bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Proteomics Analysis of Human Chorionic Villi Reveals Dysregulated Pathways That Contribute to Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
Authors: Davalieva Katarina , Bozhinovski Gjorgji , Kiprijanovska Sanja , Kubelka‐Sabit Katerina , Plaseska‐Karanfilska Dijana
Published: August 2024

Purpose

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) represents a common disorder with consequences on family and society. As more than half of the RPL cases do not have a clearly identified cause, uncovering the mechanisms behind the idiopathic RPL is urgently needed.

Experimental Design

Using label‐free data‐independent LC‐MS/MS acquisition coupled with ion mobility, we compared the proteome of chorionic villi from 13 RPL cases with 10 age and gestational week‐matched elective pregnancies. Transcriptional levels of selected candidate biomarkers were determined in chorionic villi of 35 RPL cases and 25 controls using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

Results

Statistically significant difference in abundance (Benjamini–Hochberg [B‐H] p ≤ 0.05) and fold change ≥1.5 showed 128 proteins. Bioinformatics analysis identified complement and coagulation cascades, platelet activation, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) cycle, and ferroptosis as pathways with the highest significance. Correlation with transcriptome datasets revealed a weak statistically significant positive correlation with 45% of the co‐differentially expressed proteins/genes displaying the same regulation trend. The transcription levels of neurofilament light polypeptide (NEFL), dihydrolipoyllysine‐residue succinyltransferase component of 2‐oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex_mitochondrial (DLST), nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3), and ceruloplasmin (CP) were significantly increased in the RPL, consistent with the proteomics findings.

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance

Our data suggests alteration of several pathways as potential causes of idiopathic RPL from the fetal side and opens the way for investigations concerning clinical management.
Effectiveness of physiotherapy rehabilitation approaches for Parkinson's disease: A Durrës case study
Authors: Zotaj Aida , Milloshi Rajmonda , Sokoli Selda , Doci Hariklie
Published: August 2024

Background and Purpose

The article's significance lies in the substantial rise in the risk of developing Parkinson's disease (PD), necessitating the exploration of various approaches to rehabilitation and medical treatment. The purpose of the article is to detect the direct effect of physiotherapy for patients with PD and to identify how it helps in slowing down cardio‐pulmonary failure, improving the posture, balance, bradykinesia and tremor.

Methods

The research utilised clinical data from 407 PD patients aged 30–100 years at the Central Polyclinic of Durrës, spanning 2011–2022, and included a systematic literature review and statistical analysis comparing physiotherapy outcomes with European Union standards.

Results

The research demonstrates the efficiency of physiotherapy in the short and long term in the treatment of PD for patients and medical personnel. All information can be used to increase the functional abilities of patients and minimise complications after physiotherapy and to estimate the effectiveness of different exercises in delaying PD. Older adults, particularly those aged 71–80, are most affected by PD, with males more likely to be diagnosed. Physiotherapy rehabilitation improves motor symptoms, posture, and balance in 30‐80‐year‐olds, but its effectiveness declines with age. Advanced rehabilitation methods in Italy lead to better outcomes, suggesting the potential for improvement in Durres disease.

Conclusions

The study emphasises the need for improved rehabilitation strategies for older patients by recommending tailored programs, advanced methods, standardisation, training, and long‐term monitoring. Further research should concentrate on the long‐term sustainability of physiotherapy benefits, the development of targeted interventions for older patients, and the integration of innovative therapeutic approaches.
Viewing science teacher learning and curriculum enactment through the lens of theory of practice architectures
Authors: Fazio Xavier , Kemmis Stephen , Zugic Jessica
Published: August 2024

Science teachers struggle to implement and sustain new curricular ideas from professional development (PD) experiences. These PD opportunities are crucial for enacting real‐world changes to teaching practice and address pressing global challenges, such as the teaching and learning of socioscientific topics nested in school communities. Additionally, it is important to consider how school situative conditions are an important aspect in how science teachers learn, develop, and enact curricular practices in their classrooms. This paper is part of a special issue on Teacher Learning and Practice within Organizational Contexts. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to illustrate how researchers can frame research using the theory of practice architectures (TPA) as a lens to develop a dynamic socio‐material understanding of teacher learning within teachers' working environments and their local school communities. An ongoing multi‐year professional learning study with science teachers in an elementary school and secondary school was analyzed using TPA. Using a philosophical‐empirical approach, observations from PD sessions and collaborative meetings illustrated teachers' practices in the form of sayings, doings, and relatings and their changes over the duration of the observations with associated modifications in schools' practice architectures. Although specific school conditions, such as timetable restrictions and curriculum accountability, constrained teachers' practices they were still enabled to learn and develop their practices. Overall, TPA was found to be an insightful framework for theorizing changes in science teaching practices of teachers' saying, doings, and relatings at their school sites. Future research focused on PD within schools would benefit from using a TPA approach to theorizing science teacher learning and curriculum enactment practices.
Do we have the capacity? The policy imperative for equity‐focused K‐12 computer science education
Authors: Marshall Stefanie L. , Grooms Ain A. , Childs Joshua
Published: August 2024

