bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Understanding pretreatment loss to follow-up of tuberculosis patients: an explanatory qualitative study in Chennai, India
Authors: Thomas Beena E , Suresh Chandra , Lavanya J , Lindsley Mika M , Galivanche Amith T , Sellappan Senthil , Ovung Senthanro , Aravind Amritha , Lincy Savari , Raja Agnes Lawrence , Kokila S , Javeed B , Arumugam S , Mayer Kenneth H , Swaminathan Soumya , Subbaraman Ramnath
Published: March 2020

Introduction

Pretreatment loss to follow-up (PTLFU)—dropout of patients after diagnosis but before treatment registration—is a major gap in tuberculosis (TB) care in India and globally. Patient and healthcare worker (HCW) perspectives are critical for developing interventions to reduce PTLFU.

Methods

We tracked smear-positive TB patients diagnosed via sputum microscopy from 22 diagnostic centres in Chennai, one of India’s largest cities. Patients who did not start therapy within 14 days, or who died or were lost to follow-up before official treatment registration, were classified as PTLFU cases. We conducted qualitative interviews with trackable patients, or family members of patients who had died. We conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) with HCWs involved in TB care. Interview and FGD transcripts were coded and analysed with Dedoose software to identify key themes. We created categories into which themes clustered and identified relationships among thematic categories to develop an explanatory model for PTLFU.

Results

We conducted six FGDs comprising 53 HCWs and 33 individual patient or family member interviews. Themes clustered into five categories. Examining relationships among categories revealed two pathways leading to PTLFU as part of an explanatory model. In the first pathway, administrative and organisational health system barriers—including the complexity of navigating the system, healthcare worker absenteeism and infrastructure failures—resulted in patients feeling frustration or resignation, leading to disengagement from care. In turn, HCWs faced work constraints that contributed to many of these health system barriers for patients. In the second pathway, negative HCW attitudes and behaviours contributed to patients distrusting the health system, resulting in refusal of care.

Conclusion

Health system barriers contribute to PTLFU directly and by amplifying patient-related challenges to engaging in care. Interventions should focus on removing administrative hurdles patients face in the health system, improving quality of the HCW-patient interaction and alleviating constraints preventing HCWs from providing patient-centred care.
Managing junctional haemorrhage in the combat environment
Authors: Smith Shane A , McAlister V C , Dubois L , Beckett A , Hilsden R
Published: March 2020

Tactical combat casualty care and the application of extremity tourniquets have saved lives in combat. In the modern combat environment junctional injuries are common and difficult to treat. Recently, junctional tourniquets have emerged as a potential solution to this problem. Junctional tourniquets can be used as an adjunct to persistent haemorrhage despite application of conventional tourniquets or in the persistently hypotensive casualty. Surgeons must have an approach to receiving patients with junctional tourniquets in place in the operating room. The algorithms presented allow for an evidence-based and command-driven implantation of junctional tourniquets as part of tactical combat casualty care.
The REBOA window: a cadaveric study delineating the optimum site for austere cannulation of the femoral artery for resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta
Authors: Slim Naim , West C T , Rees P , Brassett C , Gaunt M
Published: March 2020

Introduction

Haemorrhage is the major cause of early mortality following traumatic injury. Patients suffering from non-compressible torso haemorrhage are more likely to suffer early death. Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA) can be effective in initial resuscitation; however, establishing swift arterial access is challenging, particularly in a severe shock. This is made more difficult by anatomical variability of the femoral vessels.

Methods

The femoral vessels were characterised in 81 cadaveric lower limbs, measuring specifically the distance from the inferior border of the inguinal ligament to the distal part of the origin of the profunda femoris artery (PFA), and from the distal part of the origin of the PFA to where the femoral vein lies posterior to and is completely overlapped by the femoral artery.

Results

The femoral vein lay deep to the femoral artery at a mean distance of 105 mm from the inferior border of the inguinal ligament. The PFA arose from the femoral artery at a mean distance of 51.1 mm from the inguinal ligament. From the results, it is predicted that the PFA originates from the common femoral artery approximately 24 mm from the inguinal ligament, and the femoral vein is completely overlapped by the femoral artery by 67.7 mm distal from the inguinal ligament, in 95% of subjects.

