bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Blaming Kehl: Muslim Turkish Men and their Moral Journey in the Franco‐German Borderland
Authors: Alyanak Oğuz
Published: January 2022

Geographical space is more than a Cartesian plane where actors move across coordinates. It has a moral weight that renders each move subject to moral discourse. Yet, rarely does this premise prevent people from exploring spaces that are associated with anything wrong or bad. In fact, we continue to find people in places where they should not be, and doing things that are not just communally shunned but also personally acknowledged to be wrong or bad. Why is that the case? This paper draws on my ethnography on Turkish men who live in Strasbourg and socialize in its German neighbor, Kehl, to examine the role of space in the production of moral and masculine dispositions and practices. Approaching the Strasbourg‐Kehl border as a moral boundary, I examine how crossing the border to Kehl constitutes an integral part of the journey that my interlocutors take in constructing their moral and masculine selves. In this journey, spatial transgressions are not diverted but embraced, and confronted. These transgressions also produce anxieties—mistakes which in moments of self‐reflection lead to regrets. In such moments, two logics come into play: consequentialism and blame. The first builds on Islamic notions of fallibility and nefs, while the latter brings Kehl into the picture as a moral alibi—a space that takes blame for sins. The latter also helps others in the community who fail to prevent men from going to Kehl and transgressing moral boundaries to transpose culpability. In conclusion, I emphasize the need to consider the making and maintenance of masculinities and moralities in conjunction with the lived environments where such identities are formed and performed.
Enhanced growth factor expression in chronic diabetic wounds treated by cold atmospheric plasma
Authors: Hiller Jonas , Stratmann Bernd , Timm Jürgen , Costea Tania‐Cristina , Tschoepe Diethelm
Published: January 2022

Aims

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has been proven to enhance wound healing in superficial, chronically infected, diabetic foot ulcers. We aimed to investigate the molecular drivers responsible for this macroscopically observed improvement in diabetic wound healing.

Methods

Wound exudate was available from each change of dressing within a prospective, randomised, patient‐blinded clinical trial. Specific protein level analyses were conducted via multiplex ELISA for wound samples of a representative subcohort (placebo: n = 13; CAP: n = 14). Expression of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF‐2), vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF‐A), cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) were evaluated over a treatment period of about 14 days.

Results

Analysis revealed increased levels of the growth factors FGF‐2 (placebo: median 46.9 range [32.0–168.6] AU vs. CAP: 113.7[55.8–208.1] AU) and VEGF‐A (placebo: 79.7 [52.4–162.7] AU vs. CAP: 120.8 [51.1–198.1] AU) throughout the treatment period and in head‐to‐head comparison in a daily assessment. CAP‐treated wounds showed increased levels of tumour necrosis factor‐alpha, interleukins 1α and 8. However, the total protein amounts were not significantly elevated. The total protein amounts of MMPs were not altered by CAP.

Conclusions

Induction of crucial growth factors, like FGF‐2 and VEGF‐A, and interleukins appears to be an important component of CAP‐mediated promotion of granulation, vascularisation and reepithelialisation in the diabetic foot. These findings demonstrate for the first time that CAP‐mediated growth factor induction also occurs in persons with diabetes, as previously described only in several in vitro and rodent experiments.

Clinical Trial registration KPWTRIAL: NCT04205942, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Cost of the quanta SC+ hemodialysis system for self‐care in the United Kingdom
Authors: Ferguson Thomas W. , Harper Gerard D. , Milad John E. , Komenda Paul V. J.
Published: January 2022

Introduction

New personal hemodialysis systems, such as the quanta SC+, are being developed; these systems are smaller and simpler to use while providing the clearances of conventional systems. Increasing the uptake of lower‐intensity assistance and full self‐care dialysis may provide economic benefits to the public health payer. In the United Kingdom, most hemodialysis patients currently receive facility‐based dialysis costing more than £36,350 per year including patient transport. As such, we aimed to describe the annual costs of using the SC+ hemodialysis system in the United Kingdom for 3×‐weekly and 3.5×‐weekly dialysis regimens, for self‐care hemodialysis provided both in‐center and at home.

Methods

We applied a cost minimization approach. Costs for human resources, equipment, and consumables were sourced from the dialysis machine developer (Quanta Dialysis Technologies) based upon discussions with dialysis providers. Facility overhead expenses and transport costs were taken from a review of the literature.

Findings

Annual costs associated with the use of the SC+ hemodialysis system were estimated to be £26,642 for hemodialysis provided 3× weekly as home self‐care; £30,235 for hemodialysis provided 3× weekly as self‐care in‐center; £29,866 for hemodialysis provided 3.5× weekly as home self‐care; and £36,185 for hemodialysis provided 3.5× weekly as self‐care in‐center.

