bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Factors associated with mental health outcomes among caregivers of older adults in long-term care facilities during COVID-19 post-epidemic era in Shandong, China
Authors: Chen Huiling , Cao Yingjuan , Lu Yanxia , Zheng Xiaolei , Kong Bin , Dong Hua , Zhou Qingbo
Published: October 2022

Background

COVID-19 pandemic has altered the work mode in long-term care facilities (LTCFs), but little is known about the mental health status of caregivers of older adults.

Methods

A total of 672 formal caregivers of older adults in LTCFs and 1,140 formal patient caregivers in hospitals (comparison group) responded to an online survey conducted from March 25, 2022 to April 6, 2022. Five psychological scales, including Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), The 5-item World Health Organization Wellbeing Index (WHO-5) and Perceived Stress Scale-14 item (PSS-14), were applied to assess participants’ mental health status. Factors, including sex, profession, marital status, economic conditions, length of working experience, frequent night shift beyond 1 day per week and having organic diseases, were included in logistic regression analysis to identify associated factors with mental health outcomes of formal caregivers of older adults in LTCFs.

Results

Caregivers of older adults in LTCFs developed similar severe psychological symptoms with patient caregivers in hospital setting. For caregivers of older adults in LTCFs, unmarried status was a potent risk factor for insomnia, anxiety, impaired wellbeing and health risk stress, with odds ratios ranging from 1.91 to 3.64. Frequent night shift beyond 1 day per week was associated with higher risks of insomnia, depression and impaired wellbeing. Likewise, having organic disease or inferior economic condition, and being nurses appeared to be independent predictors for multiple mental health-related outcomes.

Conclusion

During COVID-19 post-epidemic era, caregivers of older adults in LTCFs had a higher prevalence of psychological symptoms, especially those with particular risk factors. Special attention should be paid to promote their mental health.
A qualitative and quantitative study of self-reported positive characteristics of individuals with ADHD
Authors: Schippers Lessa M. , Horstman Lisa I. , Velde Hans van de , Pereira Rob Rodrigues , Zinkstok Janneke , Mostert Jeanette C. , Greven Corina U. , Hoogman Martine
Published: October 2022

Research in Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has had a clear focus on treatment and the dysfunction in specific situation associated with the condition. However, self-report, observational and anecdotal evidence indicates that there are also positive aspects associated with ADHD. Research on the potential positive features in individuals with an ADHD diagnosis is still limited, especially studies with larger representative samples. Here we performed qualitative research to identify positive aspects and strengths associated with ADHD in a large convenience sample from the Dutch organization for people with ADHD, dyslexia and dyscalculia. We sent out open-ended questionnaires to the members of the organization, asking what they consider to be positive aspects of their ADHD. From the responses of individuals with ADHD (n = 206), we extracted 116 codes, which were assigned to thirteen subthemes, which in turn led to five themes. These themes were: Creativity, Being dynamic, Flexibility, Socio-affective skills, and Higher-order cognitive skills. Core symptoms of ADHD such as impulsivity and hyperactivity were also considered positive aspects of ADHD by a minority of participants. After showing our results to a group of additional individuals with ADHD (focus group) they confirmed the identified positive aspects of ADHD. They also helped us with the interpretation of our findings and mentioned certain positive aspects to be a consequence of living with ADHD (being open minded and being honest). In conclusion, experiencing positive aspects seems to be common in ADHD as almost all participants reported positive aspect of ADHD, these aspects cover many different domains. Awareness about ADHD's strengths might help individuals with ADHD and their environment to better cope with, accept or embrace their diagnosis and for example make educational or occupational choices that fit them well. To incorporate these positive aspects in the understanding of ADHD, future research should focus on quantifying strengths in ADHD, and on investigating the link between these aspects and clinical characteristics and how this new knowledge can be implemented in psychoeducation and find its way to education and occupational settings.
Trend dynamics of gout prevalence among the Chinese population, 1990-2019: A joinpoint and age-period-cohort analysis
Authors: Zhu Bowen , Wang Yimei , Zhou Weiran , Jin Shi , Shen Ziyan , Zhang Han , Zhang Xiaoyan , Ding Xiaoqiang , Li Yang
Published: October 2022

Background

The burden of gout is increasing worldwide, which places a heavy burden on society and healthcare systems. This study investigates the independent effects of age, period, and cohort on the gout prevalence from 1990 to 2019 in China, compares these effects by gender and then predicts the future burden of gout over the next decade.

Methods

The data were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study in 2019. Joinpoint regression model was employed to calculate the annual percentage change (APC) in gout prevalence, and the age-period-cohort analysis was utilized to estimate the independent effects of age, period, and cohort. ARIMA model was extended to predict the gout epidemic in 2020–2029.

