Imran A, Imran N. Preparing for the future of healthcare: Digital health literacy among medical students in Lahore, Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2024;40(1):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.1.8711

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Neural mechanisms for spatial cognition across vertebrates
Authors: Vinepinsky Ehud , Segev Ronen
Published: October 2023

The ability to navigate the world is a critical cognitive skill that most animals use to find food, shelter, and mates. Understanding the neural basis of navigation requires probing how the brain encodes spatial information through the study of the activity of single neurons and neuronal populations. Classically in vertebrates, studies have centered on the rodent hippocampal formation, which led to the discovery of place, grid, head direction and other cell types. However, since navigation skills are essential to almost all vertebrates, spatial cognition in different species also needs to be explored. In recent years, as a result of advances in technology, new data have emerged on the ways in which space is represented during navigation in the brains of vertebrates other than rodents, including teleost fish, birds, and other mammal species. Here, we review the state of the art on the neural representation of an animal’s position and motion across vertebrates at the level of single neurons. We argue that it is time to pool information across vertebrates to identify the underlying algorithms that lead to successful navigation. Although rodent-based data are important, findings in rodents are unlikely to cover the full spectrum of neural computations supporting navigation strategies in the vertebrate kingdom. Studying other species can shed light on length scales such as in large environments, and different scenarios such as naturalistic environments that are hard to carry out in rodents. In addition, a rodent-centric view may neglect the fact that different species are likely to represent positions in the world in ways that do not exist in mammals. Finally, we provide an outlook for the future which includes prediction about findings in unexplored species, and the opportunities for discoveries and understanding in this field.
The genome sequence of Fabricius’ Nomad Bee, Nomada fabriciana (Linne, 1767)
Authors: Crowley Liam M. ,   University of Oxford and Wytham Woods Genome Acquisition Lab,   Darwin Tree of Life Barcoding collective,   Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life programme,   Wellcome Sanger Institute Scientific Operations: DNA Pipelines collective,   Tree of Life Core Informatics collective,   Darwin Tree of Life Consortium
Published: October 2023

We present a genome assembly from an individual female Nomada fabriciana (Fabricius’ Nomad Bee; Arthropoda; Insecta; Hymenoptera; Apidae). The genome sequence is 233.6 megabases in span. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 12 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 19.4 kilobases in length. Gene annotation of this assembly on Ensembl identified 9,700 protein coding genes.
Game Technologies in the Classroom Visual Activities in Elementary School
Authors: Gudilina S.
Published: October 2023

The article raises the question of the use of didactic games in the classroom of fine arts in primary school. The role of the game as a means of development and socialization of the child is determined, ways of creating game situations in the course of teaching children of primary school age are revealed. The features of quests, which are a type of game with a storyline, which is aimed at solving various logical problems, are characterized. The technology of creating web quests is considered, examples of the development of web quests for classes with younger students in the subject “Fine Arts” and the organization of the process of their application are given.
Impact of Physician Payment Scheme on Diagnostic Effort and Testing
Authors: Adida Elodie , Dai Tinglong
Published: October 2023

Diagnostic errors are common and can result in serious patient harm. Making the right diagnosis often requires significant diagnostic effort. Yet most physician payment schemes are procedure based and do not account for diagnostic effort or accuracy because of observability issues. In this paper, we develop a parsimonious model to examine the impact of a physician payment scheme on a physician’s decisions to (1) exert diagnostic effort and (2) perform a confirmatory test. High effort provides an informative (though imperfect) signal of the patient’s true state; the test is confirmatory in that it is a prerequisite for diagnosing a severe condition. Our model uses a two-step diagnostic process to capture the interaction between the physician’s diagnostic effort and testing decisions. We show that under a fee-for-service payment scheme, the physician may view the diagnostic effort and the confirmatory test as either complementary or substitutive, depending on the additional revenue from testing. We also reveal nonmonotonic properties such that a more patient-centered physician may not exert more effort or provide a more accurate diagnosis. In addition, either a flat or differentiated payment scheme may be optimal. We also show that an alternative payment scheme, under which the revenue from the confirmatory test is contingent on its result, can induce the social optimum under certain conditions. With the advent of artificial intelligence as part of the standard of care and its increasing use as confirmatory tests, our research has implications for the design of physician payment systems in light of concerns about the potential erosion of individual attention.