Discussion

We found that the SC+ hemodialysis system offers improved cost‐effectiveness for both 3×‐weekly and 3.5×‐weekly self‐care dialysis performed at home or as self‐care in‐center versus fully assisted dialysis provided 3× weekly with conventional machines in facilities.
Notes from rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis Cresson) nest observations
Authors: Boone Michelle L. , Evans Elaine , Wolf Amy , Minser Halley , Watson Jay , Smith Tamara A.
Published: January 2022

The rusty patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis, is federally endangered in the United States and Canada. Information on natural history is crucial to conservation planning, but little is known about B. affinis nesting biology, habitat, overwintering, and mating behaviours. We report observations on three B. affinis nests in Minnesota and Wisconsin found in 2020. Previous to this report, there were only four published descriptions of B. affinis nests, with the last nest recorded nearly 30 years ago. Here, we share findings on nesting habitat, nest size, mating behaviours, and nest parasites.

The nests were located in between the foundation and a layer of insulation in an urban residence, in an urban backyard near a house foundation, and in a degraded semi‐wooded, riparian natural area.

Colony size estimates ranged from 251 to 1341 bees.

We observed males chasing gynes near a nest entrance and one mating event approximately 5 m from the nest.

We documented the chalcid wasp, Melittobia acasta, as a new host association.

These observations increased the known colony size range, documented a new host association, and indicate the potential importance of urban and degraded habitats for recovery of the endangered rusty patched bumble bee.
Caries prevalence, oral health practices/behaviours and dental anxiety levels amongst dental hygiene students: A cross‐sectional study
Authors: Mutluay Merve , Mutluay Abidin Talha
Published: January 2022

Objective

This study aimed to determine caries prevalence, oral health practices/behaviours and dental anxiety levels amongst dental hygiene students.

Materials and Methods

A self‐administered questionnaire was used to determine students’ oral hygiene practices/behaviours. The students were subjected to oral examinations to determine their decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) scores according to the WHO criteria. In addition, the Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale (CDAS) was used to measure the students’ dental anxiety levels.

Results

A total of 280 students (mean age: 20.8 years) participated in this study. Amongst the students, 52.8% brush their teeth twice a day, and 17.48% and 15.17% use floss and mouthwash daily, respectively. Moreover, the defined smoking rate was 22.85%. The mean DMFT scores of the preclinical and clinical students were 3.39 ± 3.22 and 3.55 ± 3.19, respectively. Most of the students (82.6%) preferred fluoride toothpaste, and the DMFT scores of those who use and do not use fluoride toothpaste significantly differed (p = 0.031). Furthermore, junk‐food consumption affected the scores for decayed teeth (p = 0.048) and missing teeth (p = 0.039). Most students had low or moderate CDAS scores (CDAS <13), and anxiety scores were lower amongst the clinical students than amongst the preclinical students.

Conclusions

Although the students demonstrated favourable oral health behaviours/practices and low caries prevalence, their adherence to oral hygiene instructions and to healthy dietary and lifestyle habits should improve. The importance of this topic should be strongly emphasized in the undergraduate curriculum. For this purpose, professional behavioural control methods that suit students’ individual capacities, motivations and therapeutic needs may be employed. The principal findings of similar studies should be evaluated by lecturers to help students adopt optimal oral health practices/behaviours, reducing their dental anxiety levels and improving their professional competencies.
Edible mushrooms’ enrichment in food and feed: A mini review
Authors: Kumar Harsh , Bhardwaj Kanchan , Kuča Kamil , Sharifi‐Rad Javad , Verma Rachna , Machado Marisa , Kumar Dinesh , Cruz‐Martins Natália
Published: January 2022

Dietary fibres and high fibre‐containing foods have been a huge attraction among researchers and nutraceutical industries due to their health‐promoting benefits. From Greek and Roman times, edible mushrooms are considered the ‘elixir of life’ and are often stated as a new source of dietary fibre. Containing rich sources of essential amino acids and polysaccharides, mushrooms are viewed as an advantage over protein sources of both animal and plant origin. Additionally, the ability of mushrooms to grow under controlled conditions and attain high yield in a short span has made this added‐value food of extreme interest. Nowadays, mushrooms and their by‐products have been used to fortify various food products as well as for use in animal feed owing to their bioactive, therapeutic and nutritional value. Hence, this review intends to highlight the current knowledge on edible mushrooms and their waste for food and feed enrichment and nutritional purposes, along with their role in human and animal diet.
Soybean expansion impacts on soil organic matter in the eastern region of the Maranhão State (Northeastern Brazil)
Authors: Siqueira‐Neto Marcos , Popin Gustavo V. , Ferrão Gregori E. , Santos Arthur K. B. , Cerri Carlos E. P. , Ferreira Tiago O.
Published: January 2022

