bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The application of the observational procedure for construction of athletic stadium in Bytów using geosynthetic reinforcement in complicated ground conditions
Authors: Łopatka A , Pilch M
Published: October 2022

Abtract

Bytów is a city in northern Poland, in the Pomeranian Voivodeship. The characteristics of the region are peatlands with thick layer of soft peat deposites. In one of these areas an athletic stadium was designed with a static consolidation as a soil improvement method. The applied method included prefabricated vertical drains and surcharge embankment. To ensure slope stability, in base of embankment was used geosynthetic reinforcement.

The selected method of soil improvement required to use of observational procedure. It was the reason for the development of the complex automatic monitoring system. Developed system was a source of valuable information for designer, cotractor and investor. Monitoring system ensured the safety at the every of construction stages and allowed to evaluate the behaviour of rainforced soil mass. This case of study discusses about practical use of monitoring system in hard ground conditions.
The influence of thermally and mechanically induced short-term strains on smooth HDPE geomembrane properties
Authors: Mulabdić M , Jukić A , Faraguna F , Minažek K
Published: October 2022

HDPE geomembranes are usually used in bottom liners in landfills. Their integrity is required during installation and during the lifetime of the landfill. It is commonly accepted by researchers and suggested by different technical specifications that there should be no strain present during the installation of a geomembrane, although some of them propose that the strain during the installation should be no more than 3%. This is not easy to satisfy in some situations. Strains in the geomembranes can be induced by overnight temperature changes, before covering of the geomembrane (cold weather causes stretching of the geomembrane), which in turn may create trampoline effect in the veneer of sloped foundation soil. Covering of the geomembrane can wait higher temperatures to bring geomembrane into good close contact with the substructure profile or can be forced in order to bring the geomembrane into that position, which means accumulation of strains in the geomembranes. The question arises: What are the changes that occur in geomembrane properties for thermally and/or mechanically induced strains in the geomembranes, are they different, and how the level of induced strain and aging of strained geomembrane can change its properties? This paper presents a large project related to laboratory study of this phenomenon, and the first results regarding its short-time behaviour. Mechanical and structural changes of the geomembrane properties are tested and monitored in the first few days after inducing thermal and/or mechanical strains of 0%, 3% and 6%. Specially developed frames were used for the preparation and conditioning of the geomembrane samples. Test results suggest that strains induced by temperature drop and/or mechanical extension do not affect short-term geomembrane properties. Research continues on samples that will be monitored for four years.
Geodynamic Modelling of Geogrid-Stabilised Aggregate on Soft Ground in High Speed Rail Environments Using Field-Derived Shear Wave Data.
Authors: Ogunmakin B , Zamara K , Kawalec J , Todisco M C
Published: October 2022

Geogrids have been used for many years to stabilise and enhance the performance of rail ballast and sub-ballast in terms of maintaining both vertical and lateral track alignment. However, the ability of geogrids to improve these properties within a high-speed rail environment at close-to-critical velocity remain uncertain. The potential for geogrid to improve the stiffness and the ability of a geogrid-stabilised aggregate layer to transmit ground waves such as Rayleigh waves has great potential for reducing dig out depth in soft ground in cuttings and reduce the need to use great thicknesses of engineered, high quality aggregate in embankments in order to mitigate the effects of such waves. New research has been conducted on a trial embankment comparing 4 geogrid-stabilised trial sections with a control section. This embankment has been subjected to low strain stiffness testing using geophysical methods to determine if the stabilised sections can offer an increase in ground wave velocity over the control and thereby offer the potential to reduce engineered construction thickness beneath the track on high-speed rail lines. Initial geodynamic modelling using the results of the on-site testing suggests that specific geogrids have a significant potential to reduce overall construction costs by reducing the need to dig-out-and-replace in soft ground in order to mitigate the effects of Rayleigh waves.
Simulating mechanical response of GRS walls with different construction methods
Authors: Krishna KM , Prashant A
Published: October 2022

GRS walls are constructed using a variety of fascia such as modular blocks, full height panels, Gabions, etc., which involves different construction sequences. The simulation of construction sequence is important in numerical modeling for understanding the evolution of deformation profiles and reinforcement forces with different fascia and corresponding construction methods. In this study, detailed Finite Element modeling of the GRS wall using OpenSEES as a numerical tool is presented. It includes discussion on the steps involved in simulating construction methods of wall with block and full height panel fascia along with their impact on overall response. A simple staged construction technique is adopted in simulation. The issues and techniques involved in the simulation of staged construction sequence and compaction stresses are explained. The considerable effects of construction sequence and modeling simplifications on deformation profile and reinforcement force distribution are discussed in detail.
Evaluation of the performance of a drainage geocomposite in a simple cover system based on 10 year measurements
Authors: Birle E , Melsbach M , Heyer D
Published: October 2022

