bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Research on Highway Tunnel Safe Speed Limit Setting Method Considering Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction
Authors: Li Hao , Wen Yuanyong
Published: April 2020

Highway tunnel sections are prone to accidents. In order to reduce safety risk factors generated by tunnels, strict speed limit is implemented in highway tunnels. At present, there is still a lack of research on speed limit standards for expressway tunnel sections.Firstly, this paper analyzes the general situation of highway speed limit in China and abroad, the influencing factors of highway tunnel speed limit settingf, and the driving process into the tunnel.Then a speed limit setting model of highway tunnel considering the constraint conditions of energy saving and emission reduction is proposed, based on the serial influencing factor model, the highway tunnel speed limit setting model is determined by taking the road conditions, traffic conditions, energy consumption and emission factors and environmental conditions into comprehensive consideration and combining with the analytic hierarchy process.Finally, the speed limit scheme of highway tunnel section with the consideration of energy consumption conservation and carbon emmission redectuon is put forward, and some suggestions for setting conditions and constraints of the speed limit scheme are put forward.The results show that the method can be operated and the results obtained are reliable, which can be used as an effective method for the implementation of energy conservation, emission reduction and safety scheme in the field of highway.
Studies of Phytoremediation on Sasa argenteastriatus for Soil Cadmuium Pollution
Authors: Hu Xia , Yin Peng , Liu Xiaojie
Published: April 2020

In order to explore the Phytoremediation effect of Sasa argenteastriatus on cadmium-contaminated soil, pot experiments were conducted to study the growth and enrichment efficiency of Sasa argenteastriatus on cadmium-contaminated soil. The results showed that cadmium had a significant inhibitory effect on the growth of Sasa argenteastriatus, and the inhibitory effect increased with the increase of cadmium concentration. Cadmium content in roots, stems and leaves of Sasa argenteastriatus increased with the increase of exogenous cadmium, especially in roots. The order of cadmium enrichment efficiency was the same in different cadmium contaminated soils, all of them were leaves < stems < roots. And the cadmium enrichment coefficient in root was obviously higher than that in other organs. The research on growth and enrichment of Sasa argenteastriatus under cadmium stress provides theoretical basis and data support for its application in cadmium-contaminated areas.
Application of a Wavelet Packet and SOM Neural Network in Wastewater Treatment Fault
Authors: Lu Ming
Published: April 2020

In order to solve the problem of fault diagnosis in sewage treatment, a fault diagnosis method combining wavelet packet and improved self-organization mapping (SOM) neural network was proposed. In this method, the fault of sewage treatment is decomposed into three types by wavelet packet, and then decomposed into several frequency bands to calculate the energy of different frequency bands. By using the ratio of these energy values to the energy values of normal operating frequency bands, the feature vector of fault diagnosis of sewage treatment fault is constructed to extract fault features. SOM neural network of 3 x 3 was designed, and the neural network training was carried out using the energy fault feature vector [1], so as to determine the network parameters and achieve the purpose of fault diagnosis. The simulation results show that the fault diagnosis method is effective and accurate.
Design and Implementation of Wireless Communication System Based on CC1100
Authors: Gao Jianhua , Zhu Yuanjing
Published: April 2020

As one of the most promising information technologies in this century, radio frequency technology has been highly valued. The technology utilizes the radio frequency method for non-contact two-way communication, it can automatically identify the target object and acquire relevant data, and it has many advantages such as high precision, strong adaptability to the environment, strong anti-interference ability, and fast operation. The radio remote control uses radio frequency signals to control remote devices of remote control devices. For modern homes, various home appliances are designed to control multiple devices and wireless remote control switches. This paper designs a simple wireless remote control system based on CC1101 communication module. Based on the theory of wireless transceiver technology, the system realizes the transceiver and status display of wireless data.
Development and Optimization of Check-in System Based on Face Recognition Technology
Authors: Chen Pingping , Geng Xiaoran , Zou Min , Xu Qingming , Tan Dingying
Published: April 2020

Face recognition technology is widely used. By comparing the speed and accuracy of Face++ and Baidu AI face recognition, the face sign-in service was collected in the mobile phone or pad APP, which realized the mobile check-in attendance that can be used for college students or training institutions. The system was characterized by accuracy, fast and anti-cheating ability. The experimental results show that Baidu AI’s face detection and recognition performance is better, its speed is more than twice faster than Face++, the recognition score is higher than Face++, and includes live detection, which can effectively prevent static picture cheats. However, Baidu AI’s face detection time (about 271.2ms) was much higher than the commercial face detection algorithm (about 25ms), so the Adaboost face detection algorithm was studied, and the Adaboost algorithm based on OpenCV was transplanted to Android. The platform enables real-time detection of faces. After the system optimization, the face detection time is about 10ms, which effectively improves the face detection speed.
Research into College English Teaching under Artificial Intelligence in China
Authors: Yang Ting , Wang Zhimei , Ma Lun , Li Yongan
Published: April 2020