Conclusions

Based on the results, proposed is an ‘optimal access window’ of up to 24 mm inferior to the inguinal ligament for common femoral arterial catheterisation for pre-hospital REBOA, or more simply within one finger breadth.
Communicable diseases in humanitarian operations and disasters
Authors: Murphy Ronan James
Published: March 2020

Military organisations have battled communicable disease for millennia. They have pioneered disease prevention from the Crusades to the World Wars and continue to do so today. Predeployment vaccinations and chemoprophylaxis are effective in preventing communicable disease, as is reliable vector destruction and bite prevention, especially in the era of multidrug resistant organisms. These measures are unlikely to be fully possible in disasters, but reactive vaccination and efforts to reduce exposure to communicable disease should be a priority. Communicable diseases can be challenging to diagnose—the UK Defence Medical Services have become familiar with tools such as multiplex PCR and mass spectrometry. These have the potential to accurately identify organisms and sensitivity patterns in austere environments. Management of communicable diseases depends on accurate diagnosis and has a largely well-established evidence base but can be limited by a lack of resources and skills in an austere setting, therefore telemedicine can assist diagnosis and treatment of infections by projecting specialist skill. Systems such as EpiNATO2 are useful in monitoring diseases and identifying trends in order to establish control measures. Many of these tools and techniques are effective in austere environments and offer learning opportunities for those providing care in similar settings. Further research is ongoing into diagnostic tools as well as remote management.
Civil–military cooperation on operational deployment: the Bentiu State Hospital medical training programme
Authors: Jeyanathan Jeyasankar , Smith J E , Sellon E
Published: March 2020

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan has a mandate to protect civilians and support the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Recognising this during Operation TRENTON, UK staff of the UN level 2 hospital were able to support the people of Bentiu through initiatives to develop local health services with on-the-ground civil–military cooperation. The Bentiu State Hospital Medical Training Programme was developed to train and mentor staff associated with healthcare in Bentiu, to help improve service delivery, support local health services with on-the-ground non-governmental organisation/military coordination and to create a platform to facilitate the sharing of information to support local health services with the overall humanitarian response. It was recognised how important it was to deliver a programme that carefully understood the unique challenging limitations, circumstances and environment. Hence careful tailoring of the programme was essential to ensure that the training was valuable, implementable and durable, long beyond the operational deployment of TRENTON. Despite the logistical and practical complexities, the programme was very positively received, and the training team believed that the development and progress made would build a small part of the future infrastructure of healthcare delivery in the region. Future contingency operations are likely to take place in the resource- limited austere environment. As reflected in this deployed initiative, local health training activity providing key knowledge to build resilience for the current and immediate future is a precious and important defence engagement utility.
Intensive care medicine on military operations in the resource-limited environment: a case series
Authors: Jeyanathan Jeyasankar , O"Brien D , Smith J E
Published: March 2020

This paper describes a series of critically ill patients who were cared for at a UK military field hospital during Op TRENTON 4, in support of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. These cases highlight the potential challenges in managing the critically ill patient during contingency operations that take place in an austere resource-limited environment.
Characterising keratometry in different dog breeds using an automatic handheld keratometer
Authors: Kawasaki Minae , Furujo Tomoya , Kuroda Kohei , Azuma Kazuo , Okamoto Yoshiharu , Ito Norihiko
Published: March 2020

Background

Keratometry is clinically important and is routinely performed as part of human ophthalmic examination. In veterinary ophthalmology, little is known about keratometry in dogs, and its practical application has been limited. The present study aimed to describe keratometry in some dog breeds popular in Japan using a handheld keratometer.

Methods

Client‐owned dogs of various signalment were enrolled prospectively in the keratometry examination. Interbreed variations in mean corneal curvatures (R1R2avg) and corneal astigmatism (Δ(R1−R2)) were evaluated statistically with respect to their bodyweight based on the data which fulfilled the predetermined inclusion criteria. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

On examination of 237 dogs from 16 different breeds, R1R2avg (mean±sd) ranged from 7.54±0.30 mm in Pomeranians to 9.28±0.19 mm in golden retrievers. Δ(R1−R2) (mean±sd) ranged from 0.22±0.11 mm in miniature schnauzers to 0.57±0.30 mm in French bulldogs.