Access to computer science education (CSEd) has greatly expanded in recent years. Starting with the Computer Science for All Initiative, launched in 2016 under President Obama, CSEd has expanded across the U.S. with over half of high schools offering at least one computer science course. Although there has been growth in computer science course offerings, disparities exist when it comes to ‘who’ enrolls in CSEd courses, and ‘where’ those courses are being offered. These disparities highlight that while funding and support for CSEd has increased, little is known about the capacity of states to operationalize (and implement) policies to achieve equitable CSEd. Furthermore, how recent changes at the federal and state level(s) are directly impacting minoritized populations' access, participation, and engagement in CSEd. This commentary focuses on the state‐level capacity to implement equity‐focused CSEd policies that can lead to improvements in student opportunities and outcomes. We argue that state CSEd leaders engage at the intersection of four areas: (1) growing state investment in CSEd, (2) increasingly polarizing political environments, (3) securing human and fiscal resources to implement CSEd policy with fidelity, and (4) supporting Culturally Responsive Computing that sustains equitable teaching and learning practices in schools and classrooms. This commentary also serves as a Call to Action for STEM education researchers to listen closely and carefully to the communities served by CSEd research, including students, families, and educators.
Shifting from education to learning: Leadership learning framework
Authors: Guthrie Kathy L. , Jenkins Daniel M.
Published: August 2024

This article provides an overview of the leadership learning framework (LLF) and insight into how this framework was developed. The shift from focusing on teaching to the learning of leadership to developing programs in both curricular and co‐curricular spaces is amplified in this model. The six aspects of the LLF are discussed using a steering wheel as a metaphor. The article also shares how LLF has been applied in various ways to continue to reflect the evolving landscape of leadership education.
Leadership knowledge in practice: Reimagining pedagogy, application, and assessment
Authors: Daniels Michael , Perkins Joshua
Published: August 2024

Leadership learning frequently overemphasizes teaching, while undervaluing how students acquire leadership knowledge, skills, and abilities (Barr & Tagg, 1995; Fink, 2013). This article discusses the value of grounding leadership learning processes in a framework unique to leadership learning (Guthrie & Jenkins, 2018). Specifically, we advocate for the leadership learning framework (LLF) with an emphasis on leadership knowledge in practice. The authors share an overview of a practical approach toward leadership learning and offer a praxis model. Additionally, we offer a critical analysis of several instructional and assessment strategies, including peer facilitations, classroom learning, and rubrics. We share recommendations and implications for practice around leadership knowledge in pedagogical practice. Lastly, the authors provide their own examples of leadership knowledge in practice from their work.
“I know what I don't know”: Metacognition in leadership learning
Authors: Volpe‐White Jillian
Published: August 2024

Metacognition, or having an awareness of one's thought processes, is an integral part of learning. Fostering metacognitive abilities enhances self‐awareness and the ability of learners to engage with complexity. Metacognition underscores all aspects of leadership learning, including knowledge, development, training, observation, and engagement. Educators develop metacognitive abilities through explicitly teaching metacognitive skills, scaffolding learning, and engaging critical perspectives. As leadership educators develop metacognitive abilities and incorporate learning about metacognition in curricular and co‐curricular settings, the field of leadership education amplifies opportunities for learners to facilitate positive and sustainable change.
Representing Migration
Authors: Englund Lena
Published: August 2024

Representation is a central theme of this book, addressed in all chapters in multiple ways, and introduced here in relation to a novel which received significant backlash upon publication: Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt (2019). Central questions concern who can and should write stories of migration and in what contexts, and the controversy surrounding the novel also raises concerns about biases of the publishing industry and the limited representation of authors from various ethnic and racial backgrounds, in this case, writers who define themselves as Latin American/Latinx. The reception of the novel is contrasted against another text, Roberto Lovato’s Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas (2020), which has been favourably received. Findings indicate that autobiographical representations of migration are seen, by critics and researchers alike, as more suitable and desirable than purely fictional stories, particularly if the writer has no personal experience of migration.
Efficient Code Region Characterization Through Automatic Performance Counters Reduction Using Machine Learning Techniques
Authors: Harutyunyan Suren , César Eduardo , Sikora Anna , Filipovič Jiří , Dutta Akash , Jannesari Ali , Alcaraz Jordi
Published: August 2024