In the course of the geotechnical investigations for a new runway at Munich Airport the hydro-mechanical behaviour of organogenic clays was studied. With the aim of an efficient use of materials the organogenic clay shall be used for noise and view barriers. As the organogenic clays have increased arsenic contents the percolation of such structures should be minimized. For the detailed investigation of the hydro-mechanical behaviour and for the determination of seepage quantities, a large scale, 5 m high, 30 m long and 25 m wide test fill was constructed. Due to the low permeability of the organogenic clays in compacted condition a cover design with a drainage mat and a top layer without an additional sealing layer was chosen. Measurements of the water balance were collected since the installation in 2008. The results show very low leachate quantities, although humid climatic conditions with average annual precipitation of approx. 745 mm were present. The low leachate rates can be mainly attributed to the capillary-breaking effect of the drainage geocomposite and the high water retention capacity of the topsoil. Based on the results the presented simple cover system can be considered an efficient and effective solution for minimizing infiltration water into core materials of embankments and noise barriers in road-way design.
Alternative laboratory approach for determination of geogrids performance in mechanically stabilized layers
Authors: Rakowski Zikmund , Horníček Leos , Kawalec Jacek
Published: October 2022

New laboratory plate test method is proposed for the determination of geosynthetics performance and efficiency of the interlocking in mechanically stabilized layers. The laboratory equipment and experimental methodology are described in details. Proposed method was tested in a set of trials which are evaluated in the paper. Resulting methodology is based on matrix type of tests evaluation, the matrix is formed by several measured parameters. Experiments executed in the laboratory confirmed that the principle of the method is correct and the methodology can be applied for geogrid performance evaluation of various geogrids.
Plastic in the ocean and global warming: New challenges for geosynthetics
Authors: Hoyme H , Vollmert L , Ehrenberg H
Published: October 2022

The application of geosynthetics is state of the art onshore, at the coast and offshore. Geosynthetics complement conventional construction methods, or even replace them and generate advantages for the client, the designer and even more for the environment, e.g. by reducing carbon footprint. Decades of research and experience have resulted in standards and products, which are optimised for long-term performance and reliable application. Geosynthetics, by definition, are products covered by soil and thus protected against impacts or abrasion. As they are often used in contact to water, they are tested to be groundwater neutral. On the other hand, however, concerns about the use of plastic are omnipresent and must be taken into account. In some very limited but not negligible applications, temporary or periodical environmental influences have to be discussed, e.g. permanently or temporarily uncovered geotextile applications such as scour protection measures, coastal protection or riverbed stabilisation. As the geosynthetics, beside their technical beneficial use, can be subject to abrasion in this limited range of applications, further options for optimisation shall be discussed. One possible alternative is to design geosynthetics from or with the use of biodegradable raw materials. The subject of this article is the presentation of geosynthetic products made from alternative raw materials which biodegrade after their planned period of use. Other applications may require a defined degradation process over time, for example erosion control products. Making use of biodegradable materials, the potential risk of causing damage to the flora and fauna in case of an undesirable entry into the environment can be limited.
Mechanically stabilised layer by geogrids in road construction as an environmental aspect of sustainable development
Authors: Gołos M
Published: October 2022

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the advantages of environmental aspects of mechanically stabilised layer by using geogrids (MSL). MSL is utilised in road construction as a sub-base layer or capping layer for a week sub-soil improvement. The concept of a MSL says that unbound granular layer is stabilized by the non-reinforcing hexagonal geogrid by the way of interlock with the aggregate. The mechanism of interlock means that both geogrid and aggregate interact under applied external load. The beneficial consequence on the serviceability of that layer by the resisting of the movement of the particles is defined as stabilisation. Mechanically stabilised layer by geogrid allows to save both money and time of construction compared to traditional technologies. Moreover, it also substantially supports sustainable development being a successful alternative to traditional solutions in road construction, such as: soil replacement, cement and other hydraulically bound mixtures or granular unbound layers which are non-stabilised by geogrids. MSL gives massive benefits for the environment, allowing for significant reduction of energy usage and greenhouse gases emission (mainly CO2). The paper shows the methodology of carbon footprint approach, which is an equivalent amount of CO2 emission, resulting from all component processes related to a specific technology used in road construction.This paper describes also the basic rules of how to calculate the amount of this reduction by using a special tool, so called Carbon Calculator (CC) designed by one of the leading geogrid manufacturer. CC allows to determine the reduction of CO2 as a result of geogrid utilisation in MSL compared to other well-known and long-standing solutions, mainly traditional granular unbound and cement or other hydraulically bound mixtures. A number of calculations of carbon footprint with MSL and other traditional solutions used as a sub-base or capping layer in the road construction have been done and the results of them have been presented in the further part of this article.
Mechanical Improvement of a Reinforced Sand with Açaí (Euterpe oleracea) Fibers
Authors: Lopes M M , Casagrande M D T
Published: October 2022