Results

In 2019, there were 16.2 million cases of gout in China, with an age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR) of 12.3‰ and 3.9‰ in men and women, respectively. During 1990–2019, the ASPR of gout was increasing significantly, with an average APC of 0.9%. The periods of 2014–2017 and 2001–2005 were “joinpoint” for men and women (APC: 6.3 and 5.6%). The age-period-cohort analyses revealed that the relative risk (RR) of developing gout increased with age, peaking at 70–74 years in men (RRage(70−74) = 162.9) and 75–79 years in women (RRage(75−79)=142.3). The period effect trended upward, with a more rapid increase in women (RRperiod(2019) = 2.31) than men (RRperiod(2019) = 2.23). The cohort effect generally peaked in the earlier cohort born in 1905–1909 for both sexes. Gout prevalence showed a strong positive correlation with the consumption of meat and aquatic products (rmeat = 0.966, raquaticproducts = 0.953). Within 2029, the ASPR of gout was projected to be 11.7‰ and 4.0‰ in men and women, respectively.

Conclusion

The prevalence of gout is increasing at an alarming rate in China; thus, it is necessary to provide targeted health education, regular screening, and accessible urate-lowering therapy healthcare to prevent and protect against gout in China, particularly in older women.
Behavior policy learning: Learning multi-stage tasks via solution sketches and model-based controllers
Authors: Tsinganos Konstantinos , Chatzilygeroudis Konstantinos , Hadjivelichkov Denis , Komninos Theodoros , Dermatas Evangelos , Kanoulas Dimitrios
Published: October 2022

Multi-stage tasks are a challenge for reinforcement learning methods, and require either specific task knowledge (e.g., task segmentation) or big amount of interaction times to be learned. In this paper, we propose Behavior Policy Learning (BPL) that effectively combines 1) only few solution sketches, that is demonstrations without the actions, but only the states, 2) model-based controllers, and 3) simulations to effectively solve multi-stage tasks without strong knowledge about the underlying task. Our main intuition is that solution sketches alone can provide strong data for learning a high-level trajectory by imitation, and model-based controllers can be used to follow this trajectory (we call it behavior) effectively. Finally, we utilize robotic simulations to further improve the policy and make it robust in a Sim2Real style. We evaluate our method in simulation with a robotic manipulator that has to perform two tasks with variations: 1) grasp a box and place it in a basket, and 2) re-place a book on a different level within a bookcase. We also validate the Sim2Real capabilities of our method by performing real-world experiments and realistic simulated experiments where the objects are tracked through an RGB-D camera for the first task.
Grain yield improvement in high-quality rice varieties released in southern China from 2007 to 2017
Authors: Wang Haixia , Xiong Ruoyu , Zhou Yanzhi , Tan Xueming , Pan Xiaohua , Zeng Yongjun , Huang Shan , Shang Qingyin , Xie Xiaobing , Zhang Jun , Zeng Yanhua
Published: October 2022

In recent years, high-quality rice varieties have been widely cultivated for food production in southern China. However, changes in the yield performance of different high-quality rice varieties are still unclear. In this study, the yield and yield components of 710 different types (hybrid or inbred rice and japonica or indica) of high-quality rice varieties were investigated in six provinces from 2007 to 2017. The results showed that, from 2007 to 2017, the grain yield and yield traits, including the number of spikelets per panicle and seed-set percentage, of high-quality indica rice varieties increased significantly, while the number of panicles decreased only in indica inbred rice. The grain yield of high-quality japonica rice also increased significantly, whereas japonica hybrid rice increased the number of spikelets per panicle and decreased the number of panicles. Compared with inbred rice, hybrid rice had a significant increase in grain yield due to a higher number of spikelets, rather than a lower number of panicles and seed-set percentage. Meanwhile, japonica rice showed higher grain yield than indica rice, which was attributed to seed-set percentage and an optimized structure between the number of panicles and the number of spikelets. In addition, the coefficient of variation of the grain yield of japonica rice decreased, whereas that of indica rice increased over time, and those of the number of panicles and seed-set percentage remained stable. Among the six provinces, Zhejiang had the highest grain yield because the number of spikelets per panicle and seed-set percentage increased over time. Our results suggested that, based on an increase in the yield potential of high-quality rice varieties over the past 11 years, future breeding of high-quality rice should be emphasized to improve the number of panicles and seed-set percentage for hybrid rice and the number of spikelets for inbred rice, especially the grain weight for indica inbred rice.
Interdisciplinary approach of Yalom's group therapy factors: A theoretical model for including animal presence in social work education and practice
Authors: Rusu Alina Simona , Davis Rebecca
Published: October 2022

An increasing number of studies in the field of Social Work (SW) address the incorporation of animal presence in practice and improved understanding of social support and therapeutic components. Education programs on the ethical and practical principles of animal-assisted interventions, including models and theories supporting the psycho-physiological effects of human-animal interactions (HAI), are being implemented around the world, especially in the US. While designing and implementing a new interdisciplinary curriculum can be time-consuming and, depending on the many variables, integrating elements of HAI components in existing curricula can be a more efficient approach. We present a step-by-step approach for inclusion of HAI knowledge and practice in teaching Yalom's principles and therapeutic factors of group therapy to SW students. Based on a qualitative analysis of the existent literature and on the results of several research projects in the field of HAI, we propose an approach for infusing research-informed examples and theories supporting the beneficial effects of HAI in the direction of the interdisciplinary understanding of the Yalom's primary factors in the therapeutic process, such as: instillation of hope, corrective recapitulation of the primary family group, development of socializing techniques, imitative behavior, interpersonal learning, and group cohesion. Applied values of HAI are discussed for each factor, emphasizing the added value of animal presence in group therapy settings from the perspective of the dynamic of interspecific social networks, i.e., animal-handler-group members.
Cable-Driven Parallel Robot Actuators: State of the Art and Novel Servo-Winch Concept
Authors: Idà Edoardo , Mattioni Valentina
Published: October 2022

Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPRs) use cables arranged in a parallel fashion to manipulate an end-effector (EE). They are functionally similar to several cranes that automatically collaborate in handling a shared payload. Thus, CDPRs share several types of equipment with cranes, such as winches, hoists, and pulleys. On the other hand, since CDPRs rely on model-based automatic controllers for their operations, standard crane equipment may severely limit their performance. In particular, to achieve reasonably accurate feedback control of the EE pose during the process, the length of the cable inside the workspace of the robot should be known. Cable length is usually inferred by measuring winch angular displacement, but this operation is simple and accurate only if the winch transmission ratio is constant. This problem called for the design of novel actuation schemes for CDPRs; in this paper, we analyze the existing architectures of so-called servo-winches (i.e., servo-actuators which employ a rotational motor and have a constant transmission ratio), and we propose a novel servo-winch concept and compare the state-of-the-art architectures with our design in terms of pros and cons, design requirements, and applications.
UAV-Derived Spectral Indices for the Evaluation of the Condition of Rye in Long-Term Field Experiments
Authors: Wójcik-Gront Elżbieta , Gozdowski Dariusz , Stępień Wojciech
Published: October 2022

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of various fertilization treatments, including nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus fertilization, in long-term experiments for selected UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)-derived spectral vegetation indices (NDVI—Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDRE—Normalized Difference Red Edge Index, VARI—Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index, TGI—Triangular Greenness Index, SIPI2—Structure Insensitive Pigment Index 2, LCI—Leaf Chlorophyll Index, BNDVI—Blue Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, GNDVI—Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, MCARI—Modified Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflective Index) based on multispectral (bands in the range of visible light and near infra-red) images of winter rye. The strongest effect on the studied vegetation indices was nitrogen fertilization, which discriminated values of most of the vegetation indices. The effect of phosphorus and potassium fertilization on the studied vegetation indices was much weaker. The treatments with nitrogen fertilization had significantly higher values of most vegetation indices in comparison to treatments without nitrogen. This was confirmed by principal component analysis (PCA), in which treatments without nitrogen fertilization were very different in comparison to all other treatments where nitrogen fertilization was applied. The effect of phosphorus and potassium fertilization on most of vegetation indices was relatively weak and not significant in most experiments. Only for rye cultivated in monoculture was the effect of phosphorus fertilization significant for most of vegetation indices in early growth stages. In later growth stages (heading and flowering) the effect of phosphorus fertilization was significant in rye monoculture for the SIPI2 vegetation index. Mean SIPI2 was higher for the fertilization treatment CaNPK in comparison to CaKN (without P fertilization). The effect of potassium fertilization on the studied vegetation indices was very weak, and in most cases not significant. The effect of nitrogen fertilization on vegetation indices was much stronger than effect of both potassium and phosphorus fertilization.
Simulation of Multi-Species Plant Communities in Perturbed and Nutrient-Limited Grasslands: Development of the Growth Model ModVege
Authors: Piseddu Francesca , Martin Raphaël , Movedi Ermes , Louault Frédérique , Confalonieri Roberto , Bellocchi Gianni
Published: October 2022

Simulating the dynamics of plant species or types in grassland communities remains an open area of research for which the Community Simulation Model (CoSMo) offers novel approaches. The grassland model ModVege was first parameterised based on a functional vegetation typology, in which types “A” and “B” include fast-growing grass species with a phenology-dependent nutrient-capture strategy inherent to fertile grasslands, while the nutrient conservation strategy and late flowering characterise the other types as “b”. ModVege was then coupled to the CoSMo rule set to dynamically simulate the relative abundance of plant functional types or individual species, assessed across fertilised and unfertilised, abandoned and mown conditions in a grassland site of the Massif Central of France. While for the simulation of aboveground biomass, model performance is not unambiguously linked to explicit consideration of plant diversity, the simulation of relative abundance for the whole community is satisfactory (relative root mean square error of ~13–25% when simulating functional types and ~28–52% when simulating species). This study extends previous studies by coupling CoSMo, for the first time, to a grassland-specific model and applying it to conditions (long-term observations, extended number of plant species, absence of fertilisation, frequent mowing and abandonment) never investigated before.
Evaluation of the Effects of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium Applications on the Growth, Yield, and Quality of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)
Authors: Hong Juan , Xu Fangsen , Chen Gang , Huang Xiang , Wang Suping , Du Lei , Ding Guangda
Published: October 2022