Recently, the eastern region of the Maranhão state (Northeastern Brazil) became a hotspot of land‐use change (LUC) directly from native vegetation to soybean cultivation, but due to the soil characteristics, LUC has caused substantial soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen depletion. Therefore, we quantified these impacts arising from two factors: (i) different timeframes after LUC and (ii) contrasting soil management practices. For the first study, soil samples (0–30 cm; six replicates) were taken on soybean fields year one, year eight and 15 years after LUC. It the second study, another area was sampled, of which part was managed under no‐tillage (NT) and the other using a mouldboard plough (MP). For both studies, native vegetation (NV) was sampled as the control. NV stored about 50 Mg of carbon (C) ha−1; but LUC reduced C stocks by 35% (after 8 and 15 years); moreover, labile‐C decreased between 20% and 45%, while, microbial‐C decreased between 20% and 60%, considering the interval between year one and 15 years. Regarding soil management, the MP did not cause differences on C stock (24 Mg C ha−1) in comparison to NT; however, both labile‐C and microbial‐C decreased by 15% to NT, while, decreased by 40% to MP. These results lead us to believe that, since LUC is inevitable, we suggested the adoption of the best agricultural management practices, in order to preserve/increase the SOC, reducing the impacts on GHG emissions and, thus, achieving sustainability and profitability.
Bilingual diabetes workshop to improve Latinx care
Authors: Ortega Pilar , Iniguez Reniell , Park Yoon Soo , Girotti Jorge A.
Published: January 2022

Background

Linguistic and cultural discordance between clinicians and patients contributes to suboptimal care of Latinx patients with diabetes. Bilingual pedagogies may help learners with pre‐existing Spanish skills to improve health communication with linguistic minorities.

Approach

We designed a diabetes workshop for health professions students that applied the educational principles of bilingual pedagogies, focus on learners with prior Spanish skills, and intersectionality of language and culture. The session introduced diabetes concepts in Spanish and English, applied Latinx cultural beliefs to clinical conversations about diabetes and explored the impact of clinician language and cultural skills on diabetes‐related communication.

Evaluation

Voluntary surveys evaluated learner knowledge, confidence and attitudes before and after the intervention. Of 60 attendees, 57 participants (95%) completed surveys. Comparison of pre and post responses yielded statistically significant increases in respondents' cultural knowledge and confidence in explaining diabetes concepts in Spanish (all p < 0.001). When controlling for Spanish level, most items still showed a significant improvement. Latinx and heritage learners were more likely to express lower confidence in explaining diabetes post‐workshop (p < 0.05), suggesting an increased awareness of limitations.

Implications

Bilingual educational interventions that emphasise culturally appropriate clinical skills may be an effective way to prepare health professions students who are heritage Spanish or second‐language learners to better communicate with Latinx patients about diabetes. We provide actionable recommendations for clinical educators interested in incorporating communication skills training for linguistically diverse patient care.
Effects of small‐group learning on the assessment of professional skills through a PBL activity
Authors: Casquero‐Modrego Nuria , Núñez‐Andrés María Amparo , Iniesto‐Alba María José
Published: January 2022

Working on a real project emphasizes an active learning environment such as that used in collaborative pedagogy, where students learn to resolve problems and improve their professional skills. Engineering programs are invested in improving learning by focusing on real hands‐on experience. The crisis caused by COVID‐19 will lead to a reduction in the number of enrollments in many university programs. Therefore, it is important to investigate how the dynamics of small groups will affect the active learning process. This study explores a hands‐on learning activity in the context of a Web Map Service (WMS). It aims to analyze the improvement in professional skills of a group of Geomatics Engineering students with two approaches. Students from a university in Catalonia created a WMS as a team‐based project. Meanwhile, in a university in Galicia, students on the same course and program conducted the same task but individually. Three independent surveys along the course helped to collect the students' opinions and assess their learning experience based on their project evaluations. The conclusion is clear: despite working with small learning groups, collaborative learning using a hands‐on approach improves academic performance, increases motivation, and helps students acquire the necessary professional skills in their careers.
A Critical Period for Robust Curriculum‐Based Deep Reinforcement Learning of Sequential Action in a Robot Arm
Authors: de Kleijn Roy , Sen Deniz , Kachergis George
Published: January 2022