The growing research for environmental sustainability applied in technological engineering works allied to the growth generation of solid waste problematics guided this research. Searching for new locational alternatives for these residues is becoming more and more economically viable and giving new uses to these materials has proved to be an effective way of reusing them. With this in mind, the present work seeks to evaluate the use of natural açaí fibers to reinforce soils in geotechnical works. To carry out this evaluation and investigate the physical-mechanical behavior of a sand reinforced with açaí fibers, were proposed direct shear tests with soil-fiber composites in the proportions of 0.5% and 1.0% of fiber in relation to soil dry weight and two percentages of relative density, 50% and 75%. The results demonstrate that the soil-fiber composites have greater peak and post-peak resistance than pure soil which are satisfactory from the geotechnical point of view, fulfilling its role mainly in acting on the shear resistance of the soil, opening possibilities for the study of application in geotechnical works such as landfills under soft soils and with more studies, for paving.
Scour protection effects on the dynamic response of jacket structures under extreme load events
Authors: Khansari A , Hoyme H , Oumeraci H
Published: October 2022

A well-validated Finite Element (FE) model of a jacket structure (OC4 jacket) with pile foundation together with a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model (OpenFOAM-based) set-up for extreme waves on the structure are applied to perform systematic comparative analyses of the dynamic response of the structure to extreme wave loads with and without scour effects. The pile foundation model is considered by implementing a non-linear soil model to the foundation using load-deflection (p-y) approach to capture the non-linear behaviour of the soil for large pile foundation displacements. The results show that, the scour protection improves the foundation bearing capacity and consequently, decreases the failure probability in terms of both serviceability and ultimate limit states. Moreover, it enhances the dynamic response of the structure under extreme load events caused by breaking waves. Accordingly, an innovative solution for scour protection of offshore-fixed bottom structures has been introduced by “Biodegradable Soft Rock” (sand filled containers produced from bio-degradable geotextile product) which is the newest development in this section.
Performance of drainage geocomposites applied as capillary break layers
Authors: Szatmári T , Fischer S
Published: October 2022

The phenomenon of capillary rise can cause water rise up 2-3m above the high water table within the soil. Due to this effect the shear strength of fine-graded soil is decreased, or it can damage decorative floorings, paved areas, concrete and different manmade structures. Furthermore, in arid regions the ground water is often saline with a high concentration of chloride ions, which can be harmful to vegetation. The traditional methods to solve the above mentioned problems with breaking the capillary rise can be the use of free draining granular soil with very low fines contents, usually with 30 to 50 cm thickness. One of the effective capillary break methods is creating an air void between the soil layers with the help of drainage geocomposites therefore capillary rise of water is prevented. This paper presents the research work of the above described capillary break phenomenon with different types of geocomposite drainage layers in laboratory controlled conditions.
FEM model for analysing the interaction of a geomatrix with a subsoil
Authors: Łupiezowiec Marian
Published: October 2022

The article presents the numerical model which can be applied for the description of the behaviour of a geomatrix mechanically stabilized by a geogrid that reinforces the subsoil. Both stiff loading (geomatrix under building foundation slabs) and susceptible loading (under road embankments) were examined. The selection of parameters was proposed for the analysis based on subsoil tests and data provided by the manufacturers of geosynthetics. The carried out analyses can be used to estimate internal forces in geogrids and their expected deformations. The obtained results can be used as a reference for the development of guidelines for designers of soil reinforcement in terms of boundary problem analysis and design of structures containing geosynthetics.
Reclamation of fertilizer sludge pond: the Azomures case study in Romania
Authors: Carbone L , Syllwasschy O , Hasslacher T , Hein U
Published: October 2022

Residues coming from the production of fertilizer of the Azomures company were released into 300.000 m2 pond close to Tirgu Mures in Romania. To limit the exposition of the pollutants with the close environment and population and to reduce the leakage of contaminated leachate into the river, the environmental remediation of the pond was conducted. An impermeable cover system consisting of the succession of soil and geosynthetic layers was constructed on top of the contaminated residues. Key point for the success of the project was the use of geosynthetic reinforcement to increase the bearing capacity of the system as well as the development of an innovative method for the construction of intermediate embankments. In this paper, the remediation work for Azomures pond in Romania from its initial concept to the design and execution is fully described and can be used as a reference for alternative solutions in similar projects.
CE marking for geosynthetics
Authors: Delmas Ph. , Ehrenberg H.
Published: October 2022