This paper was accepted by Jayashankar Swaminathan, operations management.

Funding: T. Dai was supported by the Johns Hopkins Discovery Award (2022–2024) and the Hopkins Business of Health Initiative Seed Grant (2022–2023).

Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4937 .
Bandits atop Reinforcement Learning: Tackling Online Inventory Models with Cyclic Demands
Authors: Gong Xiao-Yue , Simchi-Levi David
Published: October 2023

Motivated by a long-standing gap between inventory theory and practice, we study online inventory models with unknown cyclic demand distributions. We design provably efficient reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms that leverage the structure of inventory problems to achieve optimal theoretical guarantees that surpass existing results. We apply the standard performance measure in online learning literature, regret, which is defined as the difference between the total expected cost of our policy and the total expected cost of the clairvoyant optimal policy that has full knowledge of the demand distributions a priori. This paper analyzes, in the presence of unknown cyclic demands, both the lost-sales model with zero lead time and the multiproduct backlogging model with positive lead times, fixed joint-ordering costs and order limits. For both models, we first introduce episodic models where inventory is discarded at the end of every cycle, and then build upon these results to analyze the nondiscarding models. Our RL policies HQL and FQL achieve [Formula: see text] regret for the episodic lost-sales model and the episodic multiproduct backlogging model, matching the regret lower bound that we prove in this paper. For the nondiscarding models, we construct a bandit learning algorithm on top that governs multiple copies of the previous RL algorithms, named Meta-HQL. Meta-HQL achieves [Formula: see text] regret for the nondiscarding lost-sales model with zero lead time, again matching the regret lower bound. For the nondiscarding multiproduct backlogging model, our policy Mimic-QL achieves [Formula: see text] regret. Our policies remove the regret dependence on the cardinality of the state-action space for inventory problems, which is an improvement over existing RL algorithms. We conducted experiments with a real sales data set from Rossmann, one of the largest drugstore chains in Europe, and also with a synthetic data set. For both sets of experiments, our policy converges rapidly to the optimal policy and dramatically outperforms the best policy that models demand as independent and identically distributed instead of cyclic.

This paper was accepted by J. George Shanthikumar, data science.

Funding: X.-Y. Gong was partially supported by an Accenture Fellowship. The work of X.-Y. Gong and D. Simchi-Levi was partially supported by the MIT Data Science Lab.

Supplemental Material: The data and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4947 .
Electric Vehicle Charge Scheduling with Flexible Service Operations
Authors: Klein Patrick S. , Schiffer Maximilian
Published: October 2023

Operators who deploy large fleets of electric vehicles often face a challenging charge scheduling problem. Specifically, time-ineffective recharging operations limit the profitability of charging during service operations such that operators recharge vehicles off duty at a central depot. Here, high investment cost and grid capacity limit available charging infrastructure such that operators need to schedule charging operations to keep the fleet operational. In this context, flexible service operations, that is, allowing delayed or expedited vehicle departures, can potentially increase charger utilization. Beyond this, jointly scheduling charging and service operations promises operational cost savings through better utilization of time-of-use energy tariffs and carefully crafted charging schedules designed to minimize battery wear. Against this background, we study the resulting joint charging and service operations scheduling problem accounting for battery degradation, nonlinear charging, and time-of-use energy tariffs. We propose an exact branch-and-price algorithm, leveraging a custom branching rule and a primal heuristic to remain efficient during the branch-and-bound phase. Moreover, we develop an exact labeling algorithm for our pricing problem, constituting a resource-constrained shortest path problem that considers variable energy prices and nonlinear charging operations. We benchmark our algorithm in a comprehensive numerical study and show that it can solve problem instances of realistic size with computational times below one hour, thus enabling its application in practice. Additionally, we analyze the benefit of jointly scheduling charging and service operations. We find that our integrated approach lowers the amount of charging infrastructure required by up to 57% besides enabling operational cost savings of up to 5%.