Many everyday activities are sequential in nature. That is, they can be seen as a sequence of subactions and sometimes subgoals. In the motor execution of sequential action, context effects are observed in which later subactions modulate the execution of earlier subactions (e.g., reaching for an overturned mug, people will optimize their grasp to achieve a comfortable end state). A trajectory (movement) adaptation of an often‐used paradigm in the study of sequential action, the serial response time task, showed several context effects of which centering behavior is of special interest. Centering behavior refers to the tendency (or strategy) of subjects to move their arm or mouse cursor to a position equidistant to all stimuli in the absence of predictive information, thereby reducing movement time to all possible targets. In the current study, we investigated sequential action in a virtual robotic agent trained using proximal policy optimization, a state‐of‐the‐art deep reinforcement learning algorithm. The agent was trained to reach for appearing targets, similar to a serial response time task given to humans. We found that agents were more likely to develop centering behavior similar to human subjects after curricularized learning. In our curriculum, we first rewarded agents for reaching targets before introducing a penalty for energy expenditure. When the penalty was applied with no curriculum, many agents failed to learn the task due to a lack of action space exploration, resulting in high variability of agents' performance. Our findings suggest that in virtual agents, similar to infants, early energetic exploration can promote robust later learning. This may have the same effect as infants' curiosity‐based learning by which they shape their own curriculum. However, introducing new goals cannot wait too long, as there may be critical periods in development after which agents (as humans) cannot flexibly learn to incorporate new objectives. These lessons are making their way into machine learning and offer exciting new avenues for studying both human and machine learning of sequential action.
Complications associated with long‐term positive‐pressure ventilation in dogs and cats: 67 cases
Authors: Cagle Laura A. , Hopper Kate , Epstein Steven E.
Published: January 2022

Objectives

To determine the complications associated with positive‐pressure ventilation (PPV) in dogs and cats.

Design

Retrospective study from October 2009 to September 2013.

Setting

University Teaching Hospital.

Animals

Fifty‐eight dogs and 9 cats.

Measurements and main results

Medical records were retrospectively reviewed; signalment, complications associated with PPV, duration of PPV, and outcome were recorded. Complications most commonly recorded during PPV included hypothermia 41/67 (61%), hypotension 39/67 (58%), cardiac arrhythmias 33/67 (49%), a positive fluid balance 31/67 (46%), oral lesions 25/67 (37%), and corneal ulcerations 24/67 (36%). A definition of ventilator‐associated events (VAE) extrapolated from the Center of Disease Control's criteria was applied to 21 cases that received PPV for at least 4 days in this study. Ventilator‐associated conditions occurred in 5 of 21 (24%) of cases with infection‐related ventilator‐associated conditions and ventilator‐associated pneumonia identified in 3 of 21 (14%) cases.

Conclusions

Complications are common and diverse in dogs and cats receiving long‐term PPV and emphasizes the importance of intensive, continuous patient monitoring and appropriate nursing care protocols. Many of the complications identified could be serious without intervention and suggests that appropriate equipment alarms could improve patient safety. Development of veterinary specific surveillance tools such as the VAE criteria would aid future investigations and allow for effective multicenter studies.
Validity and Reliability of Green Competencies Instrument for Automobile Technology Programme Using Rasch Model
Authors: Onyilo Igogbe Regina , Arsat Mahyuddin , Amin Nor Fadila
Published: January 2022

This article aims to determine the validity of developed constructs and check the reliability of the newly developed instrument named as Questionnaire on Green Competencies for Automobile Engineering Technology (QGCAET) for the Automobile Technology Programme in Nigerian Universities. The instrument consists of 170 elements measuring four constructs namely Technical Green Competencies; Managerial Green Competencies; Personal Green Competencies and Social Green Competencies and was administered to 299 respondents made of Lecturers, Technologists and Final- Year Students of Automobile Engineering and Technology programme in Nigeria universities. The Rasch model was used to examine the validity and reliability of the items. From the analysis point of view, the polarity of the elements indicates that the correlation of the point measure (PTMEA CORR) of 170 elements of green competencies is between 0.00 and 0.55. The summary statistics show that the reliability of the items and the separation of the items of the green competencies instrument are 0.98 and 6.46, respectively. Similarly, the item reliability of each construct is between 0.96 and 0.99, and the reliability of the person is between 0.79 and 1.97, respectively. In terms of item fit statistics, a total of 157 items are found to be fit to achieve the objectives of the study. The result also indicates that the range of fit for the four (4) identified green competencies constructs is between 0.61 and 1.49 signifying that all the constructs are in harmony in measuring the items in the constructs, so suitable in achieving the objectives of the research.
Continuous Improvement in the IMSE Program of Kuwait University
Authors: Allahverdi Ali , Alhashemi Jawad , Sarkar Kanti
Published: January 2022

Continuous improvement of an engineering program is essential and a critical process. Development and implementation of such a process is not only required by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), but it is also a necessary condition for the maturation and development of any engineering program. This paper describes the process employed by the Industrial and Management Systems Engineering (IMSE) program at Kuwait University to continuously improve its program. The employed process includes identification of the lowest score among the seven student outcomes specified by ABET.  Next, the courses in the IMSE curriculum addressing this student outcome are identified, and the instructors teaching these courses took remedial actions. In the following semesters, this outcome was measured, and it was found that there is a significant improvement on this outcome. Other engineering programs can benefit from the process described in this paper.
Concerns Fronting Engineering Education in Sudan: A Review
Authors: Minalla Abdelrahim
Published: January 2022