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), a popular edible vegetable, is highly responsive to mineral fertilizers. A two-year field trial was carried out to determine how nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K) application ratios affected lettuce growth, yield, and quality. Within a certain range of nutrient application rate, the plant height, stem diameter, yield, and the concentrations of vitamin C and soluble sugar were higher than those without fertilization. Compared with no fertilization condition, the yield increased approximately 13.56–22.03%, 15.15–42.42% and 7.14–10.32% under increased N, P, and K application conditions, respectively. Furthermore, substantial quadratic parabola relationships were observed between lettuce yield and fertilizer application amounts as well as most quality traits. The nitrate concentration was proportional to the N fertilization rate, while the concentrations of soluble sugar and vitamin C positively correlated with N and P application ratios, respectively. The lettuce leaves had the largest N (60.59%) and K (52.25%) accumulations, whereas the lettuce stem had the highest P (46.33%) accumulation. Above all, the optimal N, P, and K application amounts for lettuce were 315 kg N ha−1, 210 kg P2O5 ha−1, and 285 kg K2O ha−1, respectively.
Influence of Bile Salts and Pancreatin on Dog Food during Static In Vitro Simulation to Mimic In Vivo Digestion
Authors: Seo Kangmin , Cho Hyun-Woo , Jeon Jung-Hwan , Kim Chan Ho , Lim Sejin , Jeong Sohee , Kim Kihyun , Chun Ju Lan
Published: October 2022

The addition of pancreatin and bile salts in different concentrations during in vitro digestion causes changes in the digestibility of crude protein (CP), fat, and dry matter (DM). The effects of bile salts and pancreatin on the digestibility of ether extract (EE), CP, and DM in developing a static in vitro digestion model for dogs were assessed using different concentrations of pancreatin (0, 1, 2.5, 5, and 10 g/L digestive solution) and bile salts (0, 2.5, 6.25, 12.5, and 25 g/L digestive solution). The data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. Digestibility of EE increased with the addition of bile salts (p < 0.05), whereas that of CP decreased with ≤0.25 g (1.0 g/L digestive solution) pancreatin. The digestibility of DM decreased significantly in all groups supplemented with ≥3.125 g (12.5 g/L digestive solution) bile salts and 0.25–2.5 g (1–10 g/L digestive solution) pancreatin and was the lowest with 6.25 g (25 g/L digestive solution) of bile salts (p < 0.05). These findings could facilitate the development of effective static in vitro digestion models for dogs.
Synthetic Flavonoid BrCl-Flav—An Alternative Solution to Combat ESKAPE Pathogens
Authors: Moldovan Cristina-Veronica , Savu Mihaela , Dussert Elodie , Aboubacar Haïrati , Sarbu Laura Gabriela , Matiut Simona , Cudennec Benoit , Krier François , Ravallec Rozenn , Birsa Lucian Mihail , Stefan Marius
Published: October 2022

ESKAPE pathogens are considered as global threats to human health. The discovery of new molecules for which these pathogens have not yet developed resistance is a high medical priority. Synthetic flavonoids are good candidates for developing new antimicrobials. Therefore, we report here the potent in vitro antibacterial activity of BrCl-flav, a representative of a new class of synthetic tricyclic flavonoids. Minimum inhibitory/bactericidal concentration, time kill and biofilm formation assays were employed to evaluate the antibacterial potential of BrCl-flav. The mechanism of action was investigated using fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. A checkerboard assay was used to study the effect of the tested compound in combination with antibiotics. Our results showed that BrCl-flav displayed important inhibitory activity against all tested clinical isolates, with MICs ranging between 0.24 and 125 µg/mL. A total kill effect was recorded after only 1 h of exposing Enterococcus faecium cells to BrCl-flav. Additionally, BrCl-flav displayed important biofilm disruption potential against Acinetobacter baumannii. Those effects were induced by membrane integrity damage. BrCl-flav expressed synergistic activity in combination with penicillin against a MRSA strain. Based on the potent antibacterial activity, low cytotoxicity and pro-inflammatory effect, BrCl-flav has good potential for developing new effective drugs against ESKAPE pathogens.
Tunisian Multicenter Study on the Prevalence of Colistin Resistance in Clinical Isolates of Gram Negative Bacilli: Emergence of Escherichia coli Harbouring the mcr-1 Gene
Authors: Ferjani Sana , Maamar Elaa , Ferjani Asma , Meftah Khaoula , Battikh Hager , Mnif Besma , Hamdoun Manel , Chebbi Yosra , Kanzari Lamia , Achour Wafa , Bahri Olfa , Hammami Adenene , Zribi Meriam , Smaoui Hanen , Boubaker Ilhem Boutiba-Ben
Published: October 2022