Funding: This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy [Grant 01MV21020B].

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2022.0272 .
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Educational Process of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Effects on the Parental Quality of Life
Authors: YILDIZ Nihal , ÖZEN Nalan , ÖZKAN KART Pınar , YILDIRIM Selman , KARADENİZ Serkan , BİLGİNER Çilem , ESENÜLKÜ Gülnur , ŞAHİN Sevim , ACAR ARSLAN Elif , KAMASAK Tulay , ÖZKORUMAK KARAGÜZEL Evrim , TOPBAŞ Murat , CANSU Ali
Published: October 2023

Background: After the pandemic period, the daily routines changed, and this caused a significant decrease in families’ quality of life. We aimed to show how the pandemic period and closure of educational institutions influenced children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families’ quality of life.

Method: The study is a descriptive type of research. The study population consists of families of children aged between 3 and 16 diagnosed with ASD who attended special education and rehabilitation centers and educational practice schools in Trabzon for at least 6 months before the pandemic, registered with the Trabzon Autism Association, and were followed at the Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Pediatric Neurology Polyclinic.
Families were asked to complete the questionnaire we designed. The data was collected face-to-face prospectively. The questionnaire consisted of six parts: sociodemographic and personal characteristics of children and parents; education problems during the pandemic period; the effect of daily routines during the pandemic period on both children and families; the Quality of Life in Autism Questionnaire-Parent Version; and the Parental Burnout Scale.

Results: We contacted 169 parents. Mothers were more likely than fathers to complete the questionnaire (73.1% vs. 26.9%). School attendance decreased by 11.9%, while regular education availability fell by 8.1%. The pandemic has caused changes in the daily routines of families and children in many areas of life, such as decreased physical activity, changes in sleep duration and time, and deterioration in regular eating habits (p = 0.035; 0.001; 0.004; 0.001, respectively). The QoL of parents whose daily schedules changed decreased as a result. Our study found that their levels of burnout significantly increased, and the PBS total score and the QoLA scores had a moderately significant correlation (rs = 0.411, p<0.001).

Conclusions: In this study, we showed that the COVID-19 epidemic negatively affected the education process of children with ASD. In order to improve the QoL of families and reduce burnout levels, we suggest providing additional service opportunities (parks, playgrounds, hobby centers, etc.) and special psychiatric services for children with ASD during pandemic periods.
Student parliament: experience of H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University
Authors:   H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Borysenko Nataliia
Published: October 2023

In the article, the author drew attention to the problem of the formation of professionally significant personality characteristics of the future teacher: the active life position of each student in social life, the level of his democratic culture, participation in the social life of the community, the city. The author noted that work in the student parliament serves as a guarantee for the formation of leadership qualities and the development of the professional orientation of the individual. The research was carried out in accordance with the axiological approach, the principles of the educational direction of the educational process, and the mutual responsibility of the participants of the educational process. The methods of analysis (historical-pedagogical, systemic, surveyanalytical), generalization, content analysis of reports on the work of the student parliament of the H. S. Skovoroda KhNPU. This self-governing structure plays a significant role in students gaining experience in self-organization and positive actions in the social environment. In the student parliament everyone, depending on their desire, skills and abilities, chooses the direction they want to pursue. Members of the student parliament actively participate in the organization of student projects at the level of the university and individual faculties, are participants and winners of various student tournaments, contests, olympiads, circles, participate in the preparation and holding of informative webinars, scientific and practical conferences. The student parliament of H. S. Skovoroda KhNPU is structured and carries out its work systematically. An important aspect of the activity of the student parliament is involvement in the implementation of the universityєs mission and vision. An important area of activity of the student parliament of H.S. Skovoroda KhNPU is professionally oriented scientific work. The article defines the following promising directions of activity of the student parliament: creation of conditions for self-realization of students in the interests of the individual, society, institution, and the state; promotion of various forms of social activity, public initiatives, socialization of the young generation; improvement of living conditions and leisure time of students; formation of students’ skills and qualities necessary for developing an active life position, organizational and leadership traits, and creative approaches to solving problems. Implementation of these tasks, improvement of the main directions of educational and educational work, implementation of new projects and activities will significantly increase the brightness of student life, develop an active life position and creative abilities of the students.
Formation of axiological competence as a psychological and pedagogical problem
Authors:   H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Rudichieva Nataliia
Published: October 2023