For decades Sudan, like most of Sub-Saharan African countries, has been facing profound engineering education issues, namely: poor funding, outdated curricula, ineffective teaching and learning methods, inadequate human capacity, poor research/publishing condition, inappropriate facilities, inadequate educational technology and ICT environment, weak university/industry relationship, lack of academic freedom, and missing of quality control and accreditation measures. The paper discussed these issues, and proposed solutions such as redesign of flexible curriculum, adopting learner-centered approach, and developing hiring structure that focuses on recruiting and retaining qualified educators, with the goal of graduating a high rate of qualified engineers, ready for the 21st century.
Designing Online Class using Discord based on Community of Inquiry Framework
Authors: Ghazali Nurzal Effiyana
Published: January 2022

COVID-19 pandemic changes the landscape of education, where online learning becomes very important and can not be avoided. Therefore, this article discusses how a gamer's platform, Discord can be used as an interactive online class. A comparison of Discord with other online platforms is spelled out in a tabular form. The principle used to design the online class using Discord is based on Community of Inquiry (CoI). CoI consists of three elements which are teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence for a better educational experience. The design discussed in this article are Discord features design for the online class and class activity using Discord in developing the three elements in CoI. Data collection is done using open-ended surveys. They are 58 respondents with engineering and non-engineering students. Most of the students are familiar with Discord and agreed that Discord can be adapted for an online class. Thematic analysis is conducted to analyze the open-ended questions. The themes that can be identified are parallel channels, structure, all-in-one platform, facilitation, and learning environment. Another analysis is message counts in each student group to show how active the students in online class using Discord. In conclusion, Discord is the best platform to make students active and construct knowledge with peers.
Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Flood Resilience Plan for Urban Sustainability of Ratnapura Municipal Council Area
Authors: Weerakoon K.G.P.K. , Dharmapriya J.A.D.U.
Published: January 2022

Natural disasters adversely affect urban built-up areas all over the world. Flood is the most destructive natural disaster that affects Ratnapura, the provincial capital of the Sabaragamuwa Province in Sri Lanka. This monsoonal flooding is a prolonged problem that arises mainly due to the overspill of River Kalu and other water bodies connected to the river during heavy rainy seasons. It causes short-term and long-term damages to human lives, properties, the economy, and the environment. Floods cause severe damages to private residential buildings. Hence, the availability of a flood resilience plan is a significant feature of the good governance of the Local Authorities. There are many factors to consider when preparing a flood resilience plan. This study aims to assess the factors affecting the effectiveness of the existing flood resilience plan in the Ratnapura Municipal Council Area. The main data instrument used is a questionnaire survey from residents in the flood-prone area. It assessed the effectiveness of actions taken by the government pre-disaster, during a disaster, and post-disaster. Various factors affecting the flood resilience plan were identified and categorized: community resilience, economic resilience, ecological resilience, emergency readiness and responsiveness, infrastructure resilience, and social and cultural resilience. Findings revealed that the respondents were more satisfied with emergency readiness and responsiveness out of the five main categories. In addition, respondents address the effectiveness of the existing flood resilience plan and its affected factors like community resilience, economic resilience, emergency readiness and responsiveness, infrastructure resilience and social, and cultural resilience. Findings will be helpful for town planners and the Municipal Council of Ratnapura to identify flood resilience strategies through community perspectives to mitigate the flood hazard and propose innovative strategies to achieve urban sustainability and build resilient communities.
Supply Chain Management in Real Estate Practices: The Estate Surveyor and Valuers’ Perspective
Authors: Oloke Olayinka Clement , Akindele Nelson Ayodeji , Olagunju Omoniyi O.
Published: January 2022

Real estate practice is a strategic and multi-faceted vocation that connects the clients/owners of real estate projects or products with end users in the building industry. Different aspects of real estate practices require collaboration of real estate practitioners who are professional estate surveyors and valuers, with the built environment professionals and other stakeholders at different levels in order to achieve the transaction objectives. This study, therefore, examined the practice with a view to uncovering the preparedness of the estate surveyors and valuers with respect to the knowledge and application of supply chain management in real estate practices. Empirical data were collected with the aide of questionnaires administered to respondents from the 373 estate firms in Lagos State, Nigeria of which 291 were duly completed and returned constituting 78% rate of response. The Readiness Assessment Model was adapted to determine the operational preparedness of the estate surveying and valuation firms to implement supply chain management with regards to management readiness, employee readiness, services/processes readiness and logistic/ICT readiness on a 5-point Likert scale and the corresponding mean score and relative importance was determined. The Kolmogorov Smirnov Test of Normality was performed and showed that the data was normally distributed. Hence, the Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between knowledge and application of supply chain management in real estate businesses. It was observed, among others, that the knowledge of supply chain management is generally low among estate valuers and does not necessarily translate to application in the property market transactions of real estate firms. The study further observed that management and employees of estate surveying and valuation firms do not have adequate knowledge of the principles and practices of supply chain management for productive engagement in property market transactions. This was further identified alongside others such as confidentiality, stiff rivalry and economic instability as critical factors resisting the adoption of supply chain management in the property market. The study therefore suggested capacity building programmes on supply chain management for the estate surveyors and valuers to improve the knowledge of the strategy and harness the benefits.
Investigation on Vibro-Impacts of Driveline System Based on a Nonlinear Clearance Element With Time-Varying Stiffness and Oil-Squeeze Damping
Authors: Xia Yuanfeng , Pang Jian
Published: January 2022