Leveraging hardware performance counters provides valuable insights into system resource utilization, aiding performance analysis and tuning for parallel applications. The available counters vary with architecture and are collected at execution time. Their abundance and the limited number of registers for measurement make gathering laborious and costly. Efficient characterization of parallel regions necessitates a dimension reduction strategy. While recent efforts have focused on manually reducing the number of counters for specific architectures, this paper introduces a novel approach: an automatic dimension reduction technique for efficiently characterizing parallel code regions across diverse architectures. The methodology is based on Machine Learning ensembles because of their precision and ability at capturing different relationships between the input features and the target variables. Evaluation results show that ensembles can successfully reduce the number of hardware performance counters that characterize a code region. We validate our approach on CPUs using a comprehensive dataset of OpenMP regions, showing that any region can be accurately characterized by 8 relevant hardware performance counters. In addition, we also apply the proposed methodology on GPUs using a reduced set of kernels, demonstrating its effectiveness across various hardware configurations and workloads.
Inference with Transformer Encoders on ARM and RISC-V Multicore Processors
Authors: Martínez Héctor , Igual Francisco D. , Rodríguez-Sánchez Rafael , Catalán Sandra , Castelló Adrián , Quintana-Ortí Enrique S.
Published: August 2024

We delve into the performance of transformer encoder inference on low-power multi-core processors from two perspectives: First, we conduct a detailed profile of the inference process for two members of the BERT family on a modern multi-core processor, identifying the main bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement. Second, we propose a number of accumulative optimisations for their primary building blocks. For that, we elaborate our own implementation of the general matrix multiplication (), which dynamically tunes several key parameters yielding relevant performance gains for transformer encoders. Additionally, we introduce a number of strategies to also improve the parallel execution of the transformer block.

Our implementations for ARMv8a and RISC-V multi-core processors with SIMD units, taking as a reference state-of-the-art implementations (BLIS for ARM and OpenBLAS for RISC-V) reveal accelerations of up to $$2.5\times $$

2.5
×

for natural language processing tasks.
Optimizing Communication for Latency Sensitive HPC Applications on up to 48 FPGAs Using ACCL
Authors: Meyer Marius , Kenter Tobias , Petrica Lucian , O’Brien Kenneth , Blott Michaela , Plessl Christian
Published: August 2024

Most FPGA boards in the HPC domain are well-suited for parallel scaling because of the direct integration of versatile and high-throughput network ports. However, the utilization of their network capabilities is often challenging and error-prone because the whole network stack and communication patterns have to be implemented and managed on the FPGAs. Also, this approach conceptually involves a trade-off between the performance potential of improved communication and the impact of resource consumption for communication infrastructure, since the utilized resources on the FPGAs could otherwise be used for computations. In this work, we investigate this trade-off, firstly, by using synthetic benchmarks to evaluate the different configuration options of the communication framework ACCL and their impact on communication latency and throughput. Finally, we use our findings to implement a shallow water simulation whose scalability heavily depends on low-latency communication. With a suitable configuration of ACCL, good scaling behavior can be shown to all 48 FPGAs installed in the system. Overall, the results show that the availability of inter-FPGA communication frameworks as well as the configurability of framework and network stack are crucial to achieve the best application performance with low latency communication.
Comparison of clinical parameters of peri-implantitis and parameters related to tissue macrophage sensitization on TiO2
Authors: Sahrmann Philipp , Tartsch Jens , Schmidlin Patrick R.
Published: August 2024

Objective

Dental implants show impressive survival and like rates, but peri-implantitis is a frequent inflammatory disease which affects the implant-surrounding tissues. While biofilms on the implant surface is considered its etiologic reason, several risk factors determine the pace of progression of peri-implant bone loss. Some risk factors are generally accepted while others are still unconfirmed and a matter of ongoing discussion. Among the latter, tissue macrophage sensitization on TiO2 has gained scientific interest in recent years. The aim of the present case-control study was to test for potential associations between clinically manifest peri-implantitis and MS related parameters.

Materials and methods

In patients with implants affected by peri-implantitis in the test group and healthy implants in the control group clinical parameters (peri-implant pocket depths (PPD) and bleeding on probing (BOP) were measured. Samples of aMMP-8 were taken from the entrance of the peri-implant sulcus and bacterial samples were collected from the sulcus. Blood samples were obtained from the basilic vein to assess MA-related laboratory parameters. Potential correlations between clinical and laboratory parameters were tested by multiple regression (p < 0.05).

Results

No statistically significant correlations were found between clinical or bacteriological findings and laboratory parameters were found.

Conclusions

Based on the findings of this study elevated MA-related laboratory parameters do not appear to be linked to peri-implantitis.