The relevance and necessity of a permanent systemic axiological approach in the educational process of the modern education system is revealed. The problem of formation of axiological competence was studied from the point of view of various approaches to its solution. It is noted that modern society is experiencing the most dangerous crisis of values, humanity, loss of ideals. A way out of the crisis is presented, which is possible through the formation and spread of global values as the foundation of humanity. A significant increase in the attention of scientists and practitioners to the education of modern youth in accordance with the humanistic values of society and the world was noted. Emphasis is placed on the presence of a close connection between values and education, culture and education, which is revealed in the improvement of a person’s personality. Emphasis is placed on the growing significance of the value approach in the field of education, which is aimed at the formation of key competencies of the individual, in particular axiological. The views of scientists on the essence of the concept of “axiological competence” are analyzed. It was found that there are different points of view regarding the definition of the studied concept. On the one hand, the concept of “axiological competence” is presented as a component of subject historical competence, which should be gradually and systematically developed and improved during primary school education. On the other hand, the concept of “axiological competence” is highlighted from the point of view of a component of professional competence in the context of training specialists in various fields. On the basis of the conducted analysis, the definition of “axiological competence” was formulated, which we understand as a complex multi-component personal education, which is the result of value education and is based on theoretical knowledge and objective ideas about the diversity of humanistic values of society and the world, which are implemented through skills, abilities and models of behaviour that ensure successful life in society.
The essence and structure of the individual and psychological willingness of specialists in the social sphere to work with vulnerable categories of the population
Authors:   State Institution Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University, Karaman Olena
Published: October 2023

The article, based on the analysis of scientific literature, theoretically substantiates the essence and structure of the individual and psychological willingness of specialists in the social sphere to work with vulnerable categories of the population. It has been established that the individual and psychological willingness of social sphere specialists to work with vulnerable categories of the population is a unique, inimitable combination of physiological, mental and psychological qualities of the individual, which determines the individual lifestyle and allows effective professional activity. Vulnerable categories of the population are that part of the human community of a particular society, which during this period of time or on an ongoing basis has the highest risk of falling into difficult life circumstances due to the influence of adverse external or internal factors and needs help, support and protection from the state, state and non-state bodies, institutions and organizations, as it is unable to provide itself with the necessary conditions for existence without outside help. The structure of the individual and psychological willingness of social sphere specialists to work with vulnerable categories of the population has been determined as a dynamic combination of two components: psychophysiological (abstractness, criticality, flexibility and creativity of thinking; emotional stability; strong-willed determination) and psychological (tolerance, communicativeness, reflexivity and other personality qualities).
Content of scientific and theoretical training of social workers to work with vulnerable categories of the population
Authors:   State Institution Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University, Yurkiv Yaroslava
Published: October 2023