This paper presents the integration of college English teaching and artificial intelligence through the mechanism of the latter: natural language processing and big data mining with corresponding examples. In the hope of providing some teaching ideas and improving the current college English teaching in China.
Organization Structure Design of Greenization Transformation of Old Districts—Taking the Elevator Installation Project as an Example
Authors: He Weiyi , Li Tianyi
Published: April 2020

Taking the “village collective” in the old suburbs of Tianjin’ s suburbs as an example to upgrade existing residential elevators, using organizational design theory and business process theory, and using traditional organizational design methods, the village collectively funded elevators are retrofitted. Conduct organizational structure design and process design to form the project organization task-resource allocation relationship and the cooperation relationship between the subjects. From the operational level, we provide design solutions for the implementation of specific projects, making them more targeted and operable. Enriched the research field and content of organizational structure design issues.
ATLA: A novel metaheuristic optimization algorithm inspired by the mating search behavior of longicorn beetles in the nature
Authors: Han Xiaokuang , Du Xianjun , Yu Ping
Published: April 2020

Compared with the traditional optimization algorithms, metaheuristic optimization algorithm has more powerful performance in the optimization problem, which has attracted more and more scholars’ attention. In this paper, a novel metaheuristic optimization algorithm, named artificial transgender longicorn algorithm (ATLA), is proposed, which is inspired by the mating search behavior of longicorn in the nature. ATLA simulates the mechanism of sex pheromone emission and attraction between female and male longicorn beetles, and realizes the process of local search and global search of an optimization problem. Simulation results based on three standard benchmark functions show the good search performance of optimal solution and the effectiveness of the proposed ATLA.
Data Analysis and Application of Retail Enterprises Based on Knime
Authors: Pu Xiaochuan , Qi Ning , Huang Junli
Published: April 2020

With the rapid development of information technology, the application of cross-discipline has shown explosive growth. Data mining, big data and other technologies are rapidly entering all walks of life. Research on data mining technology and its application in data analysis of related enterprises have certain theoretical significance and practical value. This paper starts with a cross-border sales data set and uses Knime visual data analysis tool to illustrate that the widespread application of visual data mining technology in small and medium-sized enterprises is a feasible way to improve the decision-making ability of enterprises.
Application of BP Neural Network for Pre-Dehumidification Time Prediction of Capillary Ceiling Radiant Cooling Panel Air Conditioning System
Authors: Ye Qiming , Shi Wei , Xu Linghong , Hu Pingfang
Published: April 2020

Pre-dehumidifying the room is generally needed before the capillary ceiling radiant cooling panel (CCRCP) air condition system is turned on. Accurate pre- dehumidification time is critical for condensation prevention and energy usage. The pre- dehumidification time, which is related to multiple variables with complicated correlation relationship, is difficult to be calculated by conventional methods. Therefore, BP neural network is considered to be applied to predict the pre-dehumidification time. In this study, a dynamic model of CCRCP + displacement ventilation air conditioning system was built to simulate the pre-dehumidification process in TRANSYS. And then BP neural network was established, it takes the indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity conditions at 7:00 in every morning as the influencing factors and predict the optimal pre-dehumidification time for each day. The results show that the mean square error (MSE) of the BP neural network training process is 1.90958×10−4, the correlation coefficient R between the training data and the sample data reaches 0.99906, and the correlation coefficient R between the predicted data and the sample data reaches 0.99897. The BP neural network can reflect the intrinsic relationship between optimal pre-dehumidification time and input variables, and has high accuracy in predicting optimal pre-dehumidification time of CCRCP air conditioning system.
Parallel Residual Attention Network for Image Super-Resolution
Authors: Duan Yongsheng , Su Yang , Xu Jiahao , Wu Wei
Published: April 2020

The application of convolution neural networks (CNN) to image super-resolution has achieved excellent results. Inspired by these excellent results, we find that most models only increase the depth of the network in order to obtain deeper features. However, these models often cannot take full advantage of the original feature information from the low-resolution (LR) images. Moreover, the image information is mainly divided into high frequency information and low frequency information, and the existing image super resolution network models are mostly single-branch models, which limits the performance of extracting various aspects of image information. To resolve the problem, we proposed a parallel net work model. About the network, we proposed the LR residual block (LRB) and attention block (AB). LRB allows constantly replenishing original LR features in the process of extracting deep features, thus it can effectively extract more information from LR image. The AB contains the attention mechanism, it will ad just their weights based on the importance of the image features to extract more efficient features between low- resolution (LR) images and high-resolution (HR) images. Experiments on benchmark datasets show that our model performs better. We achieve higher accuracy and visual improvements against state-of-the-art methods.
A Review on the Effect of Microstructure Surface on the Adhesion of Marine Fouling Organisms
Authors: Yang Hongyue , Wang Songling
Published: April 2020