Background: Actually, no data on the prevalence of plasmid colistin resistance in Tunisia are available among clinical bacteria. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the current epidemiology of colistin resistance and the spread of the mcr gene in clinical Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) isolated from six Tunisian university hospitals. Methods: A total of 836 GNB strains were inoculated on COL-R agar plates with selective screening agar for the isolation of GNB resistant to colistin. For the selected isolates, mcr genes, beta-lactamases associated-resistance genes and molecular characterisation were screened by PCRs and sequencing. Results: Colistin-resistance was detected in 5.02% (42/836) of the isolates and colistin-resistant isolates harboured an ESBL (blaCTX-M-15) and/or a carbapenemase (blaOXA-48, blaVIM) encoding gene in 45.2% of the cases. The mcr-1 gene was detected in four E. coli isolates (0.59%) causing urinary tract infections and all these isolates also contained the blaTEM-1 gene. The blaCTX-M-15 gene was detected in three isolates that also carried the IncY and IncFIB replicons. The genetic environment surrounding the mcr-carrying plasmid indicated the presence of pap-2 gene upstream mcr-1 resistance marker with unusual missing of ISApl1 insertion sequence. The Conclusions: This study reports the first description of the mcr-1 gene among clinical E. coli isolates in Tunisia and provides an incentive to conduct routine colistin susceptibility testing in GNB clinical isolates.
Evaluation of Agar Dilution Method in Susceptibility Testing of Polymyxins for Enterobacteriaceae and Non-Fermentative Rods: Advantages Compared to Broth Microdilution and Broth Macrodilution
Authors: Hu Xinxin , Sun Lilan , Nie Tongying , Yang Yan , Wang Xiukun , Pang Jing , Lu Xi , Li Xue , Lu Yun , Li Congran , Yang Xinyi , Meng Yao , Li Guoqing , You Xuefu
Published: October 2022

An accurate and reliable susceptibility testing method for polymyxins is urgently needed not only for the clinical laboratory but also for new polymyxin-like lipopeptide development. Reference broth microdilution (rBMD), which was the recommended method by CLSI-EUCAST in clinics, has been proven not to be ideal, while the agar dilution (AD) method that was widely used in new antibiotics discovery has been neglected. In the present study, the AD method was compared with rBMD and broth macrodilution (BMAD) in susceptibility testing of polymyxin B and colistin against >200 Gram-negative isolates. AD showed strong agreement with BMAD for colistin (except for Klebsiella aerogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa); however, its performance was poor for polymyxin B or compared to rBMD. MICs of AD method were not affected when different types of Petri dishes were used, while glass-bottom microtiter plates could lower the MIC of polymyxins 2–8 times compared to tissue-culture-treated polystyrene plates when using rBMD, which demonstrated that tissue-culture-treated plates were not suitable. It was then validated with non-tissue-culture-treated plates. The culture volume was another influencing factor of accuracy for rBMD, and 200 μL seemed to be the most suitable volume for MIC detection of polymyxins. Additionally, no lack of growth phenomenon (skipped well) was observed for AD when it frequently occurred for both BMAD and rBMD. As for strains carrying mcr-1 gene, 100% of AD results were in essential agreement (EA) and categorical agreement (CA) with both rBMD and BMAD. Overall, rBMD is convenient and widely accepted for susceptibility testing of polymyxins. Although it may be too early to say that AD is superior compared to rBMD and BMAD, it did show some advantages in repeatability and anti-interference ability.
Portable RGB-D Camera-Based System for Assessing Gait Impairment Progression in ATTRv Amyloidosis
Authors: Vilas-Boas Maria do Carmo , Rocha Ana Patrícia , Choupina Hugo Miguel Pereira , Cardoso Márcio Neves , Fernandes José Maria , Coelho Teresa , Cunha João Paulo Silva
Published: October 2022

Hereditary Amyloidosis associated with variant Transthyretin (ATTRv Amyloidosis) is a progressive and highly disabling neurological disorder that affects gait. Quantitative motion analysis is useful for assessing motor function, including gait, in diseases affecting movement. A single markerless RGB-D camera enables 3D full-body motion capture in a less expensive and intrusive, and more portable way than multi-camera marker-based systems. In this study, we examine whether a gait analysis system based on an RGB-D camera can be used to detect significant changes in the gait of ATTRv amyloidosis patients over time, when compared with a 12-camera system. We acquired 3D data provided by both systems from six ATTRv amyloidosis patients, while performing a simple gait task, once (T0) and 18 months later (T1). A direct comparison of systems has already been conducted. In this work, however, for each patient, we investigated if the RGB-D camera system detects statistically significant differences between the two different acquisitions in a similar way to the reference system, and whether it is reliable to use during patients’ follow-up. The obtained results show that the differences detected between T0 and T1 for both systems follow the same tendency for 65% of the spatiotemporal gait parameters, and for 38% of the kinematic parameters (38%). The most reliable parameters were: stride duration/length, gait speed (and its variability), and arm/foot swing velocity, all with an almost perfect strength of agreement.
Accumulation of Vitamin C in Yeast under Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) Conditions
Authors: Nowosad Karolina , Sujka Monika , Zielińska Ewelina , Pankiewicz Urszula
Published: October 2022