The transient vibro-impacts induced by clearance between the connected rotors in driveline system easily causes serious transient noise and vibration, especially between the gear teeth with backlash. To analyze the transient vibro-impacts of the driveline system excited by a step-down engine torque, a new piecewise nonlinear clearance element with time-varying stiffness and oil squeeze damping is proposed, and an eight degrees-of-freedom (DOF) lumped parameters model with the new piecewise nonlinear clearance elements is established. The transient vibro-impact phenomena of the vehicle driveline during fast disengagement of the clutch are numerically simulated. Colormaps of angular acceleration and vibro-impact force shows the difference of frequency components from transient impact to stable tooth-meshing. The phase plane reveals the phenomenon of multiple impacts and rebounds in each transient impact and shows the relationship between the relative contact displacement and velocity. The frequency responses of the angular velocity, angular acceleration, and vibro-impact forces with time-varying stiffness and linear stiffness are compared, respectively. Compared with the widely used clearance element with piecewise linear stiffness, the new nonlinear clearance element with the piecewise nonlinear time-varying stiffness can better reveal the transient vibro-impact responses between the driving and driven gears. Lastly, the transient vibro-impact results of driveline system are verified by the vehicle experiments.
One-Dimensional Modeling for Pulsed Flow Twin-Entry Turbine
Authors: Yang Bijie , Martinez-Botas Ricardo , Xue Yingxian , Yang Mingyang
Published: January 2022

One-dimensional (1D) modeling is critical for turbomachinery unsteady performance prediction and system response assessment of internal combustion engines. This paper uses a novel 1D modeling (TURBODYNA) and proposes two additional features for the application to a twin-entry turbocharger turbine. Compared to single-entry turbines, twin-entry turbines enhance turbocharger transient response and reduce engine exhaust valve overlap periods. However, out-of-phase high-frequency pulsating pressure waves lead to an unsteady mixing process from the two flows and pose great challenges to traditional 1D modeling. The present work resolves the mixing problem by directly solving mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations during the mixing process instead of applying constant pressure assumption at the limb–rotor joint. Comparisons of TURBODYNA and an experimentally validated CFD suggest that TURBODYNA cannot only provide a very good agreement on turbine performance but also accurately capture unsteady features due to flow field inertial and pressure wave propagation. Levels of accuracy achieved by TURBODYNA have proved superior to traditional 1D modeling on turbine performance and the generality of the current 1D modeling has been explored by extending the application to other turbine featuring distinct characteristics.
Impact of citrus species on the biological characteristics and life table parameters of Eutetranychus orientalis (Klein) (Acari: Tetranychidae)
Authors: Yalçin Kemal , Döker İsmail , Kazak Cengiz
Published: January 2022

Biological characteristics and life table parameters of Eutetranychus orientalis (Klein) were revealed on four different citrus species: grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf. cv. Star Ruby), lemon (C. limon (L.) Burm. f. cv. Meyer), mandarin (C. reticulata Blanco cv. Okitsu) and orange (C. sinensis L. cv. Washington Navel) under laboratory conditions. Results show that oviposition period, fecundity, and life table parameters varied significantly depending on the host plant species. Furthermore, host plant species had little effect on immature development, except for the teleiochrysalis and total developmental period, which was significantly shorter on lemon (13.77 days for females, 12.67 days for males). Total mean numbers of eggs laid by E. orientalis was 15.92 on mandarin and 29.78 on lemon. In addition, intrinsic rate of increase (rm), net reproductive rate (R0), finite rate of increase (λ) and doubling time (DT) are 0.12 day–1, 10.41 ♀/♀, 1.13 day–1 and 5.59 days for lemon, 0.17 day–1, 22.36 ♀/♀, 1.19 day–1 and 4.04 days for grapefruit, respectively. However, shortest and longest mean generation times (To) were obtained at 18.26 days on orange and 19.37 days on grapefruit. Our results demonstrate that intergeneric differences of Citrus should be considered when determining E. orientalis population abundance and dynamics in field conditions.
Gravitational decoherence: A thematic overview
Authors: Anastopoulos Charis , Hu Bei-Lok
Published: January 2022