1st October 2002, CE Marking has been implemented for Geosynthetics and from 1st July 2013, it has been reinforced by the Construction Products Regulation (CPR 305/2011) making mandatory in all EEA Countries for manufacturers to apply CE Marking to any products covered by a harmonised European Standard (hEN) or a European Technical Assessment (ETA). Main principles of the CPR and of the harmonised European Standards are presented, including a rapid overview of the general rules imposed by the CPR, like Standardisation Request, position versus references to national requirements and assessment method(s). Secondly, the paper shows how to deal with CE Marking in practical use of Geosynthetics for the placement on the market and for specific requirements in construction jobs, for control of incoming products and for fit for purpose.
Design guide for geosynthetic barrier systems as groundwater protection in road construction
Authors: von Maubeuge K P , Müller-Kirchenbauer A , Schlötzer C
Published: October 2022

Geosynthetic clay liners (GCL) are used for groundwater protection in road constructions in water protection areas, RiStWag [1]. Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) are listed as an approved barrier and a long-term permittivity of ≤ 1⋅10−7 [1/s] is required as an essential characteristic value. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the sealing system during the entire service life, however, further characteristic values should be described. In the following, the protection concept of RiStWag is explained and the effectiveness, reliability, cost-effectiveness and control as well as the maintenance of the road systems are described in more detail.
Investigation progress of geogrid-soil interaction using DEM
Authors: Wang Z , Ma B , Yang G , Ziegler M
Published: October 2022

The discrete element modeling, which has particular advantages of capturing detailed insights into the geogrid–soil interaction, provides a new perspective to study the geogrid reinforcement mechanism especially at a microscopic scale. To summarize the current investigation achievements, discrete element modeling of geogrid and soil as well as their interaction under different testing conditions were reviewed in this paper. The DEM investigations provide not only qualitative visualization of the geogrid–soil interaction but also quantitative response of the geogrid and its surrounding soil. Such investigation achievements provide researchers helpful hints for the design of geogrid reinforced soil structures.
Application of Eurocode 7 for the analysis and design of veneer cover soils in static and seismic load conditions
Authors: Rimoldi P , Pezzano P , Gebely A
Published: October 2022

Veneer is intended as a relatively thin cover soil layer placed on a slope. Veneer cover soil systems in containment facilities such as landfills, liquid disposal and reservoirs involve geosynthetic-soil interfaces. The main design criterion for protective veneer covers is to ensure that no sliding occurs above the geosynthetic or the existing soil slope. The design of the protective veneer covers should include the stability of the lining system under the effect of the gravity forces, equipment loadings, seismic actions and pore water pressures. The limit equilibrium method used in the present paper for the evaluation of veneer stability has been derived from the method of Koerner and Soong (1988) and adapted to the limit state design offered by Eurocode 7 with reference to the Resistance Factor Approach (RFA). Serviceability limit state considerations are included in the design method for completeness.
Embodied Intelligence & Morphological Computation in Soft Robotics Community: Collaborations, Coordination, and Perspective
Authors: Hadi Sadati S.M. , ElDiwiny Marwa , Nurzaman Surya , Iida Fumiya , Nanayakkara Thrishantha
Published: October 2022

The agile nature of physical interactions in animal and plant species has inspired many recent advances in robotics and their control frameworks. However, they still face challenges in interaction with ever-changing unconstructured world that we live in. Intelligence is one of nature’s survival solutions for biological creatures to adapt to and reshape their surroundings. Our robots are no different in these remits. An important key to their survival and effectiveness in the natural world is the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this chapter we provide a brief overview of the rapidly emerging Soft Robotics research community around AI relevant concepts such as Embodied intelligence and Morphological Computation. More specifically, we focused on the importance of setting such “community goals” to create a diverse interdisciplinary research environment, an enormously important element to keep up with our rapidly progressing world. To this end, we focused on the collaborations withing and between the communities, impacts of the recently established IEEE Soft Robotics Technical Committee on coordinating these efforts, and most important of all, the key ideas and perspectives based on 200 interviews with researchers across different fields.
Bio-Inspired Robots Imitating Human Organs with Embodied Intelligence Behaviour
Authors: Hashem Ryman , Xu Weiliang , Iida Fumiya
Published: October 2022

Soft robotics is an emerging field that introduces promising engineering methods that replicate biological behaviours. Soft robotics aims to obtain a delicate interaction with their environment and be adaptable in different situations. Using the morphology and materials in robotics design is recognised as an embodied intelligence of the system. This method provides new ideas other than classic engineering strategies; it can translate biological behaviour into an engineering context. Embodied intelligence introduces potential ways to replicate human organs' motor activities with soft-bodied simulators. Researchers are looking for a test environment that imitates the complex human organs functionalities to advance the knowledge of the human body. Many recent diseases were discovered, such as stomach dysrhythmia. It is believed that a test environment that can replicate such illnesses can introduce a faster solution to patients suffering from those illnesses. This chapter will discuss soft robots that emulate human organs using embodied intelligence in their morphology for simpler control systems and continuous actuation behaviour.
Leveraging Embodied Intelligence for Dexterous Robotic Manipulators Through Iterative Co-design
Authors: Junge Kai , Hughes Josie
Published: October 2022