Clinical relevance

Sensitization on TiO2 is not associated with clinical symptoms of peri-implantitis.
Comparative analysis of volumetric changes between resection volume of oral tongue cancer and post operative volume of radial forearm flaps
Authors: Zirk Matthias , Niknazemi Mina , Riekert Maximilian , Kreppel Matthias , Linz Christian , Lentzen Max-Philipp
Published: August 2024

Objectives

This study investigates the relationship between the total volume of oral tongue cancer pre-operatively and the RFFF volume post-operatively.

Materials and methods

A total of 52 DICOM imaging datasets (CT or MRI) of 26 patients were included in this study. The volume of the desired structure was quantified using semi-automatic segmentation using the software ITK-SNAP. All extracted measurements were validated by two further clinicians at separate instances.

Results

The variation of MeanVolTu can be predicted by MeanVolFlap moderately reliable with 59.1% confidence (R-Qua: 0.591). ANOVA Testing to represent how well the regression line fits the data, resulted in the overall regression model being statistically significant in predicting the MeanVolTu (p < 0.001). The flap volume may be predicted using the following algorithm: MeanVolFlap0 = 3241,633 + 1, 322 * MeanVolTu.

Conclusion

The results of this study show positive correlation between tumor volume and flap volume, highlighting the significance of efficient flap planning with increasing tumor volume. A larger extraction volume of the radial forearm free flap from the donor site compromises the forearm more, thus increasing the probability of post-operative complications.

Clinical relevance

Radial forearm free flap design in accordance with its corresponding 3D tumor volume.
The contribution of traditional-homegardens to bird conservation in human-modified landscapes
Authors: Vargas-Cárdenas Fredy , Navarro-Sigüenza Adolfo G. , Ceccon Eliane
Published: August 2024

Traditional-homegardens are important for the food security, economy, and culture of rural communities, but also contributing to biodiversity conservation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the role of traditional-homegardens as a refuge for birds, how the birds used them, and which of their attributes were associated with the frequency of bird visits. We compared the percentage of visits among groups of birds by habitat preference. Also, we compared the frequency of visits to different vegetation strata and the use that birds made within traditional-homegardens (forage, perching or nesting). Finally, we analyzed the relationship between the number of visits and some characteristics of the traditional-homegardens (size area, richness of large plants and distance to the nearest forest fragment). Birds visited different vegetation stratum of traditional-homegardens to perch, to forage, and even to nest. In general, we found that larger traditional-homegardens area increased the number of bird visits, while distance to the native forest fragments and the species richness of large plants did not have significant effects. Insectivores and frugivores had a similar pattern to the general; to the granivores, the distance to the forest fragment had a positive effect on the number of visits; to the omnivores, the species richness of large plants had negative effect, to the nectarivores, none of the variables had a significant effect. Overall, this study sheds light on the significance of traditional-homegardens not only for human communities but also for biodiversity conservation by providing valuable habitats for a variety of bird species.
Leveraging local habitat suitability models to enhance restoration benefits for species of conservation concern
Authors: Shyvers Jessica E. , Van Schmidt Nathan D. , Saher D. Joanne , Heinrichs Julie A. , O’Donnell Michael S. , Aldridge Cameron L.
Published: August 2024

Efforts to restore habitats and conserve wildlife species face many challenges that are exacerbated by limited funding and resources. Habitat restoration actions are often conducted across a range of habitat conditions, with limited information available to predict potential outcomes among local sites and identify those that may lead to the greatest returns on investment. Using the Gunnison sage-grouse (Centrocercus minimus) as a case study, we leveraged existing resource selection function models to identify areas of high restoration potential across landscapes with variable habitat conditions and habitat-use responses. We also tested how this information could be used to improve restoration planning. We simulated change in model covariates across crucial habitats for a suite of restoration actions to generate heatmaps of relative habitat suitability improvement potential, then assessed the degree to which use of these heatmaps to guide placement of restoration actions could improve suitability outcomes. We also simulated new or worsening plant invasions and projected the resulting loss or degradation of habitats across space. We found substantial spatial variation in projected changes to habitat suitability and new habitat created, both across and among crucial habitats. Use of our heatmaps to target placement of restoration actions improved habitat suitability nearly fourfold and increased new habitat created more than 15-fold, compared to placements unguided by heatmaps. Our decision-support products identified areas of high restoration potential across landscapes with variable habitat conditions and habitat-use responses. We demonstrate their utility for strategic targeting of habitat restoration actions, facilitating optimal allocation of limited management resources to benefit species of conservation concern.
Outcomes from low-risk ductal carcinoma in situ: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Chen Qian , Campbell Ian , Elwood Mark , Cavadino Alana , Aye Phyu Sin , Tin Tin Sandar
Published: August 2024

Purpose

The current standard of treatment for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is surgery with or without adjuvant radiotherapy. With a growing debate about overdiagnosis and overtreatment of low-risk DCIS, active surveillance is being explored in several ongoing trials. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the recurrence of low-risk DCIS under various treatment approaches.