Gravitational decoherence (GD) refers to the effects of gravity in actuating the classical appearance of a quantum system. Because the underlying processes involve issues in general relativity (GR), quantum field theory (QFT), and quantum information, GD has fundamental theoretical significance. There is a great variety of GD models, many of them involving physics that diverge from GR and/or QFT. This overview has two specific goals along with one central theme: (i) present theories of GD based on GR and QFT and explore their experimental predictions; (ii) place other theories of GD under the scrutiny of GR and QFT, and point out their theoretical differences. We also describe how GD experiments in space in the coming decades can provide evidence at two levels: (a) discriminate alternative quantum theories and non-GR theories; (b) discern whether gravity is a fundamental or an effective theory.
Genome Analysis of
Klebsiella oxytoca
Complex for Antimicrobial Resistance and Virulence Genes
Authors: Long Haiyan , Hu Ya , Feng Yu , Zong Zhiyong
Published: January 2022

Klebsiella oxytoca
complex comprises nine closely related species causing human infections. We curated genomes labeled
Klebsiella
(
n
 = 14,256) in GenBank and identified 588 belonging to the complex, which were examined for precise species, sequence types, K- and O-antigen types, and virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes.
Rare yet catastrophic presentation of undiagnosed antiphospholipid syndrome
Authors: Kwak Seojung , Green Malcolm
Published: January 2022

A previously well 31-year-old woman initially presented to the emergency department with pneumonia, however, was found to be hypertensive and have new-onset cardiomegaly. She was admitted for intravenous antibiotics and concurrently a series of investigations were conducted to investigate hypertension and cardiomegaly. During the course of admission, she developed acute kidney injury and was found to have acute chronic occlusion in the abdominal aorta. She was diagnosed with catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome. This is a rare form of antiphospholipid syndrome with a high mortality rate. Thus, it is important that clinicians are aware of this syndrome to facilitate early diagnosis and initiation of treatment.
Risk of drug-related upper gastrointestinal bleeding in the total population of the Netherlands: a time-trend analysis
Authors: Bedene Ajda , van Dorp Eveline L A , Rosendaal Frits R , Dahan Albert , Lijfering Willem M
Published: January 2022

Objective

Many prescribed and over-the-counter medications, for example, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are associated with upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB). Recently, a decrease in prescribing of NSAIDs was observed in the Netherlands, but whether a similar decreasing trend could be observed in the incidence of severe UGIB (either fatal or requiring hospitalisation), contingent on medication prescription, is unknown.

Design

We conducted a cohort study using Dutch national statistics on pharmacy claims, hospitalisation and mortality between 2013 and 2018. We explored the incidence of sex-specific and age-specific severe UGIB in four (sub)populations: (A) total population, (B) without a filled prescrption for NSAIDs, (C) without filled prescriptions for NSAIDs and antithrombotic agents, (D) without any risk factors for UGIB.

Results

The cumulative incidence of severe UGIB did not decrease throughout the study period, regardless of the subgroup analysis. In the total population, it was 199 per 100 000 inhabitants (95% CI 197 to 201) in 2013–2014 and 260 (95% CI 258 to 263) in 2017–2018. The absolute risk of severe UGIB was 50% lower in the subgroup B than in the full cohort. It decreased further by 50% in the subgroup D when compared with subgroup B. The risk of severe UGIB was 1.5–1.9 fold higher in young women than in young men; an indication of over-the-counter NSAIDs use being more prevalent in women than men in this age group.

Conclusion

We found no evidence to support a relationship between reduced prescribing of NSAIDs and the incidence of severe UGIB in the Netherlands since 2013. The relationship was also not observed when we removed the effect of risk factors.
Face mask mandates and risk compensation: an analysis of mobility data during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh
Authors: Wadud Zia , Rahman Sheikh Mokhlesur , Enam Annesha
Published: January 2022

Introduction

Concerns have been raised about the potential for risk compensation in the context of mask mandates for mitigating the spread of COVID-19. However, the debate about the presence or absence of risk compensation for universal mandatory mask-wearing rules—especially in the context of COVID-19—is not settled yet.

Methods

Mobility is used as a proxy for risky behaviour before and after the mask mandates. Two sets of regressions are estimated to decipher (any) risk-compensating effect of mask mandate in Bangladesh. These include: (1) intervention regression analysis of daily activities at six types of locations, using pre-mask-mandate and post-mandate data; and (2) multiple regression analysis of daily new COVID-19 cases on daily mobility (lagged) to establish mobility as a valid proxy.

Results

(1) Statistically, mobility increased at all five non-residential locations, while home stays decreased after the mask mandate was issued; (2) daily mobility had a statistically significant association on daily new cases (with around 10 days of lag). Both significances were calculated at 95% confidence level.