The role of embodied intelligence (EI) has the potential to overcome current limitations in the fabrication, control, and resulting behavior to create robust and effective dexterous robotic manipulators. To develop hands that truly exploit EI, we must design hands by considering the entire system: the physical body, sensory systems, and the brain (the controller). However, we lack clear approaches and methods that enable this system level design for hands. We introduce an iterative approach for co-design which seeks to utilize simulation and real world evaluation to maximize the performance by distributing EI across the different elements of the system. To achieve this vision we require hands that can be rapidly fabricated with variability in the design space. Thus, to further the development of robotic hands that utilize EI we need streamlined fabrication pipelines which incorporate spatially distributed sensors, complex geometries and materials, and control distributed at the sensory-motor and high task planning domains.
Physical Intelligence in Biomechanics
Authors: Wang Shiqiang , Shi Yongqi , Wen Li
Published: October 2022

The intelligence of the biological agents is enabled by their neural intelligence in their brains, in the meantime, their physical intelligence encoded in the bodies plays a nonnegligible role. The development of intelligent bio-inspired robots depends on an in-depth understanding of physical intelligence, particularly in biomechanics. Here, we briefly review the physical intelligence of biological organisms from three aspects: material, structure, and morphology. We envision that bio-inspired physical intelligence would boost the development of future intelligent lifelike machines.
Coevolution of internal representations in physical human-robot orchestration – models of the surgeon and the robot in robotic surgery
Authors: Nisky Ilana , Costi Leone , Iida Fumiya
Published: October 2022

In teleoperated Robot-Assisted Minimally-Invasive Surgery (RAMIS), a surgeon controls the movements of instruments inside the patient’s body via a pair of robotic joysticks. RAMIS has transformed many surgical disciplines, but its full potential is still to be realized. In this chapter we propose a pathway towards overcoming several bottlenecks that are related to transparency and stability of the teleoperation channels that mediate RAMIS. We describe the traditional system centered and the more recent human-centred approaches to teleoperation, and the special considerations for RAMIS as an application of teleoperation. However, the human-centered approach is still one sided view focusing on the surgeon but neglecting the learning capabilities of robotic systems. Hence, we consider a more general idea of physical human-robot orchestration with coevolution of mutual internal representations – of the human and the robot, and discuss it in comparison to human-human collaboration over teleoperated channels.
Robot swarms as embodied extensions of humans
Authors: Rockbach Jonas D , Bennewitz Maren
Published: October 2022

In order to harness the potential of robot swarms, humans must be able to control decentralized and self-organizing multi-agent systems. The field of human-swarm interaction investigates how humans with their centralized information and control demands can be paired with the decentralized architectures of robot swarms. Recently, we have proposed an architecture which aims at balancing the trade-offs between centralized and decentralized control and communication in human-swarm interaction while joining the relative capabilities of human cognition and swarm intelligence. In this article, we expand on this architecture by discussing a list of design requirements that must be met in order to make robot swarms embodied extensions of humans that act and feel like natural body parts. We also conceptually show how some of the design requirements could be implemented by simple rules when we take the world’s structure into account.
Embodiment in Dialogue: Daily Dialogue Android Based on Multimodal Information
Authors: Uchida Takahisa , Minato Takashi , Ishiguro Hiroshi
Published: October 2022

The research and development of robots that can have daily dialogues autonomously with humans have become increasingly important. Most of them, however, have been limited to studies on speech recognition and interfaces. As the result, they still cannot build relationships with humans through long-term daily dialogue. In this background, we have developed a robot that can understand human relationships with their intentions and desires, and can interact with them in human-like ways through various modalities. In this chapter, we first describe an android platform for multimodal interaction based on intentions and desires. Here, both the user’s and the robot’s subjective preferences and opinions are essential. Then, we introduce a function to model the user’s preference, which is necessary for building human relationships. We also discuss the relationship between dialogue and the opinions that can be attributed to the android considering its embodiment. Finally, based on the above studies, we discuss the embodiment in dialogue and future work.
Atmospheric plasma jet for surface treatment of biomaterials
Authors: Nasser Mahmood , AlMandalawi Ban , Nasser Layla
Published: October 2022

A direct current (DC) powered low-temperature atmospheric pressure plasma (LTAPP) jet device was built and used to sterilize Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. The plasma jet’s general properties, such as length and temperature, were first tested and found to be strongly related to the plasma jet’s operational flow mode (laminar or turbulent flow). The optical emission spectra of various gas mixtures were measured to confirm the presence of active radicals, which is critical for sterilization success. Pure helium gas or a combination of helium with a small percentage of oxygen (6.25%) was found to have the highest intensities of bactericidal species such as atomic oxygen (O) and hydroxide (OH). These mixtures were then used to treat E. coli bacteria previously grown in a Petri dish. Sterilization was accomplished by repeatedly treating the bacteria for 10 s for 5–10 rounds for short periods. The best results were obtained when the bacteria had enough time to rest between rounds.
DIGS: deep inference of galaxy spectra with neural posterior estimation
Authors: Khullar Gourav , Nord Brian , Ćiprijanović Aleksandra , Poh Jason , Xu Fei
Published: October 2022