The article theoretically substantiates and develops the content of scientific and theoretical training of social workers to work with vulnerable categories of the population. It has been established that scientific and theoretical training is one of the components of the professional training of social workers, which is defined as a purposeful process and the result of forming the willingness of future specialists for professional activity, aimed at mastering a set of value orientations, scientific and theoretical knowledge, operational and practical abilities and skills, individual and personal qualities necessary for successful performance of professional tasks in the field of social work. It has been found that the content of the scientific and theoretical training of social workers to work with vulnerable categories of the population is aimed at mastering modern knowledge and technologies for working with them and includes the following aspects: knowledge of methodological approaches, theories, concepts, conceptual and terminological apparatus of social work with vulnerable categories of the population; knowledge of the principles of social policy in working with vulnerable categories of the population and the specifics of providing social services; understanding the essence and classification of vulnerable categories of the population, difficult life circumstances; knowledge of the directions and content of social work with vulnerable categories of the population; knowledge of technologies of scientific and theoretical forecasting, designing, modelling of social work with vulnerable categories of the population; knowledge of technologies, methods and forms of social work with vulnerable categories of the population; knowledge of the domestic system of social protection, etc.
Longer length peripheral catheters in sickle cell treatment: a more efficient and cost-effective care pathway
Authors: Moreta Jenniferth Aviles
Published: October 2023

Patients with sickle cell disease require frequent venous access for red blood cell exchange transfusions to manage their condition. Such frequent access can lead to scar tissue formation, increased pain on insertion, and difficult vascular access for the patients. Previous attempts at achieving successful venous access for patients with difficult venous access has been made with central venous lines, usually femoral lines, which required a large amount of nursing input and resulted in anxiety and pain on insertion for patients. In this article, the author reports on a new pathway with a longer-length peripheral intravenous catheter that reduces the nursing time burden during line insertion, requires less equipment and, crucially, results in a less painful procedure for patients. The increased efficiency of the pathway resulted in a cost saving of £149 per insertion, and patient feedback revealed that the longer-length catheter was preferred over femoral lines.
Guarding the central venous access device: a new solution for an old problem
Authors: Doellman Darcy
Published: October 2023

HIGHLIGHTS

CLABSIs are a major concern in both the adult and pediatric patient population. Contamination of catheter hubs is a common cause of CLABSI. A novel, transparent line guard protects CVAD hubs from gross contamination. Central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) are a serious and potentially deadly complication in patients with a central venous access device (CVAD). CVADs play an essential role in modern medicine, serving as lifelines for many patients. To maintain safe and stable venous access, infection prevention bundles are used to help protect patients from complications such as CLABSI. Despite most CLABSIs being preventable, rates have been on the rise, often disproportionately impacting critically ill children. New solutions are needed to strengthen infection prevention bundles and protect CVADs from pathogen entry at catheter hubs and line connections. A novel, Food and Drug Administration–listed device has become available recently to guard CVADs from sources of gross contamination, addressing this apparent gap in infection prevention technology and practice.
A guide to cannulation in adults
Authors: Ford Claire
Published: October 2023

This article provides clinical guidance on performing cannulation on an adult. The site, equipment selection and aseptic non-touch technique will be discussed. The clinical procedural technique of cannulation will be explained and the article will also provide an awareness of the dangers and complications of this invasive technique for both the patient and the health professional.
Health Law: Convergence and Divergence on the Island of Ireland
Authors: Néill Clayton Ó , Mulligan Andrea
Published: October 2023

ABSTRACT: This article considers how health law operates on the island of Ireland, including some of its key issues: (1) capacity, (2) abortion and (3) clinical negligence. The healthcare and political context in both jurisdictions is discussed, as well as cross-border initiatives and arrangements. In relation to capacity, the article points to new legislation that has been introduced in the two jurisdictions and considers how it reflects (or does not reflect) the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Parallels and divergences of legislative change in respect of abortion are analysed, including approaches to process and implementation of change. The law on clinical negligence is critiqued in relation to standard of care, breach of duty, causation and quantum of damages and civil procedure. The article identifies convergences and divergences in terms of administration/procedure, legislation and context, but highlights a shared movement towards more human rights-oriented change and reform.
Alignment and performance analysis of free-space optical communications for broadband video transmission
Authors: Holahan Martin , Plunkett Thomas , Satterfield Harlem , Allizzo Dominic , Branford Jazmine , Suarez John
Published: October 2023