Conclusion

Community mobility had increased (and stay at home decreased) after the mandatory mask-wearing rule, and given mobility is associated with increases in new COVID-19 cases, there is evidence of risk compensation effect of the mask mandate—at least partially—in Bangladesh.
COVID-19 vaccine trials with children: ethics pointers
Authors: Atuire Caesar Alimisnya , Salas Sofía P , Wright Katharine , Ambe J Radeino , de Vries Jantina
Published: January 2022

As healthcare authorities around the world strive to get as many citizens as possible vaccinated against the SAR-CoV-2 virus, many countries have begun including children in the population groups to be vaccinated. Properly designed clinical trials involving children are important to ensure safety, efficacy, and dosage of therapies in (developing) children. Within the complex health, social, and political scenario of the ongoing pandemic, ethics committees and policy makers in low-income and middle-income settings need to consider additional ethical questions when called on to review phase III COVID-19 vaccine trials involving in children. We set out some of the ethical questions to keep in mind before, during, and after the implementation of phase III COVID-19 vaccine trials in limited resource settings. Specifically, we discuss and offer succinct answers to the following questions: How relevant will the trial vaccine be for the population participating in the trial? Should vaccines that have not been approved for use among adults be approved for use in trials with children? Which children should be involved in COVID-19 vaccine trials? What criteria of informed consent are to be adopted with minors? Placebo versus an existing already approved vaccine? What specific duties of ancillary care should be taken into consideration for COVID-19 vaccines especially in low-income and middle-income countries? The answers we offer are considerations that can serve as ‘things to think about’ when reviewing or implementing COVID-19 trials involving children in low-income settings.
Temperature and entropy in molecular system
Authors: Wang Leyu , Lee James D.
Published: January 2022

The irreversibility, temperature, and entropy are identified for an atomic system of solid material. Thermodynamics second law is automatically satisfied in the time evolution of molecular dynamics (MD). The irreversibility caused by an atom spontaneously moves from a non-stable equilibrium position to a stable equilibrium position. The process is dynamic in nature associated with the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy and the dissipation of kinetic energy to the entire system. The forward process is less sensitive to small variation of boundary condition than reverse process, causing the time symmetry to break. Different methods to define temperature in molecular system are revisited with paradox examples. It is seen that the temperature can only be rigorously defined on an atom knowing its time history of velocity vector. The velocity vector of an atom is the summation of the mechanical part and the thermal part, the mechanical velocity is related to the global motion (translation, rotation, acceleration, vibration, etc.), the thermal velocity is related to temperature and is assumed to follow the identical random Gaussian distribution for all of its [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] component. The [Formula: see text]-velocity (same for [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text]) versus time obtained from MD simulation is treated as a signal (mechanical motion) corrupted with random Gaussian distribution noise (thermal motion). The noise is separated from signal with wavelet filter and used as the randomness measurement. The temperature is thus defined as the variance of the thermal velocity multiply the atom mass and divided by Boltzmann constant. The new definition is equivalent to the Nose–Hover thermostat for a stationary system. For system with macroscopic acceleration, rotation, vibration, etc., the new definition can predict the same temperature as the stationary system, while Nose–Hover thermostat predicts a much higher temperature. It is seen that the new definition of temperature is not influenced by the global motion, i.e., translation, rotation, acceleration, vibration, etc., of the system. The Gibbs entropy is calculated for each atom by knowing normal distribution as the probability density function. The relationship between entropy and temperature is established for solid material.
Adversarial Cross-domain Community Question Retrieval
Authors: Guo Aibo , Li Xinyi , Pang Ning , Zhao Xiang
Published: January 2022

Community Q&A forum is a special type of social media that provides a platform to raise questions and to answer them (both by forum participants), to facilitate online information sharing. Currently, community Q&A forums in professional domains have attracted a large number of users by offering professional knowledge. To support information access and save users’ efforts of raising new questions, they usually come with a
question retrieval
function, which retrieves similar existing questions (and their answers) to a user’s query. However, it can be difficult for community Q&A forums to cover all domains, especially those emerging lately with little labeled data but great discrepancy from existing domains. We refer to this scenario as cross-domain question retrieval. To handle the unique challenges of cross-domain question retrieval, we design a model based on adversarial training, namely,
X-QR
, which consists of two modules—a domain discriminator and a sentence matcher. The domain discriminator aims at aligning the source and target data distributions and unifying the feature space by domain-adversarial training. With the assistance of the domain discriminator, the sentence matcher is able to learn domain-consistent knowledge for the final matching prediction. To the best of our knowledge, this work is among the first to investigate the domain adaption problem of sentence matching for community Q&A forums question retrieval. The experiment results suggest that the proposed
X-QR
model offers better performance than conventional sentence matching methods in accomplishing cross-domain community Q&A tasks.