Marine anti-pollution is a difficult issue in marine development. At present, marine anti-fouling researches mainly focus on three aspects: chemical, physical and biological. With the spread of the concept of environmental protection, the development of environmentally friendly, bio-adaptive anti-fouling technology has become a new development trend, and micro-structure surface anti-fouling technology has become a research hotspot. This paper introduces the profile and impact of biofouling, highlights the antifouling mechanism and research progress of microstructure technology, and describes the adhesion characteristics of the three main fouling organisms on the microstructure surface.
Visibility Tagging of nouns in Text-to-Scene Conversion
Authors: Yang Fuping , Cheng Xi , Chen Qi
Published: April 2020

The recognition and extraction of visual text information is the basis of the realization of Text-to-Scene Conversion, while nouns are the main expression form of entity, event, orientation, action and other information in text, but not all nouns are suitable for visualization, so how to recognize the visibility of nouns is the key problem of Text-to-Scene Conversion. Based on the definition and classification of noun visualization, this paper establishes a keyword visibility dictionary. Furthermore, in view of the static limitations of the dictionary, a dynamic expansion method based on semantic similarity is studied, and an optimization method for the visibility annotation of nouns is proposed in combination with unsupervised clustering. The experimental results show that the proposed method is effective and feasible for nominal visibility annotation of common texts, and the accuracy of the optimized method is 16% higher than that of the simple semantic similarity method.
Research on Spatial Spectrum Constraint of Distributed Passive Radar Imaging
Authors: Zhang Yanhou , Wang Shuo , Zhai Hao , Han Yusheng
Published: April 2020

Spatial spectrum is an important tool for radar imaging performance analysis. In order to analyze the effect of spatial spectrum filling on the imaging quality of distributed passive radar, the constraints of spatial spectrum filling are studied. The imaging model of distributed passive radar is established, the imaging resolution characteristics are analyzed, and the influencing factors of spatial spectrum filling are obtained. The filling rule of spatial spectrum is analyzed, and the constraint conditions for the critical azimuth and arc of filling are given. The validity of the constraint conditions is verified by simulation, which has guiding significance for optimization of radar station layout and imaging quality improvement.
Mixnet Face Recognition How Combing 2D and 3D Data Can Increase the Precision
Authors: Zhang Xinyu , Zhao Yang , Zhang Hao
Published: April 2020

Great breakthrough has been made on Classic 2-D face recognition in normal environment. The facenet [1] proposed by Google in 2015 has 99.65% accuracy on LFW dataset. It can be considered that the performance of traditional 2-D network in normalized environment such as security check and bank is reliable enough. However, the accuracy of 2-D face recognition will significantly reduce when processing angular faces or occluded face. This paper claims that the lack of depth information is the reason why the recognition ability of neural network is inferior to that of human beings under complex conditions. Furthermore, we have proposed a method, which can obtain 100% accuracy on both Texas and Bosphorus dataset by using both 3-D deepmap and 2-D rgb picture as input.
Flood Risk and Adaptation in Floodplain Cities - Toward Flood-Resilient Urban Design in the Mekong Delta
Authors: Long Nguyen Van , Phi Pham Hoang , Thinh Do Duy , The Ngo Thi Minh
Published: April 2020

Studies in Mekong Delta (MKD) proves that experiments and observations in water management over generations lead the indigenous people to the understanding of complex physical - ecological principles of the environment and thereby to sustain local resources. By studying the complexity of MKD landscape system on both natural and urban aspects, the paper shows (1) the logic of complex equilibrium principle in territorial organization and (2) that the combination of indigenous wisdom “living with flood” helps to maintain local landscape system in the context of serious flooding threats in the lower Mekong region. It is argued that functions of indigenous landscape and wisdom of “living with flood” should be respected and applied to urban design to enhance flood adaptation over time.
Based on STM32F103 cowshed environment intelligent control system
Authors: Wang Xuhai , Li Weiguo , Wang Lili , Zhang Yi , Zhao He
Published: April 2020

The environment of the barn affects the growth, health, reproduction and fattening of the cattle. In order to control the environment of the barn, an intelligent control system based on STM32F103 was designed to monitor and control the temperature, humidity and toxic and harmful gases such as SO2 and NH3. The system adopts STM32F103 as the control core; air pollution sensor MQ135, humidity sensor DHT11, temperature sensor DS18B20 is the system data acquisition device; air purification box (pump, condenser, heating plate, fan) is the system execution device, PC end data analysis software. The experiment was carried out in Mengniu dairy farm in Shengle Economic Development Zone, Hohhot City. The results show that the system can monitor and control various environmental factors stably and reliably.
Research of the Assessment System Based on C2C Website
Authors: Juan Wang , Bin Tian
Published: April 2020

In this paper, in order to evaluate the taobao’s books credit, it analyses the current situation and loopholes in the current credit evaluation system of credit evaluation system, and points out the future development trend and innovation; finally, combining with the case, puts forward the countermeasures and suggestions of the development of credit system in china.
Chinese Abrupt Event Recognition Based on CBiGRU-Att Model
Authors: Yin Haoran , Cao Jinxuan , Du Yanhui , Wang Guodong , Cao Luzhe , Wang Xing , Zhang Houlu
Published: April 2020