Conclusion

The present study successfully described keratometry in 16 dog breeds. The study revealed considerable interbreed variations in both R1R2avg and Δ(R1−R2), which did not necessarily correlate with bodyweight. These results are useful both clinically in fitting contact lenses in the management of corneal diseases and non‐clinically in optometric studies in dogs.
Endothelin-1 (ET-1) promotes a proinflammatory microglia phenotype in diabetic conditions
Authors: Abdul Yasir , Jamil Sarah , He Lianying , Li Weiguo , Ergul Adviye
Published: March 2020

Diabetes increases the risk and severity of cognitive impairment, especially after ischemic stroke. It is also known that the activation of the endothelin (ET) system is associated with cognitive impairment and microglia around the periinfarct area produce ET-1. However, little is known about the effect of ET-1 on microglial polarization, especially under diabetic conditions. We hypothesized that (i) ET-1 activates microglia to the proinflammatory M-1-like phenotype and (ii) hypoxia/ lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activates the microglial ET system and promotes microglial activation towards the M-1 phenotype in diabetic conditions. Microglial cells (C8B4) cultured under normal-glucose (25 mmol/L) conditions and diabetes-mimicking high-glucose (50 mmol/L) conditions for 48 h were stimulated with ET-1, cobalt chloride (200 μmol/L), or LPS (100 ng/mL) for 24 h. PPET-1, ET receptor subtypes, and M1/M2 marker gene mRNA expression were measured by RT-PCR. Secreted ET-1 was measured by ELISA. A high dose of ET-1 (1 μmol/L) increases the mRNA levels of ET receptors and activates the microglia towards the M1 phenotype. Hypoxia or LPS activates the ET system in microglial cells and shifts the microglia towards the M1 phenotype in diabetic conditions. These in vitro observations warrant further investigation into the role of ET-1-mediated activation of proinflammatory microglia in post-stroke cognitive impairment in diabetes.
Efficacy of trifluralin and halosulfuron for weed management in white bean
Authors: Soltani Nader , Shropshire Christy , Sikkema Peter H.
Published: March 2020

A total of six field experiments were conducted in southwestern Ontario over a 3-yr period (2016, 2017, 2018) to evaluate the efficacy of trifluralin and halosulfuron applied preplant incorporated (PPI) for weed management in white bean. Trifluralin, halosulfuron, and trifluralin + halosulfuron applied PPI caused as much as 2%, 6%, and 8% white bean injury, respectively. Weed interference delayed maturity and reduced white bean yield 56% compared with the weed-free control. Weed interference with trifluralin and halosulfuron applied alone reduced white bean seed yield as much as 35% and 29%, respectively; however, white bean seed yield with the trifluralin + halosulfuron tankmixes was similar to the weed-free control. Trifluralin, halosulfuron, and trifluralin + halosulfuron applied PPI provided 6%–12%, 75%–92%, and 71%–95% control of velvetleaf; 89%–95%, 93%–98%, and 96%–99% control of pigweed species; 5%–18%, 82%–96%, and 90%–97% control of common ragweed; 90%–97%, 81%–97%, and 95%–99% control of common lambsquarters; 23%–43%, 55%–88%, and 83%–96% control of flower-of-an-hour; 4%–25%, 94%–100%, and 95%–100% control of wild mustard; 96%–100%, 18%–45%, and 97%–100% control of barnyardgrass; and 92%–98%, 21%–40%, and 93%–98% control of green foxtail, respectively. Results indicated that low rates of trifluralin tank-mixed with halosulfuron has the potential to control problematic weeds and improve white bean yields in Ontario.
FCNC transitions of $$\Lambda _b$$ to neutron in Bethe–Salpeter equation approach
Authors: Liu Liang-Liang , Wang Chao , Kang Xian-Wei , Guo Xin-Heng
Published: March 2020

In a covariant quark–diquark model, we investigate the rare decay of $$\Lambda _b \rightarrow n l^+ l^-$$Λb→nl+l- and $$\Lambda _b \rightarrow n \gamma $$Λb→nγ in the Bethe–Salpeter equation approach. In this model the baryons are treated as bound states of a constituent quark and a diquark interacting via a gluon exchange and the linear confinement. We find that the ratio of form factors R is varies from $$-0.90$$-0.90 to $$-0.25$$-0.25 and the branching ratios $$Br(\Lambda _b \rightarrow n l^+ l^-)\times 10^{8}$$Br(Λb→nl+l-)×108 are $$6.79(l=e),~4.08 ~ (l=\mu ),~2.9 ~(l=\tau ) $$6.79(l=e),4.08(l=μ),2.9(l=τ) and the branching ratio $$Br(\Lambda _b \rightarrow n \gamma )\times 10^{7} )=3.69$$Br(Λb→nγ)×107)=3.69 in central values of parameters.
Physics potential of the ESS$$\nu $$SB
Authors: Blennow M. , Fernandez-Martinez E. , Ota T. , Rosauro-Alcaraz S.
Published: March 2020