Methods

PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane were searched for studies reporting ipsilateral breast tumour event (IBTE), contralateral breast cancer (CBC), and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) rates at 5 and 10 years in low-risk DCIS. The primary outcome was invasive IBTE (iIBTE) defined as invasive progression in the ipsilateral breast.

Results

Thirty three eligible studies were identified, involving 47,696 women with low-risk DCIS. The pooled 5-year and 10-year iIBTE rates were 3.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.3, 8.1) and 5.9% (95% CI: 3.8, 9.0), respectively. The iIBTE rates were significantly lower in patients who underwent surgery compared to those who did not, at 5 years (3.5% vs. 9.0%, P = 0.003) and 10 years (6.4% vs. 22.7%, P = 0.008). Similarly, the 10-year BCSS rate was higher in the surgery group (96.0% vs. 99.6%, P = 0.010). In patients treated with breast-conserving surgery, additional radiotherapy significantly reduced IBTE risk, but not total-CBC risk.

Conclusion

This review showed a lower risk of progression and better survival in women who received surgery and additional RT for low-risk DCIS. However, our findings were primarily based on observational studies, and should be confirmed with the results from the ongoing trials.
What Happens When Your Hand is in My Pocket: The Foreign Policy Effects of China’s Foreign Direct Investment in Africa
Authors: Ndofor Hermann Achidi , Jones Carla D. , Li Mengge
Published: August 2024

This study utilizes social exchange theory to argue that a more complete picture of the effects of China’s FDI in Africa needs to include non-economic factors, especially institutional forces that incorporate macro political considerations. We propose that economic dependencies created by China’s FDI in Africa are reciprocated by votes in international organizations, and thus, we hypothesize and test that increasing China’s FDI in African nations leads to increased political alignment in international affairs with those African nations. The proposed relationship, however, will be weakened for African countries with stronger governance mechanisms. Using data for China’s FDI in African countries from 2001–2019, we find support for our hypotheses. We find that China’s economic engagement in Africa has resulted in increased political alignment on international issues evidenced by votes in United Nations organizations raising the possibility Africa’s most attractive resource may not be economic, but rather political. This, however, poses the question of whether votes are a ‘resource’ that can be traded for economic purposes.
Generative AI chatbots in higher education: a review of an emerging research area
Authors: McGrath Cormac , Farazouli Alexandra , Cerratto-Pargman Teresa
Published: August 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots trained on large language models are an example of generative AI which brings promises and threats to the higher education sector. In this study, we examine the emerging research area of AI chatbots in higher education (HE), focusing specifically on empirical studies conducted since the release of ChatGPT. Our review includes 23 research articles published between December 2022 and December 2023 exploring the use of AI chatbots in HE settings. We take a three-pronged approach to the empirical data. We first examine the state of the emerging field of AI chatbots in HE. Second, we identify the theories of learning used in the empirical studies on AI chatbots in HE. Third, we scrutinise the discourses of AI in HE framing the latest empirical work on AI chatbots. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the eclectic state of the nascent research area of AI chatbots in HE, the lack of common conceptual groundings about human learning, and the presence of both dystopian and utopian discourses about the future role of AI chatbots in HE.
3D printing flexible Ga-doped ZnO films for wearable energy harvesting: thermoelectric and piezoelectric nanogenerators
Authors: Lemine Aicha S. , Bhadra Jolly , Sadasivuni Kishor Kumar , Popelka Anton , Yempally Swathi , Ahmad Zubair , Al-Thani Noora J. , Hasan Anwarul
Published: August 2024

The 3D printing of energy harvesters using earth-abundant and non-toxic elements promotes energy sustainability and market competitiveness. The semiconducting behavior and non-centrosymmetric wurtzite crystal structure of gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO) films make them attractive for thermoelectric and piezoelectric nanogenerators. This study investigates the thermal, structural, mechanical, thermoelectric, and piezoelectric properties of 3D-printed GZO nanocomposite films. Thermal analysis demonstrates the stability of the nanocomposite film up to 230 °C, making it suitable for wearable energy harvesters. The crystalline structure of the nanocomposite film aligns with the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO and displays a bulk-like microstructure with a uniform distribution of elements. The presence of Ga 2p, Zn 2p, O 1 s, and C 1 s core levels confirms the development of the nanocomposite film, characterized by a fine granular structure and a conductive domain compared to the neat resin film. The inclusion of GZO nanofillers tailors the stress–strain behavior of the nanocomposite film, enhancing flexibility. The 3D-printed GZO nanocomposite films demonstrate a promising thermoelectric power factor and piezoelectric power densities, along with mechanical flexibility and thermal stability. These advancements hold significant potential for wearable and hybrid energy generation technologies.
Health Behaviors and Experiences of LGBTQ + Individuals during 2022 Mpox Outbreak: Findings from the QVax Study
Authors: Krause Kristen D. , Lewis Kendra , Scrofani Stephan , Guo Tiffany Y. , Goulbourne Davin , Halkitis Perry N.
Published: August 2024