Enriching food with vitamin C is a process that challenges food engineers. To prevent the degradation of this vitamin, a microencapsulation can be used in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. Previous works have shown that applying a pulsed electric field can increase the efficiency of the accumulation of minerals in yeast. The aim of this study was to optimize PEF parameters in order to increase the accumulation of vitamin C in yeast cells, to evaluate the effect of electroporation on biomass and yeast viability, and to assess the effect of storage conditions on the vitamin C content and its antioxidant activity. The most effective accumulation of vitamin C in cells (approx. 1.3 mg/g dry mass) was achieved when a 20-h yeast culture was treated with PEF at a concentration of 5 mg/mL vitamin C in the medium. The optimal PEF parameters were: voltage of 1000 V, pulse width of 10 µs, treatment time of 20 min, and number of pulses, 1200. The process conditions did not affect significantly biomass production nor cell viability. Yeast cells with vitamin C were stored for 7, 14, and 28 days at 20 °C (after prior freeze-drying), 4 °C, and −22 °C. The lowest decrease in vitamin C content was observed for the freeze-dried yeast stored at 20 °C.
Thermal Stability of Sputtered Tungsten Nitrides for Solar Thermal Applications
Authors: Castaldo Anna , Gambale Emilia , Iemmo Laura
Published: October 2022

In this work, tungsten nitrides sputtered at different powers supplied to a W target (300 W, 500 W, 700 W) and proposed for solar thermal applications as part of solar absorbers, as active and robust materials for capacity energy storage and as plasma-facing materials were annealed in vacuum at medium-high temperatures (470 °C, 580 °C) and characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), AFM, micro-Raman, FTIR, UV–VIS–-NIR, sheet, surficial energy and wetting angle measurements. From the overall set of analyses, some important modifications and differences between samples after annealing emerged (which will be useful for selecting them for specific applications) and have been correlated to sputtered W metallic clusters’ ability to adsorb, form complexes with and react with the strong N2 triple bond under the various plasma conditions of a reactive sputtering process. In particular, the 300 W film of poor crystalline quality as deposited, after annealing released entrapped nitrogen and retained its W2N structure up to a temperature of 580 °C. Despite there being no phase transition, there was an increase in sheet resistance, which is detrimental because the preservation of metallic character is an important requisite for the proposed applications. The 500 W film had a stable crystalline structure and a metallic character unmodified by increasing temperature. The 700 W film, whose structure as deposited was almost amorphous, underwent the most severe modification after annealing: crystallizing, disproportioning and giving rise to a composite and porous nature (W + WNx) not ideal for spectrally selective coating applications, but useful for tailoring capacitive energy storage devices, or for catalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions (as an alternative to platinum) in alkaline water electrolysis.
Comparison of Monkeypox and Wart DNA Sequences with Deep Learning Model
Authors: Alakus Talha Burak , Baykara Muhammet
Published: October 2022

After the COVID-19 disease, monkeypox disease has emerged today and has started to be seen almost everywhere in the world in a short time. Monkeypox causes symptoms such as fever, chills, and headache in people. In addition, rashes are seen on the skin and lumps are formed. Early diagnosis and treatment of monkeypox, which is a contagious disease, are of great importance. An expert interpretation and clinical examination are usually needed to detect monkeypox. This may cause the treatment process to be slow. Furthermore, monkeypox is sometimes confused with warts. This leads to incorrect diagnosis and treatment. Because of these disadvantages, in this study, the DNA sequences of HPV causing warts and MPV causing monkeypox were analyzed and the classification of these sequences was performed with a deep learning algorithm. The study consisted of four stages. In the first stage, DNA sequences of viruses that cause warts and monkeypox were obtained. In the second stage, these sequences were mapped using various DNA-mapping methods. In the third stage, the mapped sequences were classified using a deep learning algorithm. At the last stage, the performances of DNA-mapping methods were compared by calculating accuracy and F1-score. At the end of the study, an average accuracy of 96.08% and an F1-score of 99.83% were obtained. These results showed that these two diseases can be effectively classified according to their DNA sequences.
An Evolutionary Algorithm to Optimise a Distributed UAV Swarm Formation System
Authors: Stolfi Daniel H. , Danoy Grégoire
Published: October 2022

In this article, we present a distributed robot 3D formation system optimally parameterised by a hybrid evolutionary algorithm (EA) in order to improve its efficiency and robustness. To achieve that, we first describe the novel distributed formation algorithm3 (DFA3), the proposed EA, and the two crossover operators to be tested. The EA hyperparameterisation is performed by using the irace package and the evaluation of the three case studies featuring three, five, and ten unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is performed through realistic simulations by using ARGoS and ten scenarios evaluated in parallel to improve the robustness of the configurations calculated. The optimisation results, reported with statistical significance, and the validation performed on 270 unseen scenarios show that the use of a metaheuristic is imperative for such a complex problem despite some overfitting observed under certain circumstances. All in all, the UAV swarm self-organised itself to achieve stable formations in 95% of the scenarios studied with a plus/minus ten percent tolerance.
Impersonation Attack Detection in Mobile Edge Computing by Levering SARSA Technique in Physical Layer Security
Authors: Yan Xiaodan , Yan Ke , Rehman Meezan Ur , Ullah Sami
Published: October 2022