With the advent of billion-galaxy surveys with complex data, the need of the hour is to efficiently model galaxy spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with robust uncertainty quantification. The combination of simulation-based inference (SBI) and amortized neural posterior estimation (NPE) has been successfully used to analyse simulated and real galaxy photometry both precisely and efficiently. In this work, we utilise this combination and build on existing literature to analyse simulated noisy galaxy spectra. Here, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept study of spectra that is (a) an efficient analysis of galaxy SEDs and inference of galaxy parameters with physically interpretable uncertainties; and (b) amortized calculations of posterior distributions of said galaxy parameters at the modest cost of a few galaxy fits with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. We utilise the SED generator and inference framework Prospector to generate simulated spectra, and train a dataset of 2 × 106 spectra (corresponding to a five-parameter SED model) with NPE. We show that SBI—with its combination of fast and amortized posterior estimations—is capable of inferring accurate galaxy stellar masses and metallicities. Our uncertainty constraints are comparable to or moderately weaker than traditional inverse-modelling with Bayesian MCMC methods (e.g. 0.17 and 0.26 dex in stellar mass and metallicity for a given galaxy, respectively). We also find that our inference framework conducts rapid SED inference (0.9–1.2 × 105 galaxy spectra via SBI/NPE at the cost of 1 MCMC-based fit). With this work, we set the stage for further work that focuses of SED fitting of galaxy spectra with SBI, in the era of JWST galaxy survey programs and the wide-field Roman Space Telescope spectroscopic surveys.
Missing Outcome Data in Epidemiologic Studies
Authors: Cole Stephen R , Zivich Paul N , Edwards Jessie K , Ross Rachael K , Shook-Sa Bonnie E , Price Joan T. , Stringer Jeffrey S A
Published: October 2022

Missing data are pandemic and a central problem for epidemiology. Missing data reduce precision and can cause notable bias. There remain too few simple published examples detailing types of missing data and illustrating their possible impact on results. Here we take an example randomized trial that was not subject to missing data and induce missing data to illustrate 4 scenarios in which outcomes are 1) missing completely at random, 2) missing at random with positivity, 3) missing at random without positivity, and 4) missing not at random. We demonstrate that accounting for missing data is generally a better strategy than ignoring missing data, which unfortunately remains a standard approach in epidemiology.
Evidente—a visual analytics tool for data enrichment in SNP-based phylogenetic trees
Authors: Witte Paz Mathias , Harbig Theresa A , Nieselt Kay
Published: October 2022

Motivation

A common practice in the analysis of pathogens and their strains is using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to reconstruct their evolutionary history. However, genome-wide SNP-based phylogenetic trees are rarely analyzed without any further information. Including the underlying SNP data together with further metadata on the respective samples in the exploration process can facilitate linking the genomic and phenotypic properties of the samples.

Results

We introduce Efficient VIsual analytics tool for Data ENrichment in phylogenetic TreEs (Evidente), a web-application that provides an interactive visual analysis interface for the simultaneous interrogation of phylogenetic relationships, genome-wide SNP data and metadata for samples of an organism. Besides visualizing the phylogenetic tree, Evidente classifies SNPs as supporting or non-supporting of the tree structures and shows the distribution of both types of SNPs among samples and clades of interest. Furthermore, additional metadata can be included in the visualization. Lastly, Evidente includes an enrichment analysis to identify over-represented genomic features encoded by GO-terms within the clades of the tree. We demonstrate the usability of Evidente with the data of the pathogens Treponema pallidum and Mycobacterium leprae.

Availability and implementation

Evidente is available at the TueVis visualization web server at https://evidente-tuevis.cs.uni-tuebingen.de/, it can also be run locally.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Advances online.
Temporal trends in prevalence and mortality for chronic kidney disease in China from 1990 to 2019: an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Authors: Li Yang , Ning Yichun , Shen Bo , Shi Yiqin , Song Nana , Fang Yi , Ding Xiaoqiang
Published: October 2022

Background

This study aimed to characterize the temporal trends of chronic kidney disease (CKD) burden in China during 1990–2019, evaluate their age, period and cohort effects, and predict the disease burden for the next 10 years.

Methods

Data were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 study. Join-point regression model was used to estimate the average annual percentage change (AAPC) of CKD prevalence and mortality, and the age-period-cohort analysis was used to estimate the age, period and cohort effects. We extended the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model to predict the disease burden of CKD in 2020–2029.