We describe a free-space optical communications system operating with an externally modulated infrared carrier signal at 1550 nm. The purpose of the system is to explore an alternative to radio-frequency wireless communications, which are subject to spectral congestion and bandwidth limitations. We provide details of the optical alignment procedure and a means for extrapolating the obtained results to larger transmission distances. To illustrate the versatility of the system, a relatively wideband signal was chosen for transmission: an NTSC analog video signal, whose instantaneous bandwidth was 6 MHz. We describe the performance of the system by examining its output image quality and signal-to-noise ratio.
Three-dimensional instrument polarization analysis and optimization of liquid-crystal-based Stokes polarimeter
Authors: Jing-Jie Yang , Xu-Sheng Zhang , Jun-Feng Hou , Yu-Liang Shen
Published: October 2023

The Stokes polarimeter based on liquid crystal variable retarders (LCVRs) is a space polarization measurement technology widely used. However, due to the tilt of the optic axis of the LCVR with the driving voltage in the direction of light propagation and the interference in LCVR, the LCVRs-based Stokes polarimeter produces a large instrument polarization, which affects the accurate polarization measurement. In this paper, we combine polarization ray tracing with multi-beam interference, and establish a general three-dimensional polarization analysis model of the LCVRs-based Stokes polarimeter. The simulation results of adjusting the LCVR voltage to reduce the instrument polarization are analyzed, and the variation of polarization measurement accuracy with the field of view before and after optimization of the LCVRs-based Stokes polarimeter is simulated and analyzed. A LCVR structure with additional films for matching the refractive index is proposed. According to the simulation results, this structure can significantly reduce the interference effects and reduce the impact of variations in liquid crystal layer thickness on the interference effects.
Programmable optical switching integrated chip for 4-bit binary true/inverse/complement code conversions based on fluorinated photopolymers
Authors: Yue Jian , Wang Jinkai , Zhang Li , Wang Chunxue , Han Lei , Cui Zhanchen , Zhang Daming , Shi Zuosen , Chen Changming
Published: October 2023

In this work, programmable optical switching integrated chips for 4-bit binary true/inverse/complement optical code conversions (OCCs) are proposed based on fluorinated photopolymers. Fluorinated bis-phenol-A novolac resin (FAR) with low absorption loss and fluorinated polyacrylate (FPA) with high thermal stability are self-synthesized as core and cladding layer, respectively. The basic architecture of operating unit for the photonic chip designed is composed of directional coupler Mach-Zehnder interferometer (DC-MZI) thermo-optic (TO) switching, X-junction, and Y-bunching waveguide structures. The waveguide module by cascading 16 operating units could realize OCCs function through optical transmission matrix. The response time of the 4-bit binary OCCs is measured as about 300 µs. The insertion loss and extinction ratio of the actual chip are obtained as about 10.5 dB and 15.2 dB, respectively. The electric driving power consumption for OCCs is less than 6 mW. The true/inverse/complement OCCs are achieved by the programmable modulation circuit. The proposed technique is suitable for achieving optical digital computing system with high-speed signal processing and low power consumption.
Optimal sampling rate for 3D single molecule localization
Authors: Chang Huanzhi , Fu Shuang , Li Yiming
Published: October 2023

Resolution of single molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) depends on the localization accuracy, which can be improved by utilizing engineered point spread functions (PSF) with delicate shapes. However, the intrinsic pixelation effect of the detector sensor will deteriorate PSFs under different sampling rates. The influence of the pixelation effect to the achieved 3D localization accuracy for different PSF shapes under different signal to background ratio (SBR) and pixel dependent readout noise has not been investigated in detail so far. In this work, we proposed a framework to characterize the 3D localization accuracy of pixelated PSF at different sampling rates. Four different PSFs (astigmatic PSF, double helix (DH) PSF, Tetrapod PSF and 4Pi PSF) were evaluated and the pixel size with optimal 3D localization performance were derived. This work provides a theoretical guide for the optimal design of sampling rate for 3D super resolution imaging.
High-aspect-ratio dielectric pillar with nanocavity backed by metal substrate in the infrared range
Authors: Lu Xiaoyuan , Tognazzi Andrea , Cino Alfonso C. , De Angelis Costantino , Xu Gang , Zhang Tongyi , Shishmarev Dmitry
Published: October 2023