The ESS$$\nu $$νSB project proposes to base a neutrino “Super Beam” of unprecedented luminosity at the European Spallation Source. The original proposal identified the second peak of the oscillation probability as the optimal to maximize the discovery potential to leptonic CP violation. However this choice reduces the statistics at the detector and penalizes other complementary searches such as the determination of the atmospheric oscillation parameters, particularly the octant of $$\theta _{23}$$θ23 as well as the neutrino mass ordering. We explore how these shortcomings can be alleviated by the combination of the beam data with the atmospheric neutrino sample that would also be collected at the detector. We find that the combination not only improves very significantly these drawbacks, but also enhances both the CP violation discovery potential and the precision in the measurement of the CP violating phase, for which the facility was originally optimized, by lifting parametric degeneracies. We then reassess the optimization of the ESS$$\nu $$νSB setup when the atmospheric neutrino sample is considered, with an emphasis in performing a measurement of the CP violating phase as precise as possible. We find that for the presently preferred value of $$\delta \sim -\pi /2$$δ∼-π/2, shorter baselines and longer running time in neutrino mode would be optimal. In these conditions, a measurement better than $$14^\circ $$14∘ would be achievable for any value of the $$\theta _{23}$$θ23 octant and the mass ordering. Conversely, if present and next generation facilities were not able to discover CP violation, longer baselines and more even splitting between neutrino and neutrino modes would be preferable. These choices would allow a $$5 \sigma $$5σ discovery of CP violation for around a $$60\%$$60% of the possible values of $$\delta $$δ and to determine its value with a precision around $$6^\circ $$6∘ if it is close to 0 or $$\pi $$π.
Modeling Hippocampal CA1 Gabaergic Synapses of Audiogenic Rats
Authors: Pena Rodrigo F. O. , Ceballos Cesar Celis , De Deus Júnia Lara , Roque Antonio Carlos , Garcia-Cairasco Norberto , Leão Ricardo Maurício , Cunha Alexandra Olimpio Siqueira
Published: March 2020

Wistar Audiogenic Rats (WARs) are genetically susceptible to sound-induced seizures that start in the brainstem and, in response to repetitive stimulation, spread to limbic areas, such as hippocampus. Analysis of the distribution of interevent intervals of GABAergic inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) in CA1 pyramidal cells showed a monoexponential trend in Wistar rats, suggestive of a homogeneous population of synapses, but a biexponential trend in WARs. Based on this, we hypothesize that there are two populations of GABAergic synaptic release sites in CA1 pyramidal neurons from WARs. To address this hypothesis, we used a well-established neuronal computational model of a CA1 pyramidal neuron previously developed to replicate physiological properties of these cells. Our simulations replicated the biexponential trend only when we decreased the release frequency of synaptic currents by a factor of six in at least 40% of distal synapses. Our results suggest that almost half of the GABAergic synapses of WARs have a drastically reduced spontaneous release frequency. The computational model was able to reproduce the temporal dynamics of GABAergic inhibition that could underlie susceptibility to the spread of seizures.
Bending and compression of glass fabric-corrugated paper–epoxy sandwich composites
Authors: Chen Jieng-Chiang , Yang Xiu-Zhi
Published: March 2020

The manufacturing procedures of sandwich composites containing corrugated paper (CP) as a core layer and covered with glass fabrics are discussed herein. The core layer of the sandwich composite was fabricated with CP-reinforced epoxy (E) resin and then stacked with glass fabric on the top and bottom surfaces to fabricate the sandwich composites. Three composites [a CP-reinforced E (CP/E) composite, glass fiber nonwoven mat (GN) sandwich composite with a CP core layer (GN/E/CP) and glass mesh fabric (GM) sandwich composite with a CP core layer (GM/E/CP)] were developed in this study. The bending and compression properties of these sandwich composites were measured on a materials test system. Experimental results revealed that the bending strength of the GN/E/CP sandwich composite was approximately 45% and 150% higher than those of the GM/E/CP and CP/E sandwich composites, respectively.
Assessment on UV ageing of photopolymerizable resin repaired GFRPs for wind turbine blades
Authors: Chen Zixuan , Yu Tianyu , Kim Yun-Hae
Published: March 2020