Results

In 2019, there were 150.5 million cases of (10.6%) and 196 726 deaths from (13.8 per 100 000 general population) CKD in China. Between 1990 and 2019, the prevalence and mortality rate of CKD increased significantly from 6.7% to 10.6%, and from 8.3/100 000 to 13.8/100 000. The AAPC was estimated as 1.6% and 1.8%, respectively. Females had a higher CKD prevalence of CKD but a lower mortality rate. Setting the mean level of age, period and cohort as reference groups, the risk of developing CKD increased with age [RRage(15–19) = 0.18 to RRage(85–89) = 2.45]. The cohort risk was significantly higher in the early birth cohort [RRcohort(1905–1909) = 1.56]. In contrast, the increase in age-specific CKD mortality rate after 60–64 years was exponential [RRage(60–64) = 1.24]. The cohort-based mortality risk remained high prior to the 1945–1949 birth cohorts (RRcohort ranging from 1.69 to 1.89) and then declined in the 2000–2004 birth cohort [RRcohort(2000–2004) = 0.22]. The CKD prevalence and mortality are projected to rise to 11.7% and 17.1 per 100 000, respectively, by 2029.

Conclusions

To reduce the disease burden of CKD, a comprehensive strategy that includes risk factors prevention at the primary care level, CKD screening among the elderly and high-risk population, and access to high-quality medical services is required.
National work–family policies and the occupational segregation of women and mothers in European countries, 1999–2016
Authors: Hook Jennifer L , Li Meiying , Paek Eunjeong , Cotter Brigid
Published: October 2022

Some scholars hypothesize that although work–family policies help incorporate women into the labour market, they do so by integrating women, and mothers specifically, into female-dominated occupations. Some suggest that although these policies are ‘good’ for lower educated women, they harm higher educated women by concentrating them in female-dominated professions. We revisit this debate using the highest quality data brought to bear on this question to date. We use the EU Labour Force Survey 1999–2016 (n = 21 countries, 235 country-years, 2.5 million men and women aged 20–44), combined with an original collection of country-year indicators. Specifically, we examine how the two most widely studied work–family policies—paid parental leave and early childhood education and care (ECEC)—and public sector size affect occupational segregation for men and women by educational attainment and parental status. We find no evidence that ‘generous’ welfare states promote segregation. Rather, a specific policy—parental leave in excess of 9 months—promotes segregation between men and women broadly, but most acutely for non-tertiary-educated mothers. Findings are generally null for paid leave of up to 9 months. ECEC is associated with greater integration, particularly for tertiary-educated women. Large public sectors are associated with segregation, with both tertiary-educated men and women more likely to work in feminized occupations. Public sector size, however, is not as tightly bundled with work–family policies as previous work suggests.
Agent-based modeling of urban exposome interventions: prospects, model architectures, and methodological challenges
Authors: Sonnenschein Tabea , Scheider Simon , de Wit G Ardine , Tonne Cathryn C , Vermeulen Roel
Published: October 2022

With ever more people living in cities worldwide, it becomes increasingly important to understand and improve the impact of the urban habitat on livability, health behaviors, and health outcomes. However, implementing interventions that tackle the exposome in complex urban systems can be costly and have long-term, sometimes unforeseen, impacts. Hence, it is crucial to assess the health impact, cost-effectiveness, and social distributional impacts of possible urban exposome interventions (UEIs) before implementing them. Spatial agent-based modeling (ABM) can capture complex behavior–environment interactions, exposure dynamics, and social outcomes in a spatial context. This article discusses model architectures and methodological challenges for successfully modeling UEIs using spatial ABM. We review the potential and limitations of the method; model components required to capture active and passive exposure and intervention effects; human–environment interactions and their integration into the macro-level health impact assessment and social costs benefit analysis; and strategies for model calibration. Major challenges for a successful application of ABM to UEI assessment are (1) the design of realistic behavioral models that can capture different types of exposure and that respond to urban interventions, (2) the mismatch between the possible granularity of exposure estimates and the evidence for corresponding exposure–response functions, (3) the scalability issues that emerge when aiming to estimate long-term effects such as health and social impacts based on high-resolution models of human–environment interactions, (4) as well as the data- and computational complexity of calibrating the resulting agent-based model. Although challenges exist, strategies are proposed to improve the implementation of ABM in exposome research.
Evaluating the long-term impact of an antimicrobial stewardship programme in a Central London mixed medical and surgical intensive care unit
Authors: Singh Shivani , Ark Rajiv , Tatlock Jason , Mandalia Sundhiya , Chung Christine , Azadian Berge , Hughes Stephen , Mughal Nabeela , Moore Luke S P , Singh Suveer
Published: October 2022

Background

Antimicrobial overuse causes increased antimicrobial resistance in ICUs; antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASPs) aim to optimize usage. Following an MDR Acinetobacter baumannii (MRAb) outbreak in 2008, an ASP was implemented at a London ICU, and then continued as a long-term programme. This study aimed to determine long-term changes in antimicrobial prescribing 9 years on.