We investigated absorption and field enhancements of shallow nanocavities on top of high-aspect-ratio dielectric pillars in the infrared range. The structure includes a high-aspect-ratio nanopillar array of high refractive index, with nano-cavities on top of the pillars, and a metal plane at the bottom. The enhancement factor of electric field intensity reaches 3180 in the nanocavities and peak absorption reaches 99%. We also investigated the finite-size effect of the presented structure to simulate real experiments. Due to its narrow absorption bandwidth 3.5 nm, it can work as a refractive index sensor with sensitivity 297.5 nm/RIU and figure of merit 85. This paves the way to directly control light field at the nanoscales in the infrared light range. The investigated nanostructure will find applications in multifunctional photonics devices such as chips for culturing cells, refractive index sensors, biosensors of single molecule detection and nonlinear sensors.
80 × 120 AI-enhanced LiDAR system based on a lightweight intensity–RGB–dToF sensor fusion neural network deployed on an edge device
Authors: Cui Lebei , Li Jie , Zhuo Shenglong , Wu Yifan , Zhou Sifan , Qian Jian , Sun Miao , Wang Jier , Chiang Patrick Yin , Chen Yun
Published: October 2023

Collecting higher-quality three-dimensional points-cloud data in various scenarios practically and robustly has led to a strong demand for such dToF-based LiDAR systems with higher ambient noise rejection ability and limited optical power consumption, which is a sharp conflict. To alleviate such a clash, an idea of utilizing a strong ambient noise rejection ability of intensity and RGB images is proposed, based on which a lightweight CNN is newly, to the best of our knowledge, designed, achieving a state-of-the-art performance even with 90 × less inference time and 480 × fewer FLOPs. With such net deployed on edge devices, a complete AI-LiDAR system is presented, showing a 100 × fewer signal photon demand in simulation experiments when creating depth images of the same quality.
Transmitter dispersion eye closure quaternary assessment based on linear CNN with 1 × 1 convolutional kernel
Authors: Chen Zejun , Xiang Junjiang , Yang Hailin , Zhou Gai , Xiang Meng , Fu Songnian , Qin Yuwen
Published: October 2023

Transmitter dispersion eye closure quaternary (TDECQ) is a vital metric to characterize the quality of four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) optical signals. However, the traditional TDECQ assessment scheme is complex and time consuming, with heavy iterative operations. Therefore, accelerating the TDECQ assessment has great significance for photonic data-center interconnection (DCI) applications. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a TDECQ assessment based on linear-convolutional neural network (L-CNN) with the 1 × 1 convolutional kernel to reduce the implementation complexity. Our experimental results verify that the lightweight L-CNN can realize the accurate TDECQ assessment, without the involvement of nonlinear activation functions (NAFs). The mean absolute error (MAE) of 26.5625 and 53.125 GBaud PAM-4 signals are 0.16 dB and 0.18 dB, respectively, over a TDECQ range from 1.5 to 4.0 dB. Meanwhile, in comparison with existing CNN-based schemes, the L-CNN based TDECQ assessment scheme only needs 2048 multiplications, which have been reduced by five orders of magnitude.
Snacks contribute considerably to total dietary intakes among adults stratified by glycemia in the United States
Authors: Heitman Kristen , Thomas Sara E. , Kelly Owen , Fanelli Stephanie M. , Krok-Schoen Jessica L. , Luo Menghua , Taylor Christopher A.
Published: October 2023