The photopolymerizable resin repair method was investigated for the high altitude location and harsh remediation condition of wind turbine blades, because of its short operation time and low equipment requirement. This paper demonstrates the durability under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation environment of a photo- or thermal-polymerizable resin repaired GFRP, which is the essential material for manufacturing wind turbine blades. During the experiments, the fundamental GFRP specimens fabricated by wet prepreg manufacture technique were pre-damaged, and then repaired by attaching external photo- or thermal-polymerizable resin-impregnated glass fabric patches, followed by UV curing and room temperature (RT) curing, respectively. Long-term UV ageing (over 1300 h) was conducted to repaired specimens by employing a 365 nm wavelength UV lamp. The mechanical properties, thermal properties and surface morphology were evaluated before and after ageing. The results revealed that the UV cured specimens have better mechanical properties and stability compared to RT cured specimens in UV ageing environments.
Sub-Pixel Edge Detection Algorithm Based on Canny–Zernike Moment Method
Authors: Huang Cheng , Jin Wei , Xu Qian , Liu Ziqi , Xu Zhiliang
Published: March 2020

In order to solve the problems of low efficiency and long running time caused by the traditional Zernike moment method for convolution calculation of the whole image, this paper combines the canny detection algorithm with the Zernike moment method. First, the canny edge detection algorithm, which combined with the Otsu threshold method, is used to extract the pixel edge of the image. Then an improved Hough transform method is used to fit the geometric edge in the image. Based on this, the Zernike moment method is applied to realize sub-pixel positioning of images. The algorithm improves the deficiencies of direct sub-pixel detection, improving accuracy and reducing running time. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, the algorithm is applied to the dimension measurement experiment of T-type guide way. The results clearly show that the algorithm is superior to the traditional algorithm in accuracy.
Improving the Estimation of the Tracking Error Signal in Real Time for IR Seeker Using Nonlinear Kalman Filters
Authors: Abbas Osama , Arvan Mohammad Reza , Mahmoodi Ali
Published: March 2020

In nonimaging IR seekers, the received target radiation on the IR detector is modulated via a reticle and produces the information signal (IS). The IS contains the tracking error signal (TES), which is proportional with the target position. TES is used in the control and optic section in the missile. The main task is to extract the TES from IS. The accuracy of TES extraction may be affected by several items such as noise from engines. In this paper, we used for the first time this field Square Root Unscented Kalman Filter (SRUKF) and Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to estimate the TES from the IS for wagon wheel reticle.

Due to the high computational complexity of these algorithms, their execution in real time is not an easy task especially if there is space limitation for hardware. By using the minicomputer, such as Raspberry Pi 3 Model [Formula: see text] platform, the task can be done.

The results showed that the SRUKF presented the best phase estimation for TES. The implementation by using Raspberry Pi was in real time because all algorithm executions for one period was less than 5[Formula: see text]ms, this time in our problem is less than strict timing window.
STRENGTHENING THE PORE WALLS OF Al FOAMS WITH SURFACE-ALLOYING TECHNIQUE
Authors: FENG QIANG , LIAO CHANGZHONG , PENG YUANXIA , ZHANG SHIYU
Published: March 2020

This paper describes a new method for surface-alloying treatment to strengthen the pore walls of Al foams using the powder metallurgy method. The advantage of this technique is that the pore walls of Al foams can be enhanced efficiently during the process of preparation. Spherical carbamide particles coated with bronze powder were employed as space-holder. The pore configuration depends mainly on the distribution of space-holder particles during the cold compacted process. The phase components of the modified Al foams were studied by X-ray diffraction Rietveld refinement. Results show that the strengthening effect on the mechanical property of Al foams is significantly related to both phase compositions and phase grain size among the pore walls.
Forced Vibration of a Cable-Stayed Beam by Green’s Function Approach
Authors: Han Hesheng , Liu Lun , Cao Dengqing
Published: March 2020