The 2022 global outbreak of Mpox (formerly named Monkeypox) disproportionately impacted lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) populations, with a significant impact on sexual minority men. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among LGBTQ + adults living in New Jersey and New York to examine vaccination behaviors for Mpox. We sought out to understand the health experiences and behaviors of the population during the initial outbreak. This analysis included a subset of participants (n = 253) who completed the survey after the onset of the Mpox outbreak in May 2022. We examined awareness of and concerns about Mpox, willingness to vaccinate, as well as vaccination access and vaccination uptake. Our findings indicate that white, cisgender, gay men, as well as employed individuals, had the highest rates of vaccination for Mpox. Those with higher levels of concern about the virus were both more likely to be vaccinated and to report difficulty securing an appointment. Overall, our findings reinforce the health disparities in the population, demonstrating as with many other health conditions that white and economically stable individuals have advantages in accessing care.
A Multigrid Solver for PDE-Constrained Optimization with Uncertain Inputs
Authors: Ciaramella Gabriele , Nobile Fabio , Vanzan Tommaso
Published: August 2024

In this manuscript, we present a collective multigrid algorithm to solve efficiently the large saddle-point systems of equations that typically arise in PDE-constrained optimization under uncertainty, and develop a novel convergence analysis of collective smoothers and collective two-level methods. The multigrid algorithm is based on a collective smoother that at each iteration sweeps over the nodes of the computational mesh, and solves a reduced saddle-point system whose size is proportional to the number N of samples used to discretized the probability space. We show that this reduced system can be solved with optimal O(N) complexity. The multigrid method is tested both as a stationary method and as a preconditioner for GMRES on three problems: a linear-quadratic problem, possibly with a local or a boundary control, for which the multigrid method is used to solve directly the linear optimality system; a nonsmooth problem with box constraints and $$L^1$$

L
1

-norm penalization on the control, in which the multigrid scheme is used as an inner solver within a semismooth Newton iteration; a risk-averse problem with the smoothed CVaR risk measure where the multigrid method is called within a preconditioned Newton iteration. In all cases, the multigrid algorithm exhibits excellent performances and robustness with respect to the parameters of interest.
Mobile Apps for Wound Assessment and Monitoring: Limitations, Advancements and Opportunities
Authors: Kabir Muhammad Ashad , Samad Sabiha , Ahmed Fahmida , Naher Samsun , Featherston Jill , Laird Craig , Ahmed Sayed
Published: August 2024

With the proliferation of wound assessment apps across various app stores and the increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare apps, there is a growing need for a comprehensive evaluation system. Current apps lack sufficient evidence-based reliability, prompting the necessity for a systematic assessment. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the wound assessment and monitoring apps, identify limitations, and outline opportunities for future app development. An electronic search across two major app stores (Google Play store, and Apple App Store) was conducted and the selected apps were rated by three independent raters. A total of 170 apps were discovered, and 10 were selected for review based on a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. By modifying existing scales, an app rating scale for wound assessment apps is created and used to evaluate the selected ten apps. Our rating scale evaluates apps’ functionality and software quality characteristics. Most apps in the app stores, according to our evaluation, do not meet the overall requirements for wound monitoring and assessment. All the apps that we reviewed are focused on practitioners and doctors. According to our evaluation, the app ImitoWound got the highest mean score of 4.24. But this app has 7 criteria among our 11 functionalities criteria. Finally, we have recommended future opportunities to leverage advanced techniques, particularly those involving artificial intelligence, to enhance the functionality and efficacy of wound assessment apps. This research serves as a valuable resource for future developers and researchers seeking to enhance the design of wound assessment-based applications, encompassing improvements in both software quality and functionality.
Adjustment trade-offs and negative emotion reciprocation in adolescent-mother dyads during COVID-19
Authors: Wong Natalie , Hawk Skyler T.
Published: August 2024