Aiming at the problem of poor portability of traditional event recognition methods, the need for a large number of learning features, and the poor interpretability of recurrent neural networks in different information features about degrees of importance, this paper proposes a Chinese abrupt event recognition method based CBiGRU-Att model. Firstly, the text corpus was preprocessed.Word2vec was used to generate word vectors and the local features of the word vectors were extracted by using the convolutional layer. Then the extracted features were used as the input of the BiGRU to obtain higher-order context features, and introduced the attention mechanism to weight feature. Finally, softmax function was used to activate the learned features and output the recognition results. Simulation results show that this method is superior to other methods in the precision and recall rate for Chinese abrupt event recognition.
Optimal Model of Fire Fighting and Rescue Operational Plan Based on Utility Function
Authors: He Wanguo , Xie Hao
Published: April 2020

The fire brigade was a specialized and militarized team that fighted fires and other disasters, whose main duties were to dispose of fires and other disasters in order to protect people’s lives and property. Under the new situation, with the increasing complexity of disaster accidents and the status quo of the equipment of the fire brigade, firefighting and rescue work presented the characteristics of complexity, diversity and arduousness. Therefore, in order to complete the firefighting rescue faster and better, and avoid the disadvantages of the command, it was particularly important to carry out the plan optimization. In view of this, an optimization model of firefighting and rescue operational plan was proposed by this paper to determine the good and bad of the plan by using the utility function model to do quantitative calculation. The construction principles and specific calculation steps of the utility function model were firstly introduced by the paper. Then the actual case was combined with to establish the index system of a fire fighting and rescue optimal plan to solve the utility function value. Finally, the weights and utility function values were used to determine the comprehensive evaluation value, in order to select the best operational plan. The feasibility of the plan waiting for the selection was transformed by this model through the utility function, making it more comparable and easy to optimize the plan. The determination of the optimal plan improved the decision-making ability of the commander, and the operation mechanism to guide and improve the firefighting rescue, thereby to effectively.
Optimization Analysis of Parametric passive Energy-saving Design for Residential Buildings
Authors: Tang Meng , Zhang Hui , Han Jingyi
Published: April 2020

Taking residential building in hot summer and cold winter area as research object, this paper established a model based on passive energy-saving design, and combined artificial neural network(ANN) and genetic algorithm(GA) models to analyze lighting, sunlight, and plot ratio,etc.. In addition, for the experimental test of multiple sets of data samples, the optimized passive design combination scheme was sought to verify the possibility of parametric optimization design based on genetic algorithm(GA).
The large space Investigation and Analysis of railway station in winter: Taking Zhengzhou east and Changsha south railway stations as cases
Authors: Zhu Fucheng , Zhang Hui , Ding Si
Published: April 2020

As the landmark building of the city, railway station has the characteristics of large space, dense crowd and comfortable characteristics, while the waiting hall is an important space form in railway passenger station, and its thermal environment directly influences the human’s sensory experience. Taking Zhengzhou east station, Changsha south railway station as an example, through field testing and investigation in winter, to get the test parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, and combining the investigation and study the thermal environment and comfortable condition, and discusses the possible problems.
Research on PA Digital Predistortion Simulation Based on an Improved Model
Authors: Liu Jinting , Zhao Ruiyu , Liu Wenjing , Zeng Guoqing
Published: April 2020

Based on the study of the traditional power amplifier predistortion model, this paper proposes a new model. In order to verify the ability of the new model to compensate for the nonlinear distortion of the power amplifier, this paper designs a predistortion joint verification system based on ADS and MATALB, tested with a three-carrier LTE signal. Simulation results show that t the ACPR (Adjacent Channel Power Ratio) of the PA output signal compensated by predistorter is improved 17.230dB compared with the PA (Power Amplifier) original output signal.
Direct growth of graphene on GaN via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition under N2 atmosphere
Authors: Mischke Jan , Pennings Joel , Weisenseel Erik , Kerger Philipp , Rohwerder Michael , Mertin Wolfgang , Bacher Gerd
Published: April 2020

One of the bottlenecks in the implementation of graphene as a transparent electrode in modern opto-electronic devices is the need for complicated and damaging transfer processes of high-quality graphene sheets onto the desired target substrates. Here, we study the direct, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) growth of graphene on GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). By replacing the commonly used hydrogen (H2) process gas with nitrogen (N2), we were able to suppress GaN surface decomposition while simultaneously enabling graphene deposition at <800 °C in a single-step growth process. Optimizing the methane (CH4) flow and varying the growth time between 0.5 h and 8 h, the electro-optical properties of the graphene layers could be tuned to sheet resistances as low as ∼1 kΩ/□ with a maximum transparency loss of ∼12%. The resulting high-quality graphene electrodes show an enhanced current spreading effect and an increase of the emission area by a factor of ∼8 in operating LEDs.
Development of use-specific high-performance cyber-nanomaterial optical detectors by effective choice of machine learning algorithms
Authors: Hejazi Davoud , Liu Shuangjun , Farnoosh Amirreza , Ostadabbas Sarah , Kar Swastik
Published: April 2020