A method based on Green’s functions is proposed to study the steady-state dynamic responses of a cable-stayed beam subjected to distributed and/or concentrated loadings. The cable’s initial sag and damping effects are considered. Also, the quadratic and cubic nonlinearities due to the dynamic strain of the cable are taken into account. The nonlinear governing equations of the system are solved by the perturbation method, and the Laplace transformation is employed to derive the Green’s functions for the beam and cable with specified boundary conditions. Then the closed form solution of the linear system and the perturbation analytical solution of the nonlinear system are given in an integral form based on those Green’s functions. The difference between the Green’s functions for the linear and nonlinear systems is caused by the nonlinear boundary conditions. The natural frequencies of the cable-stayed beam calculated by the proposed method are compared with those in the literature to illustrate the validity of the present approach. Particularly, the cable’s dynamic strain effects on the symmetric property of the Green’s functions are discussed. The effects of the nonlinear terms on the amplitude of the Green’s functions and vibration are investigated, along with that of damping. The technique presented should find its applicability for other complex structures, such as cable-stayed bridges and steel structures.
Actions for twisted spectral triple and the transition from the Euclidean to the Lorentzian
Authors: Devastato Agostino , Filaci Manuele , Martinetti Pierre , Singh Devashish
Published: March 2020

This is a review of recent results regarding the application of Connes’ noncommutative geometry to the Standard Model, and beyond. By twisting (in the sense of Connes-Moscovici) the spectral triple of the Standard Model, one does not only get an extra scalar field which stabilises the electroweak vacuum, but also an unexpected [Formula: see text]-form field. By computing the fermionic action, we show how this field induces a transition from the Euclidean to the Lorentzian signature. Hints on a twisted version of the spectral action are also briefly mentioned.
Conformal scattering of the Maxwell-scalar field system on de Sitter space
Authors: Taujanskas Grigalius
Published: March 2020

We prove small data energy estimates of all orders of differentiability between past null infinity and future null infinity of de Sitter space for the conformally invariant Maxwell-scalar field system. Using these, we construct bounded and invertible, but nonlinear, scattering operators taking past asymptotic data to future asymptotic data. We deduce exponential decay rates for solutions with data having at least two derivatives, and for more regular solutions discover an asymptotic decoupling of the scalar field from the charge. The construction involves a carefully chosen complete gauge fixing condition which allows us to control all components of the Maxwell potential, and a nonlinear Grönwall inequality for higher-order estimates.
Cell Mechanics Drives Migration Modes
Authors: Mierke Claudia Tanja
Published: March 2020

The classical migration modes, such as mesenchymal or amoeboid migration modes, are essentially determined by molecular, morphological or biochemical properties of the cells. These specific properties facilitate the cell migration and invasion through artificial extracellular matrices mimicking the environmental conditions of connective tissues. However, during the migration of cells through narrow extracellular matrix constrictions, the specific extracellular matrix environments can either support or impair the invasion of cells. Beyond the classical molecular or biochemical properties, the migration and invasion of cells depends on intracellular cell mechanical characteristics and extracellular matrix mechanical features. The switch between cell states, such as epithelial, mesenchymal or amoeboid states, seems to be mainly based on epigenetic changes and environmental cues that induce the reversible transition of cells toward another state and thereby promote a specific migration mode. However, the exact number of migration modes is not yet clear. Moreover, it is also unclear whether every individual cell, independent of the type, can undergo a transition between all different migration modes in general. A newer theory states that the transition from the jamming to unjamming phase of clustered cells enables cells to migrate as single cells through extracellular matrix confinements. This review will highlight the mechanical features of cells and their matrix environment that regulate and subsequently determine individual migration modes. It is discussed whether each migration mode in each cell type is detectable or whether some migration modes are limited to artificially engineered matrices in vitro and can therefore not or only rarely be detected in vivo. It is specifically pointed out how the intracellular architecture and its contribution to cellular stiffness or contractility favors the employment of a distinct migration mode. Finally, this review envisions a connection between mechanical properties of cells and matrices and the choice of a distinct migration mode in confined 3D microenvironments.
Feasibility Study of Monitoring Deterioration of Outpatients Using Multimodal Data Collected by Wearables
Authors: Li Dingwen , Vaidya Jay , Wang Michael , Bush Ben , Lu Chenyang , Kollef Marin , Bailey Thomas
Published: March 2020