Smart health systems typically integrate sensor technology with the Internet of Things, enabling healthcare systems to monitor patients. These biomedical applications collect healthcare data through remote sensors and transfer the data to a centralized system for analysis. However, the communication between the edge node and the mobile user is susceptible to impersonation attacks in mobile edge computing (MEC) for the biomedical application. For this purpose, we propose a detection mechanism for medical and healthcare services, i.e., reinforcement learning for impersonation attacks. We construct a system model of MEC, a key generation model (KGM), and an impersonation attack model (IAM). In addition, we also design an impersonation attack detection algorithm based on the SARSA technique under the IAM. In our proposed work, the SARSA-based method outplays the detection of impersonation attacks in the dynamic environment compared to the traditional Q-learning technique. Finally, we evaluate the false alarm rate (FAR), miss detection rate (MDR), and average error rate (AER) in the hypothesis tests to compare the performance of our proposed method with the traditional Q-learning. In comparison to the classic Q-learning based technique, simulation experiments show that the suggested approach can avoid impersonation attacks in a dynamic environment for medical and healthcare services. The results also indicate that the SARSA technique has a high detection accuracy and low average error rate compared to the conventional Q-learning based approach.
Personalized Chinese Tourism Recommendation Algorithm Based on Knowledge Graph
Authors: Su Xueping , He Jiao , Ren Jie , Peng Jinye
Published: October 2022

Facing the massive tourism data, the recommendation system mines the user’s interest to provide a personalized information service. The Knowledge Graph is introduced into a recommendation system, as auxiliary information can effectively solve the problems about data sparse and cold-start. Therefore, this paper proposes a new algorithm of personalized Chinese tourism recommendation based on the Knowledge Graph. First of all, because lack of the public Chinese tourism Knowledge Graph, a complete Chinese tourism Knowledge Graph is built. Secondly, a new B-TransD (Bernoulli-TransD) knowledge representation model is proposed to reduce the probability of false negative triples. Finally, the method of user interest model based on the attribute information of users and tourist attractions is proposed to improve the performance of the recommendation system. Experiments are conducted on a data set containing 9100 tourist attractions. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves significant improvement over the existing algorithms.
A New Sentiment-Enhanced Word Embedding Method for Sentiment Analysis
Authors: Li Qizhi , Li Xianyong , Du Yajun , Fan Yongquan , Chen Xiaoliang
Published: October 2022

Since some sentiment words have similar syntactic and semantic features in the corpus, existing pre-trained word embeddings always perform poorly in sentiment analysis tasks. This paper proposes a new sentiment-enhanced word embedding (S-EWE) method to improve the effectiveness of sentence-level sentiment classification. This sentiment enhancement method takes full advantage of the mapping relationship between word embeddings and their corresponding sentiment orientations. This method first converts words to word embeddings and assigns sentiment mapping vectors to all word embeddings. Then, word embeddings and their corresponding sentiment mapping vectors are fused to S-EWEs. After reducing the dimensions of S-EWEs through a fully connected layer, the predicted sentiment orientations are obtained. The S-EWE method adopts the cross-entropy function to calculate the loss between predicted and true sentiment orientations, and backpropagates the loss to train the sentiment mapping vectors. Experiments show that the accuracy and macro-F1 values of six sentiment classification models using Word2Vec and GloVe with the S-EWEs are on average 1.07% and 1.58% higher than those without the S-EWEs on the SemEval-2013 dataset, and on average 1.23% and 1.26% higher than those without the S-EWEs on the SST-2 dataset. In all baseline models with S-EWEs, the convergence time of the attention-based bidirectional CNN-RNN deep model (ABCDM) with S-EWEs was significantly decreased by 51.21% of ABCDM on the SemEval-2013 dataset. The convergence time of CNN-LSTM with S-EWEs was vastly reduced by 41.34% of CNN-LSTM on the SST-2 dataset. In addition, the S-EWE method is not valid for contextualized word embedding models. The main reasons are that the S-EWE method only enhances the embedding layer of the models and has no effect on the models themselves.
Study of Stress Distribution Characteristics of Reinforced Earth Retaining Walls under Cyclic Loading
Authors: Wang He , Ma Jian , Yang Guangqing , Wang Nan
Published: October 2022

The stress-distribution angle is an important parameter for the design of retaining walls and foundation beds and has a non-negligible role in the rationality of engineering design. There is a lack of research on stress distribution in reinforced earth-retaining walls under cyclic loading. In order to study the stress distribution characteristics of geogrid-reinforced soil-retaining walls (GRSW) under cyclic loading, the stress distribution characteristics of GRSW under a different number of load cycles were analyzed by field tests, and the effects of the length of reinforcement, the friction coefficient of the reinforcement–soil interface and the modulus of reinforcement on the stress distribution characteristics of GRSW were analyzed by numerical simulation. The results show that, with the increase in the number of load cycles, the vertical dynamic earth pressure shows a noticeable decreasing trend from high to low along the wall height. The vertical dynamic earth pressure increases first and then decreases along the length of reinforcement. When the number of load cycles increases to more than 100,000, the stress-distribution angle of the GRSW does not change much, the upper part remains at 35~79°, and the middle part remains at 47~68°. The influence depth of stress distribution in GRSW is about 1.13 times the wall height. The interfacial friction coefficient of reinforced soil has a superior influence on the stress distribution in GRSW, followed by the length and modulus of reinforcement.
Effects of Glucose Addition on Dynamics of Organic Carbon Fractions and cbbL-Containing Bacteria in Wetlands
Authors: Cao Qingqing , Wu Jinhang , Ma Wen , Liu Bing , Xiao Huabin
Published: October 2022