Due to their inherent variabilities, nanomaterials-based sensors are challenging to translate into real-world applications, where reliability and reproducibility are key. Machine learning can be a powerful approach for obtaining reliable inferences from data generated by such sensors. Here, we show that the best choice of ML algorithm in a cyber-nanomaterial detector is largely determined by the specific use-considerations, including accuracy, computational cost, speed, and resilience against drifts and long-term ageing effects. When sufficient data and computing resources are provided, the highest sensing accuracy can be achieved by the k-nearest neighbors (kNNs) and Bayesian inference algorithms, however, these algorithms can be computationally expensive for real-time applications. In contrast, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are computationally expensive to train (off-line), but they provide the fastest result under testing conditions (on-line) while remaining reasonably accurate. When access to data is limited, support vector machines (SVMs) can perform well even with small training sample sizes, while other algorithms show considerable reduction in accuracy if data is scarce, hence, setting a lower limit on the size of required training data. We also show by tracking and modeling the long-term drifts of the detector performance over a one year time-frame, it is possible to dramatically improve the predictive accuracy without any re-calibration. Our research shows for the first time that if the ML algorithm is chosen specific to the use-case, low-cost solution-processed cyber-nanomaterial detectors can be practically implemented under diverse operational requirements, despite their inherent variabilities.
A note on the Monge–Ampère type equations with general source terms
Authors: Qiu Weifeng , Tang Lan
Published: April 2020

In this paper we consider numerical approximation to the generalised solutions to the Monge–Ampère type equations with general source terms. We first give some important propositions for the border of generalised solutions. Then, for both the classical and weak Dirichlet boundary conditions, we present well-posed numerical methods for the generalised solutions with general source terms. Finally, we prove that the numerical solutions converge to the generalised solution.
Isometries of combinatorial Banach spaces
Authors: Brech C. , Ferenczi V. , Tcaciuc A.
Published: April 2020

We prove that every isometry between two combinatorial spaces is determined by a permutation of the canonical unit basis combined with a change of signs. As a consequence, we show that in the case of Schreier spaces, all the isometries are given by a change of signs of the elements of the basis. Our results hold for both the real and the complex cases.
Incompleteness and jump hierarchies
Authors: Lutz Patrick , Walsh James
Published: April 2020

This paper is an investigation of the relationship between Gödel’s second incompleteness theorem and the well-foundedness of jump hierarchies. It follows from a classic theorem of Spector that the relation

{
(
A
,
B
)
∈

R

2

:

O

A

≤
H

B
}

\{(A,B) \in \mathbb {R}^2 : \mathcal {O}^A \leq _H B\}

is well-founded. We provide an alternative proof of this fact that uses Gödel’s second incompleteness theorem instead of the theory of admissible ordinals. We then derive a semantic version of the second incompleteness theorem, originally due to Mummert and Simpson, from this result. Finally, we turn to the calculation of the ranks of reals in this well-founded relation. We prove that, for any

A
∈

R

A\in \mathbb {R}

, if the rank of

A
A

is

α
\alpha

, then

ω
1
A

\omega _1^A

is the

(
1
+
α
)

(1 + \alpha )

th admissible ordinal. It follows, assuming suitable large cardinal hypotheses, that, on a cone, the rank of

X
X

is

ω
1
X

\omega _1^X

.
End-point estimates, extrapolation for multilinear Muckenhoupt classes, and applications
Authors: Li Kangwei , Martell José , Martikainen Henri , Ombrosi Sheldy , Vuorinen Emil
Published: April 2020

In this paper we present the results announced in the recent work by the first, second, and fourth authors of the current paper concerning Rubio de Francia extrapolation for the so-called multilinear Muckenhoupt classes. Here we consider the situations where some of the exponents of the Lebesgue spaces appearing in the hypotheses and/or in the conclusion can be possibly infinity. The scheme we follow is similar, but, in doing so, we need to develop a one-variable end-point off-diagonal extrapolation result. This complements the corresponding “finite” case obtained by Duoandikoetxea, which was one of the main tools in the aforementioned paper. The second goal of this paper is to present some applications. For example, we obtain the full range of mixed-norm estimates for tensor products of bilinear Calderón-Zygmund operators with a proof based on extrapolation and on some estimates with weights in some mixed-norm classes. The same occurs with the multilinear Calderón-Zygmund operators, the bilinear Hilbert transform, and the corresponding commutators with BMO functions. Extrapolation along with the already established weighted norm inequalities easily give scalar and vector-valued inequalities with multilinear weights and these include the end-point cases.
Utilisation of general practice health assessments around an aged care assessment is associated with lower mortality risk in older Australians
Authors: Visvanathan Renuka , Amare Azmeraw T , Lang Catherine , Khadka Jyoti , Yu Solomon , Beilby Justin , Wesselingh Steve , Inacio Maria C
Published: April 2020

Objective

(i) to describe the general practitioner utilisation of health assessments, management plans, coordination of team care arrangements and medication review item numbers within 6 months of an aged care eligibility assessment for home care packages (HCP) and (ii) investigate the impact of health assessments on the risk of mortality and entry into permanent residential aged care (PRAC) of individuals accessing HCP.