Adolescents may benefit socially from family members’ negative emotional reciprocation (e.g., having levels of concern about a certain thing that match with another family member), but excessive focus on their own anxiety can lead to negative outcomes. To date, implications of this ‘trade-off’ in adolescent-parent dyads (e.g., Rose in Child Development Perspectives 15(3):176–181 2021) for youth adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic remain largely unexplored. During the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Hong Kong (September 2020 to April 2021), 349 first-year university students from varying socioeconomic backgrounds and following diverse study majors (T1 Madolescent age = 18.2 years, 60.3% female) and their mothers gave bi-weekly reports of COVID-related preoccupation, negative affect, and perceived relational support from their dyad partner (5183 observations over 16 assessments). Multilevel response surface analyses tested whether congruence in COVID preoccupation between mothers and adolescents predicted relationship quality and negative affect over time. Results suggested that negative emotion reciprocation had ‘trade-off’ effects for adolescents’ adjustment. Youth who matched high levels of COVID preoccupation with mothers reported the most relational support but also reported higher negative affect than youth with lower levels of COVID preoccupation. Mothers’ reported support from adolescents was not related to either mothers’ or adolescents’ preoccupation. Mothers’ negative affect was only associated with their own COVID preoccupation. Our findings suggest that adolescents may have derived some benefit from adolescent-mother negative emotion reciprocation, whereas mothers did not. The absence of trade-off effects in mothers may be linked to Chinese cultural norms of preserving the hierarchical family structure, such that the negative emotion reciprocation process in Chinese adolescent-mother dyads might be more adolescent-focused, i.e., revolving around the adolescents’ distress rather than the parents’.
La poesía de Quevedo al margen del Parnaso: hacia una edición crítica y anotada de la “musa décima”
Authors: Alonso Veloso María José
Published: August 2024

This article characterises Quevedo's “musa décima”, his poetry not included in the posthumous editions, in order to deepen its features and to consider the future critical edition of the whole. The limits of the corpus are still blurred, due to the abundance of poems of doubtful attribution. After a brief contextualisation in the complex transmission of Golden Age poetry, the catalogue of poems, their textual sources and outstanding literary features are dealt with: jocular matter and antigongorism, burlesque sylvas and poems of praise, which situate the author at the beginning of his career. Unveiling this “peripheral” corpus will have an impact on the “nuclear” poetry of Quevedo.
Effect of Bond Coating Surface Morphology on the TBC System Lifetime
Authors: Hervier S. , Desagulier M.-M. , Monceau D.
Published: August 2024

A study on the effect of bond coating (BC) surface modifications prior to ceramic deposition is presented. Grit blasting and polishing were used to modify the BC surface finish. Thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems were made of a commercial yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) deposited by electron beam physical vapor deposition on a β-(Ni,Pt)Al-coated Ni-based single crystal superalloy. Surface roughness measurements and scanning electron microscopy observations, before and after thermal cycling at 1100 °C, were performed to investigate the influence of the initial surface treatment on the YSZ/BC interface morphology and top coat spallation resistance. Surface states enhancing TBC spallation resistance have been found. In particular, it is shown that rumpling can be avoided even in the presence of phase transformations in the BC, by grinding samples with P600 SiC paper or by applying an “heavy” grit blasting leading to a thinner BC.
The Making of Pragma-Dialectics: A Synopsis
Authors: van Eemeren Frans H. , van Haaften Ton
Published: August 2024

In ‘The Making of Pragma-Dialectics: A Synopsis’ the authors give an overview of the pragma-dialectical argumentation theory. First they characterize the five components of the research program: critical rationalistic philosophy, pragma-dialectical theory, qualitative and quantitative empirical research, resolution-oriented reconstructive analysis, reflection-minded practical intervention. Then they explain the four metatheoretical principles underlying the pragma-dialectical research: functionalization, socialization, externalization, and dialectification. Next the various phases in the systematic development of pragma-dialectics in the past 50 years are described: (1) conceptualization of the theoretical framework, (2) validation of the theoretical proposals, (3) empiricalization of the research efforts, (4) instrumentalization of the reconstructive analysis, (5) extension of the standard theory, (6) contextualization of the extended theory. In conclusion, a further explanation is given of the pragmadialectical approach of the crucial relationship between dialectical reasonableness and rhetorical effectiveness.
Warpage evaluation and mechanical characterisation of modified polyamide-6 specimens produced by Arburg plastic freeformer
Authors: Porcaro Rita , Fontana Francesco , Ciotti Michele , Mele Mattia , Pisaneschi Gregorio , Campana Giampaolo , Zucchelli Andrea , Fiorini Maurizio
Published: August 2024