Methods

Data were collected from ICU patients in 2008 immediately before ASP implementation, and thereafter for 6 month cohort periods in 2010–2011, 2012 and 2017. Antimicrobial usage in DDD per 1000 occupied bed days (OBD) were compared. Multivariate linear regression models for antimicrobial days were fitted, adjusting for APACHE II score and patient days. Antimicrobial resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (as an indicator organism) was compared across cohort periods.

Findings

Across 400 patients over 9 years, antimicrobial use changed significantly (P < 0.011) and remained lower in all post-ASP cohorts compared with pre-ASP [(2008; 1827 DDD/1000 OBD), (2010; 1264 DDD/1000 OBD), (2012; 1270 DDD/1000 OBD) and (2017; 1566 DDD/1000 OBD)]. There was reduction in usage of all antimicrobial classes except β-lactams (where there was no significant increase nor decrease, P = 0.178) and aminoglycosides (where there was a significant increase in usage, P < 0.0001). The latter was temporally associated with restrictions on specific carbapenems. There was an increase in carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa in 2012 only (P = 0.028) but not subsequently.

Conclusions

Following ASP implementation after an outbreak of MRAb, reduced antimicrobial prescribing was maintained 9 years on. We identify several factors influencing successful long-term maintenance of ASPs in ICUs.
Validation of the AquaCHROM™ ECC for the Detection and Enumeration of Coliforms and Escherichia coli in Water Samples: AOAC Performance Tested MethodSM 072202
Authors: Blackburn Jonathan , Deterding Andrew , Thompson Wesley , Benzinger, Jr M Joseph , Bastin Benjamin , Evrard Julie , Wentrup Cecilia , Michon Christophe , Cruz Ramos Hugo
Published: October 2022

Background

The AquaCHROM™ ECC method from CHROMagar is intended for the detection and enumeration of Escherichia coli and coliform bacteria in 100 mL water samples after 18–24 h of incubation at 35–37°C.

Objective

To validate the AquaCHROM ECC method for qualitative and quantitative detection of E. coli and coliforms with different water matrixes.

Methods

Inclusivity/exclusivity studies were conducted. AquaCHROM ECC was compared to U.S. cultural reference methods in unpaired matrix studies for detection of E. coli and coliforms in tap water, well water, lake water, and bottled water, and for enumeration in tap water, well water, and lake water. Three production lots of AquaCHROM ECC were tested for product consistency and stability. Variations in incubation time and temperature were evaluated in robustness testing.

Results

Inclusivity/exclusivity results demonstrated expected performance with the exception of three strains of Salmonella enterica, two species of Shigella, and one strain of Aeromonas, which turned the media blue or yellow. Results from the matrix studies demonstrated that AquaCHROM ECC and the reference methods are not statistically different for detection of E. coli and coliforms and statistically equivalent for enumeration of E. coli and coliforms. The AquaCHROM ECC powder production was proven to be consistent with a 24-month shelf life. Variation in temperature did not affect the method performance. Shortening the incubation time is not recommended.

Conclusion

AquaCHROM ECC is an effective method for the detection and enumeration of E. coli and coliforms for the water matrixes evaluated.

Highlights

The AquaCHROM ECC method is a quick, one-step method for the recovery and enumeration of E. coli and coliforms in 100 mL water samples. It is a non-agar-based chromogenic medium which provides a clear result without the use of a UV lamp.
A chromosome-level reference genome for the Versatile Fairy Shrimp,Branchinecta lindahli
Authors: Kieran Blair Shannon Rose , Schreier Andrea , Escalona Merly , Finger Amanda J , Joslin Shannon E K , Sahasrabudhe Ruta , Marimuthu Mohan P A , Nguyen Oanh , Chumchim Noravit , Morris Emily Reister , Mangelson Hayley , Hull Joshua
Published: October 2022

We present the novel reference genome of the Versatile Fairy Shrimp, Branchinecta lindahli. The Versatile Fairy Shrimp is a freshwater anostracan crustacean found across the western United States from Iowa to Oregon and from Alberta to Baja California. It is an ephemeral pool specialist, living in prairie potholes, irrigation ditches, tire treads, vernal pools, and other temporary freshwater wetlands. Anostracan fairy shrimp are facing global declines with 3 species in California on the Endangered Species list. This species was included in the California Conservation Genomics Project to provide an easily accessible reference genome, and to provide whole-genome resources for a generalist species, which may lead to new insights into Anostracan resiliency in the face of climate change. The final gapped genome comprises 15 chromosome-length scaffolds covering 98.63% of the 384.8 Mb sequence length, and an additional 55 unscaffolded contigs.