Design and setting

retrospective cohort study utilising data from the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA) was conducted.

Subjects

75,172 individuals aged ≥75 years who received HCP between 2011 and 2015.

Outcome measure

for objective 1: the use of comprehensive assessments (Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items 705 or 707), management plans (MBS 721), coordination of team care arrangements (MBS 723), and medication reviews (MBS 900). For objective 2: time to death and entry into PRAC.

Results

of the 75,172 individuals, 28.2% (95% confidence interval (CI): 27.8–8.5%) had comprehensive assessments, 36.7% (95% CI: 36.3–37.0%) had management plans, 33.0% (95% CI: 32.7–33.3%) received coordination of team care arrangements and 5.4% (95% CI: 5.2–5.5%) had medication reviews. Individuals with a comprehensive assessment had a 5% lower risk of mortality (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR), 95% CI = 0.95, 0.92–0.98) but 5% higher risk of transition to PRAC (adjusted subdistribution HRs, 95% CI = 1.05, 1.02–1.08) compared to those who did not have these services.

Conclusion

the utilisation of health assessments was associated with a lower risk of mortality. There is an opportunity for increased use of item numbers in frailer individuals.
History of Early Childhood Infections and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Risk Among Children in a US Integrated Health-Care System
Authors: Morimoto Libby M , Kwan Marilyn L , Deosaransingh Kamala , Munneke Julie R , Kang Alice Y , Quesenberry Charles , Kogan Scott , de Smith Adam J , Metayer Catherine , Wiemels Joseph L
Published: April 2020

Surrogate measures of infectious exposures have been consistently associated with lower childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) risk. However, recent reports have suggested that physician-diagnosed early-life infections increase ALL risk, thereby raising the possibility that stronger responses to infections might promote risk. We examined whether medically diagnosed infections were related to childhood ALL risk in an integrated health-care system in the United States. Cases of ALL (n = 435) diagnosed between 1994–2014 among children aged 0–14 years, along with matched controls (n = 2,170), were identified at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate risk of ALL associated with history of infections during first year of life and across the lifetime (up to diagnosis). History of infection during first year of life was not associated with ALL risk (odds ratio (OR) = 0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.60, 1.21). However, infections with at least 1 medication prescribed (i.e., more “severe” infections) were inversely associated with risk (OR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.88). Similar associations were observed when the exposure window was expanded to include medication-prescribed infections throughout the subjects’ lifetime (OR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.32, 0.85).
Change in Balance Performance Predicts Neurocognitive Dysfunction and Symptom Endorsement in Concussed College Athletes
Authors: DaCosta Andrew , Crane Andrew , Webbe Frank , LoGalbo Anthony
Published: April 2020

Objective

Following concussion, there is an array of sequelae including symptom burden, neurocognitive dysfunction, and balance impairment. However, the magnitude of change in balance performance has yet to be explored fully regarding its relationship with neurocognitive functioning or symptom endorsement. The present study hypothesized that the magnitude of change in balance performance from baseline to post-trauma would have unique predictive power in identifying acute clinical outcomes.

Method

Sixty-eight college athletes completed annual preparticipation baseline testing and were later diagnosed with a concussion.

Results

Linear regressions determined that the magnitude of change in balance performance was a better predictor of neurocognitive dysfunction and endorsement of “balance problems” than post-trauma balance performance alone.

Conclusions

These findings highlight the importance of incorporating balance measurements during preparticipation baseline assessment.
Characterizing the Microbiome of the Contracted Breast Capsule Using Next Generation Sequencing
Authors: Cook Jonathan , Holmes Casey J , Wixtrom Roger , Newman Martin I , Pozner Jason N
Published: April 2020

Background

Recent work suggests that bacterial biofilms play a role in capsular contracture (CC). However, traditional culture techniques provide only a limited understanding of the bacterial communities present within the contracted breast. Next generation sequencing (NGS) represents an evolution of polymerase chain reaction technology that can sequence all DNA present in a given sample.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to utilize NGS to characterize the bacterial microbiome of the capsule in patients with CC following cosmetic breast augmentation.

Methods

We evaluated 32 consecutive patients with Baker grade III or IV CC following augmentation mammoplasty. Specimens were obtained from all contracted breasts (n = 53) during capsulectomy. Tissue specimens from contracted capsules as well as intraoperative swabs of the breast capsule and implant surfaces were obtained. Samples were sent to MicroGenDX Laboratories (Lubbock, TX) for NGS.