In injection moulding and additive manufacturing processes, it is common for the final product to exhibit warpage induced by a non-uniform cooling rate after material deposition. Residual stresses can be generated in the built parts, with a volume shrinkage that leads to dimensional inaccuracy and reduced usability. This phenomenon is even amplified in the presence of semi-crystalline polymers, which still need to be more widespread among additive manufacturing processes despite their capacity to show better mechanical properties when compared to amorphous ones. This study evaluates the degree of deformation and subsequently characterises the mechanical properties of a novel modified Polyamide 6 formulation (i.e., RADILON® S X21351 NT) printed through the Arburg Plastic Freeforming process. This new proprietary formulation modified the crystallisation behaviour during cooling. The whole exothermic crystallisation peak was shifted to lower temperatures, allowing the processing envelope of the modified formulation to widen. More specifically, after preliminary polymer characterisation analyses and after evaluating the warpage, a mechanical characterisation was performed using tensile tests on specimens (dry-as-moulded and conditioned) printed with different filling strategies on the build platform (XY-0°; XY- ± 45°; XY-90°; ZX-0°). Measured mechanical properties were ultimately compared to those achieved by applying the injection moulding technique on the same non-modified material. The specimens produced through the Arburg Plastic Freeforming process showed brittle behaviour that was more marked than those obtained by injection moulding. Moreover, the infill direction and water content significantly influenced the mechanical properties of specimens.
Model Biases in Simulating Extreme Sea Ice Loss Associated With the Record January 2022 Arctic Cyclone
Authors: Blanchard‐Wrigglesworth Edward , Brenner Samuel , Webster Melinda , Horvat Chris , Foss Øyvind , Bitz Cecilia M.
Published: August 2024

In January 2022, the strongest Arctic cyclone on record resulted in a record weekly loss in sea ice cover in the Barents‐Kara‐Laptev seas. While ECMWF operational forecasts skillfully predicted the cyclone, the loss in sea ice was poorly predicted. We explore the ocean's response to the cyclone using observations from an Argo float that was profiling in the region, and investigate model biases in simulating the observed sea ice loss in a fully coupled GCM. The observations showed changes over the whole ocean column in the Barents Sea after the passage of the storm, cooling and mixing with enough implied heat release to melt roughly 1 m of sea ice. We replicate the observed cyclone in the GCM by nudging the model's winds to observations above the boundary layer. In these simulations, the associated loss of sea ice is only about 10%–15% of the observed loss, and the ocean exhibits very small changes in response to the cyclone. With the use of a simple 1‐D ice‐ocean model, we find that the overly strong ocean stratification in the GCM may be a significant source of model bias in its simulated response to the cyclone. However, even initialized with observed stratification profiles, the 1‐D model also underestimated mixing and sea ice melt relative to the observations.
Neuromonitoring practices for neonates with congenital heart disease: a scoping review
Authors: Pardo Andrea C. , Carrasco Melisa , Wintermark Pia , Nunes Denise , Chock Valerie Y. , Sen Shawn , Wusthoff Courtney J. ,   On behalf of the Newborn Brain Society, Guidelines and Publications Committee, Bonifacio Sonia , Aly Hany , Chau Vann , Glass Hannah , Lemmon Monica , deVeber Gabrielle , Boardman James P. , Gano Dawn , Peeples Eric , Leijser Lara M. , Nakwa Firdose , Selvanathan Thiviya
Published: August 2024

Neonates with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at risk for adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. This scoping review summarizes neuromonitoring methods in neonates with CHD. We identified 84 studies investigating the use of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) (n = 37), electroencephalography (EEG) (n = 20), amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) (n = 10), transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD) (n = 6), and multimodal monitoring (n = 11). NIRS was used to evaluate cerebral oxygenation, identify risk thresholds and adverse events in the intensive care unit (ICU), and outcomes. EEG was utilized to screen for seizures and to predict adverse outcomes. Studies of aEEG have focused on characterizing background patterns, detecting seizures, and outcomes. Studies of TCD have focused on correlation with short-term clinical outcomes. Multimodal monitoring studies characterized cerebral physiologic dynamics. Most of the studies were performed in single centers, had a limited number of neonates (range 3–183), demonstrated variability in neuromonitoring practices, and lacked standardized approaches to neurodevelopmental testing. We identified areas of improvement for future research: (1) large multicenter studies to evaluate developmental correlates of neuromonitoring practices; (2) guidelines to standardize neurodevelopmental testing methodologies; (3) research to address geographic variation in resource utilization; (4) integration and synchronization of multimodal monitoring; and (5) research to establish a standardized framework for neuromonitoring techniques across diverse settings.

Impact

This scoping review summarizes the literature regarding neuromonitoring practices in neonates with congenital heart disease (CHD).

The identification of low cerebral oxygenation thresholds with NIRS may be used to identify neonates at risk for adverse events in the ICU or adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Postoperative neuromonitoring with continuous EEG screening for subclinical seizures and status epilepticus, allow for early and appropriate therapy.

Future studies should focus on enrolling larger multicenter cohorts of neonates with CHD with a standardized framework of neuromonitoring practices in this population.

Postoperative neurodevelopmental testing should utilize standard assessments and testing intervals.