Studying the CO2-assimilation potential under the effect of glucose addition is of great significance to completely comprehend the dynamic carbon cycle in wetland ecosystems. Rhizospheric sediments (RS) and bulk sediments (BS) were selected, with the addition of glucose (G) or not, and two experimental pots (RSG and BSG) and two control pots (RS and BS) were formed. Then, within 45 h of glucose addition, the sediments were sampled at intervals of 4 h for dynamic monitoring. The bacterial communities encoded by CO2-assimilating function genes (cbbL) and the corresponding activities of key enzyme (ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase, RubisCO), and the light fraction (LF) and heavy fraction (HF) of organic carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) of the samples were determined. The results demonstrated that the dynamic processes of glucose deposition and degradation occurred in sediments from RSG and BSG, with the greatest depositions of 2.35 and 2.48 mg·g−1 in the 4th and 12th hour, respectively. The contents of LFOC, LFON, HFOC, and HFON decreased by 171.70%, 125.45%, 8.40%, and 68.17% in the RSG pot, and decreased by 221.55%, 102.61%, 0.07%, and 74.74% in the BSG pot, respectively, which suggested the dominant activities of C and N mineralization. The FT-MIR of LF showed different changes of typical chemical bonds between RSG and BSG during the process, which further indicated irregular and inconsistent mineralization activities. The RubisCO activities in the rhizospheric sediments (52.14 nmol (g·min)−1 on average) were substantially greater than in the bulk sediments, which indicated the high potential of carbon assimilation in rhizospheric sediments. Moreover, it showed a lower trend in BSG, BS, and RS, but an increasing trend in RSG after the glucose addition, albeit the effects were recovered in the 45th hour. The cbbL-containing bacteria were more abundant in the rhizospheric sediments than in the bulk sediments, and this effect was higher than that of the glucose addition. Proteobacteria were the dominating phylum with mean values of 93.49%, and Burkholderiales was found to be the dominant order (37.74% on average). Moreover, the changes in bacterial composition between the rhizospheric sediments and bulk sediments were more pronounced than they were during the process. Therefore, the effects of glucose degradation on RubisCO activity and cbbL-containing bacteria were transient, but the effects on organic matter fractions were straightforward, which probably further change the bacterial abundance and composition.
A Review of Point Cloud Registration Algorithms for Laser Scanners: Applications in Large-Scale Aircraft Measurement
Authors: Si Haiqing , Qiu Jingxuan , Li Yao
Published: October 2022

As 3D acquisition equipment picks up steam, point cloud registration has been applied in ever-increasing fields. This paper provides an exhaustive survey of the field of point cloud registration for laser scanners and examines its application in large-scale aircraft measurement. We first researched the existing representative point cloud registration algorithms, such as hierarchical optimization, stochastic and probability distribution, and feature-based methods, for analysis. These methods encompass as many point cloud registration algorithms as possible; typical algorithms of each method are suggested respectively, and their strengths and weaknesses are compared. Lastly, the application of point cloud registration algorithms in large-scale aircraft measurement is introduced. We discovered that despite the significant progress of point cloud registration combining deep learning and traditional methods, it is still difficult to meet realistic needs, and the main challenges are in the direction of robustness and generalization. Furthermore, it is impossible to extract accurate and comparable features for alignment from large-scale aircraft surfaces due to their relative smoothness, lack of obvious features, and abundance of point clouds. It is necessary to develop lightweight and effective dedicated algorithms for particular application scenarios. As a result, with the development of point cloud registration technology and the deepening into the aerospace field, the particularity of the aircraft shape and structure poses higher challenges to point cloud registration technology.
Amira Ziyan, Hiding in the Light: A Synergy of Contrasts as a Visual Code of “Otherness”
Authors: Topelberg Noam
Published: October 2022

This article presents an interpretation of the works by the Israeli–Druze photographer Amira Ziyan, focusing on a series of photographs from 2017. These portray reenactments of actions identified with traditional roles of women in Druze society, such as cooking and cleaning. Employing a unique visual language and choice of form and content, the artist depicts a confrontation between a clear set of rigid and traditional boundaries and values and a contemporary, post-modern reality in which these boundaries and values are blurred. The interpretive reading proposed here describes a synergy between visual codes of minorities and accepted visual codes of their surrounding pervasive culture in contemporary Israel. Ziyan’s work offers a glimpse into visual codes of “otherness” that express the inner world of an artist who grew up on the margins of society but strove to be accepted as an essential part of its main artistic current. Focusing on this perspective contributes to ongoing discourse regarding contradictions inherent in Israeli society and identity.