Results

Specimens collected from 18 of 32 patients (56%) revealed the presence of microbial DNA. The total number of positive samples was 22 of 53 (42%). Sequencing identified a total of 120 unique bacterial species and 6 unique fungal species. Specimens with microbial DNA yielded a mean [standard deviation] of 8.27 [4.8] microbial species per patient. The most frequently isolated species were Escherichia coli (25% of all isolates), Diaphorobacter nitroreducens (12%), Cutibacterium acnes (12%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (11%), fungal species (7%), and Staphylococcus aureus (6%).

Conclusions

NGS enables characterization of the bacterial ecosystem surrounding breast implants in unprecedented detail. This is a critical step towards understanding the role this microbiome plays in the development of CC.

Level of Evidence: 4
A Simple Alternative: A Minimal-Touch Technique for Placing Breast Implants
Authors: Molinar Vanessa , Chopra Karan , Gryskiewicz Joe
Published: April 2020

This is a single-surgeon experience detailing the senior author’s (J.G.) minimal-touch technique for placement of breast implants. Adams et al. 14-point plan has been incorporated into the technique, and the implant box paper cover sheet is used as a barrier between the patient and the implant near the incision during placement. Over a period of ten years, the senior author reports a less than 1% development in capsular contracture using this technique and no implant fractures. These findings elucidate the importance of describing this alternative technique to other barriers currently on the market.

Level of Evidence: 4
Phenotypic flexibility in background-mediated color change in sticklebacks
Authors: Tibblin Petter , Hall Marcus , Svensson P Andreas , Merilä Juha , Forsman Anders
Published: April 2020

Phenotypic flexibility may incur a selective advantage in changing and heterogeneous environments, and is increasingly recognized as an integral aspect of organismal adaptation. Despite the widespread occurrence and potential importance of rapid and reversible background-mediated color change for predator avoidance, knowledge gaps remain regarding its adaptive value, repeatability within individuals, phenotypic correlates, and whether its expression is context dependent. We used manipulative experiments to investigate these issues in two fish species, the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and nine-spined stickleback (Pungitius pungitius). We sequentially exposed individuals to dark and light visual background treatments, quantified color change from video recordings, and examined associations of color change with phenotypic dimensions that can influence the outcome of predator-prey interactions. G. aculeatus expressed a greater degree of color change compared to P. pungitius. In G. aculeatus, the color change response was repeatable within individuals. Moreover, the color change response was independent of body size but affected by sex and boldness, with males and bolder individuals changing less. Infection by the parasite Schistocephalus solidus did not affect the degree of color change, but it did modulate its association with sex and boldness. G. aculeatus adjusted the expression of color change in response to predation risk, with enhanced color change expression in individuals exposed to either simulated attacks, or olfactory cues from a natural predator. These results provide novel evidence on repeatability, correlated traits, and context dependence in the color change response and highlight how a suite of factors can contribute to individual variation in phenotypic flexibility.
HotSpot3D web server: an integrated resource for mutation analysis in protein 3D structures
Authors: Chen Shanyu , He Xiaoyu , Li Ruilin , Duan Xiaohong , Niu Beifang
Published: April 2020

Motivation

HotSpot3D is a widely used software for identifying mutation hotspots on the 3D structures of proteins. To further assist users, we developed a new HotSpot3D web server to make this software more versatile, convenient and interactive.

Results

The HotSpot3D web server performs data pre-processing, clustering, visualization and log-viewing on one stop. Users can interactively explore each cluster and easily re-visualize the mutational clusters within browsers. We also provide a database that allows users to search and visualize proximal mutations from 33 cancers in the Cancer Genome Atlas.

Availability and implementation

http://niulab.scgrid.cn/HotSpot3D/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Are Fluoroquinolones or Macrolides Better for Treating Legionella Pneumonia? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Authors: Jasper Annie S , Musuuza Jackson S , Tischendorf Jessica S , Stevens Vanessa W , Gamage Shantini D , Osman Fauzia , Safdar Nasia
Published: April 2020

Background

The Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends either a fluoroquinolone or a macrolide as a first-line antibiotic treatment for Legionella pneumonia, but it is unclear which antibiotic leads to optimal clinical outcomes. We compared the effectiveness of fluoroquinolone versus macrolide monotherapy in Legionella pneumonia using a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Methods

We conducted a systematic search of literature in PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception to 1 June 2019. Randomized controlled trials and observational studies comparing macrolide with fluoroquinolone monotherapy using clinical outcomes in patients with Legionella pneumonia were included. Twenty-one publications out of an initial 2073 unique records met the selection criteria. Following PRISMA guidelines, 2 reviewers participated in data extraction. The primary outcome was mortality. Secondary outcomes included clinical cure, time to apyrexia, length of hospital stay (LOS), and the occurrence of complications. The review and meta-analysis was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42019132901).