Little is known about the snacking patterns among adults with type 2 diabetes. The contribution of snacks to energy and nutrient intakes is important to further understand dietary patterns and glycemic control. The purpose of this study is to evaluate snack consumption among adults according to diabetes status in the United States. One NHANES 24-hour dietary recall for each participant collected between 2005–2016 was utilized for analysis (n = 23,708). Analysis of covariance was used to compare differences in nutrient and food groups intakes from snacks across levels of glycemic control, while controlling for age, race/ethnicity, income, marital status, and gender. Results of this analysis inform that adults with type 2 diabetes consume less energy, carbohydrates, and total sugars from snacks than adults without diabetes. Those with controlled type 2 diabetes consumed more vegetables and less fruit juice than other groups, yet adults with type 2 diabetes in general consumed more cured and luncheon meats than adults without diabetes or with prediabetes. Protein from all snacks for those without diabetes is higher than all other groups. This study elucidates common snacking patterns among US adults with diabetes and highlights the need for clinicians and policymakers to take snacking into consideration when evaluating and providing dietary recommendations.
Short-term power load forecasting based on the CEEMDAN-TCN-ESN model
Authors: Huang Jiacheng , Zhang Xiaowen , Jiang Xuchu
Published: October 2023

Ensuring an adequate electric power supply while minimizing redundant generation is the main objective of power load forecasting, as this is essential for the power system to operate efficiently. Therefore, accurate power load forecasting is of great significance to save social resources and promote economic development. In the current study, a hybrid CEEMDAN-TCN-ESN forecasting model based on complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) and higher-frequency and lower-frequency component reconstruction is proposed for short-term load forecasting research. In this paper, we select the historical national electricity load data of Panama as the research subject and make hourly forecasts of its electricity load data. The results show that the RMSE and MAE predicted by the CEEMDAN-TCN-ESN model on this dataset are 15.081 and 10.944, respectively, and R2 is 0.994. Compared to the second-best model (CEEMDAN-TCN), the RMSE is reduced by 9.52%, and the MAE is reduced by 17.39%. The hybrid model proposed in this paper effectively extracts the complex features of short-term power load data and successfully merges subseries according to certain similar features. It learns the complex and varying features of higher-frequency series and the obvious regularity of the lower-frequency-trend series well, which could be applicable to real-world short-term power load forecasting work.
Loading dose vitamin D3 improves vitamin D insufficiency in adults undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Bai Ni , Lee Karen , Limvorapitak Wasithep , Liu Emily , Kendler David , Broady Raewyn , White Jennifer
Published: October 2023

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (aHSCT) patients are well known to be at high risk of vitamin D (vit D) deficiency. This study assessed whether a loading dose (100,000 IU) of vitamin D3 pre-aHSCT could effectively achieve and maintain sufficient post-transplant vit D levels (serum total 25 hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) ≥ 75nmol/L). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was also conducted for bone health evaluation. 74 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, either to the high vit D group (single loading dose (100,000 IU) plus 2,000 IU vit D3 daily) or the control group (2,000 IU vit D3 daily). Vit D levels were measured at three time points (baseline, day 30 and day 100 post-aHSCT). At baseline, fewer than 50% patients had a sufficient 25(OH)D (control: 42.9%; high vit D: 43.6%). The proportion of patients with sufficient 25(OH)D (nmol/L) was increased at day 30 and day 100, with a trend of higher proportion in the high vit D group at day 30 (high vit D vs. control: 89.7% vs. 74.3%, p = 0.08). The increased 25(OH)D was significantly higher in the high vit D group at day 30 (high vit D vs. control: 29±25.2 vs. 14 ±21.9, p = 0.01). Insufficient vit D level before transplant (baseline) was an independent risk factor for vit D insufficiency (serum 25(OH)D < 75nmol/L) post-aHSCT (OR = 4.16, p = 0.03). DXA suggested significant bone loss for total hip in both groups, and in the femoral neck for the control group only. In conclusion, single loading dose vitamin D3 significantly increased total 25(OH)D levels at day 30 post-transplant, and the intervention was especially beneficial for patients with baseline vit D insufficiency. We acknowledge that the primary outcome at day 100 post-aHSCT indicating superiority of loading dose versus daily dose supplementation was not met.