Results

Twenty-one publications with 3525 patients met inclusion criteria. The mean age of the population was 60.9 years and 67.2% were men. The mortality rate for patients treated with fluoroquinolones was 6.9% (104/1512) compared with 7.4% (133/1790) among those treated with macrolides. The pooled odds ratio assessing risk of mortality for patients treated with fluoroquinolones versus macrolides was 0.94 (95% confidence interval, .71–1.25, I2 = 0%, P = .661). Clinical cure, time to apyrexia, LOS, and the occurrence of complications did not differ for patients treated with fluoroquinolones versus macrolides.

Conclusions

We found no difference in the effectiveness of fluoroquinolones versus macrolides in reducing mortality among patients with Legionella pneumonia.
Health claims databases used for kidney research around the world
Authors: van Oosten Manon J M , Logtenberg Susan J J , Edens Mireille A , Hemmelder Marc H , Jager Kitty J , Bilo Henk J G , Stel Vianda S
Published: April 2020

Health claims databases offer opportunities for studies on large populations of patients with kidney disease and health outcomes in a non-experimental setting. Among others, their unique features enable studies on healthcare costs or on longitudinal, epidemiological data with nationwide coverage. However, health claims databases also have several limitations. Because clinical data and information on renal function are often lacking, the identification of patients with kidney disease depends on the actual presence of diagnosis codes only. Investigating the validity of these data is therefore crucial to assess whether outcomes derived from health claims data are truly meaningful. Also, one should take into account the coverage and content of a health claims database, especially when making international comparisons. In this article, an overview is provided of international health claims databases and their main publications in the area of nephrology. The structure and contents of the Dutch health claims database will be described, as well as an initiative to use the outcomes for research and the development of the Dutch Kidney Atlas. Finally, we will discuss to what extent one might be able to identify patients with kidney disease using health claims databases, as well as their strengths and limitations.
Capture stress and post-release mortality of blacktip sharks in recreational charter fisheries of the Gulf of Mexico
Authors: Mohan John A , Jones Elizabeth R , Hendon Jill M , Falterman Brett , Boswell Kevin M , Hoffmayer Eric R , Wells R J David
Published: April 2020

Understanding the stress responses of sharks to recreational catch and release fishing has important management and conservation implications. The blacktip shark Carcharhinus limbatus is a popular recreational species targeted throughout the western, central and eastern Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) yet it is unclear what levels of physiological stress result from catch-release fishing practices with hook and line gear and if the stress levels result in post-release mortality. This study correlates physiological response to stress through blood chemistry analysis and examines post-release behaviour of adult blacktip sharks caught to determine post-release mortality rates. Release behaviour was determined by pop-up satellite archival transmitting (PSAT) tags that record temperature, depth and light level data. To quantify physiological stress levels, blood samples were collected from 52 blacktip sharks and a suite of metabolic and osmotic markers were measured. Thirty-six of those blacktip sharks were also outfitted with a PSAT tag yielding time-at-large from 3 to 180 days. Of the 36 tags, 22 (61%) provided sufficient data to confirm post-release fate and 11 (31%) were recovered providing high-resolution data. Tag data suggests a post-release morality rate of 22.7% (95% confidence interval 7.8–45.4%), with mortality occurring within minutes (immediate mortality) to over 12 h post-release (delayed mortality). Compared to survivors, immediate mortalities exhibited significantly higher lactate (median 2.8 mmol/Lsurvivor vs 5.9 mmol/Limmediate mortality) and significantly lower hematocrit (median 24.4% survivor vs 14% immediate mortality) levels, but no difference was detected between survivors and delayed mortalities. Higher mortality in the western (30%) compared to the central (20%) Gulf may be due to shark handling. All PSATs from mortalities (N = 5) were recovered, and archived data revealed evidence of tag ingestion by predators. Results suggest reduced fight time, decreased handling time and limited air exposure provide blacktip sharks the best survival chances after release by recreational anglers.
Gene therapy for inherited arrhythmias
Authors: Bezzerides Vassilios J , Prondzynski Maksymilian , Carrier Lucie , Pu William T
Published: April 2020

Inherited arrhythmias are disorders caused by one or more genetic mutations that increase the risk of arrhythmia, which result in life-long risk of sudden death. These mutations either primarily perturb electrophysiological homeostasis (e.g. long QT syndrome and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia), cause structural disease that is closely associated with severe arrhythmias (e.g. hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), or cause a high propensity for arrhythmia in combination with altered myocardial structure and function (e.g. arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy). Currently available therapies offer incomplete protection from arrhythmia and fail to alter disease progression. Recent studies suggest that gene therapies may provide potent, molecularly targeted options for at least a subset of inherited arrhythmias. Here, we provide an overview of gene therapy strategies, and review recent studies on gene therapies for catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy caused by MYBPC3 mutations.
How to do LA strain
Authors: Voigt Jens-Uwe , Mălăescu Georgiana-Grațiela , Haugaa Kristina , Badano Luigi
Published: April 2020

Modern speckle tracking allows the assessment of atrial strain in the clinic. The approach is new, lacks standardization and the user might encounter several problems in its routine use. This article provides guidance on how avoid pitfalls and how to perform reliable and reproducible atrial strain measurements according to current recommendations.