In the article, we explore the feasibility of monitoring outpatients using Fitbit Charge HR wristbands and the potential of machine learning models to predict clinical deterioration (readmissions and death) among outpatients discharged from the hospital. We developed and piloted a data collection system in a clinical study that involved 25 heart failure patients recently discharged. The results demonstrated the feasibility of continuously monitoring outpatients using wristbands. We observed high levels of patient compliance in wearing the wristbands regularly and satisfactory yield, latency, and reliability of data collection from the wristbands to a cloud-based database. Finally, we explored a set of machine learning models to predict deterioration based on the Fitbit data. Through fivefold cross-validation,
K
nearest neighbor achieved the highest accuracy of 0.8667 for identifying patients at risk of deterioration using the data collected from the beginning of the monitoring. Machine learning models based on multimodal data (step, sleep, and heart rate) significantly outperformed the traditional clinical approach based on LACE index. Moreover, our proposed Weighted Samples One-Class SVM model with estimated confidence can reach high accuracy (0.9635) for predicting the deterioration using data collected within a sliding window, which indicates the potential for allowing timely intervention.
Toward Assessing and Recommending Combinations of Behaviors for Improving Health and Well-Being
Authors: Nosakhare Ehimwenma , Picard Rosalind
Published: March 2020

Multiple behaviors typically work together to influence health, making it hard to understand how one behavior might compensate for another. Rich multi-modal datasets from mobile sensors and advances in machine learning are today enabling new kinds of associations to be made between combinations of behaviors objectively assessed from daily life and self-reported levels of stress, mood, and health. In this article, we present a framework to (1) map multi-modal messy data collected in the “wild” to meaningful feature representations of health-related behaviors, (2) uncover latent patterns comprising combinations of behaviors that best predict health and well-being, and (3) use these learned patterns to make evidence-based recommendations that may improve health and well-being. We show how to use supervised latent Dirichlet allocation to model the observed behaviors, and we apply variational inference to uncover the latent patterns. Implementing and evaluating the model on 5,397 days of data from a group of 244 college students, we find that these latent patterns are indeed predictive of daily self-reported levels of stressed-calm, sad-happy, and sick-healthy states. We investigate the patterns of modifiable behaviors present on different days and uncover several ways in which they relate to stress, mood, and health. This work contributes a new method using objective data analysis to help advance understanding of how combinations of modifiable human behaviors may promote human health and well-being.
Sparse BD-Net
Authors: He Zhezhi , Yang Li , Angizi Shaahin , Rakin Adnan Siraj , Fan Deliang
Published: March 2020

In this work, we propose a multiplication-less binarized depthwise-separable convolution neural network, called BD-Net. BD-Net is designed to use binarized depthwise separable convolution block as the drop-in replacement of conventional spatial-convolution in deep convolution neural network (DNN). In BD-Net, the computation-expensive convolution operations (i.e., Multiplication and Accumulation) are converted into energy-efficient Addition/Subtraction operations. For further compressing the model size while maintaining the dominant computation in addition/subtraction, we propose a brand-new sparse binarization method with a hardware-oriented structured sparsity pattern. To successfully train such sparse BD-Net, we propose and leverage two techniques: (1) a modified group-lasso regularization whose group size is identical to the capacity of basic computing core in accelerator and (2) a weight penalty clipping technique to solve the disharmony issue between weight binarization and lasso regularization. The experiment results show that the proposed sparse BD-Net can achieve comparable or even better inference accuracy, in comparison to the full precision CNN baseline. Beyond that, a BD-Net customized process-in-memory accelerator is designed using SOT-MRAM, which owns characteristics of high channel expansion flexibility and computation parallelism. Through the detailed analysis from both software and hardware perspectives, we provide an intuitive design guidance for software/hardware co-design of DNN acceleration on mobile embedded systems. Note that this journal submission is the extended version of our previous published paper in ISVLSI 2018 [24].
Retracted on May 30, 2024:
Gait Recognition as a Service for Unobtrusive User Identification in Smart Spaces
Authors: Luo Chengwen , Wu Jiawei , Li Jianqiang , Wang Jia , Xu Weitao , Ming Zhong , Wei Bo , Li Wei , Zomaya Albert Y.
Published: March 2020

Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) has raised as an important research area that combines the environmental sensing and machine learning capabilities to flourish the concept of smart spaces, in which intelligent and customized services can be provided to users in a smart manner. In smart spaces, one fundamental service that needs to be provided is accurate and unobtrusive user identification. In this work, to address this challenge, we propose a Gait Recognition as a Service (GRaaS) model, which is an instantiation of the traditional Sensing as a Service (
S
2
aaS
) model, and is specially deigned for user identification using gait in smart spaces. To illustrate the idea, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based gait recognition service is designed and implemented following the GRaaS concept. Novel tag selection algorithms and attention-based Long Short-term Memory (At-LSTM) models are designed to realize the device layer and edge layer, achieving a robust recognition with 96.3% accuracy. Extensive evaluations are provided, which show that the proposed service has accurate and robust performance and has great potential to support future smart space applications.
Semantic Interoperability in the IoT
Authors: Novo Oscar , Francesco Mario Di
Published: March 2020

The adoption of the Internet of Things is gradually increasing. However, there remains a significant obstacle that hinders its adoption as a truly ubiquitous technology: the ability of constrained devices to unambiguously exchange data with shared meaning. In this respect, the World Wide Web Consortium has developed the Web of Things architecture to provide semantic data exchange. However, such an architecture does not cover all possible use cases and still has important limitations. This article specifically addresses these issues. In particular, it discusses the design and implementation of a solution that extends the Web of Things architecture to achieve a higher level of semantic interoperability for the Internet of Things. The proposed solution relies on a human-assisted translation process and defines an architecture that enhances the semantic compatibility between components in the World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is demonstrated through both a quantitative and a qualitative evaluation, in terms of performance and key properties in comparison with the state of the art.
Flexible Modelling of Longitudinal Medical Data
Authors: Bellot Alexis , Schaar Mihaela Van Der
Published: March 2020

Using electronic medical records to learn personalized risk trajectories poses significant challenges because often very few samples are available in a patient’s history, and, when available, their information content is highly diverse. In this article, we consider how to integrate sparsely sampled longitudinal data, missing measurements informative of the underlying health status, and static information to estimate (dynamically, as new information becomes available) personalized survival distributions. We achieve this by developing a nonparametric probabilistic model that generates survival trajectories, and corresponding uncertainty estimates, from an ensemble of Bayesian trees in which time is incorporated explicitly to learn variable interactions over time, without needing to specify the longitudinal process beforehand. As such, the changing influence on survival of variables over time is inferred from the data directly, which we analyze with post-processing statistics derived from our model.
Empowering people with dementia to share and socialize
Authors: Dai Jiamin
Published: March 2020

People with dementia face major challenges in maintaining active social interaction. This work aims to develop a social sharing platform consistent with the needs and preferences of people with early-middle stage dementia and integrated with common caregiving practices. Situated in a local storytelling and social program, the fieldwork involves semi-structured interviews and observations to identify challenges that people with dementia face in their social lives, along with best practices for supporting their storytelling and socializing. The identified challenges and best practices will guide the upcoming system design and evaluation. We will explore opportunities for information and communication technologies to address existing challenges, mobilize effective prompting materials, and better support people with dementia in social sharing.
ASSETS 2019 accessible posters and demos report
Authors: Mott Martez E. , Shinohara Kristen
Published: March 2020

The ASSETS conference is a leading HCI venue committed to making computing accessible for people with disabilities. Increasingly, the venue itself has become more accessible as the ASSETS community strives for improvement. For example, the conference provides ASL interpreters and live captioning, and the ASSETS community strongly emphasizes the importance of accessible papers and presentations. However, posters and demos have rarely been accessible to attendees who are blind or low vision. As Posters and Demos co-chairs for ASSETS 2019, Accessibility co-chair Dhruv Jain reached out to us with an idea to make the poster and demo sessions more accessible to blind and low vision conference attendees. Following Dhruv's lead, we added audio summaries and alt-text descriptions to the posters and demos web pages for the conference. Attendees could go to the ASSETS 2019 website, find each poster or demo title, and access a short 1-2 minute audio clip describing the poster and alt-text for imagery that appeared on the poster. In this article, we summarize our approach to making poster and demo sessions more accessible, provide some informal feedback from conference attendees about their experiences, and offer suggestions for future Poster chairs to make their poster sessions more accessible.
Artificial intelligence and the dignity of risk
Authors: Tanis Emily Shea , Lewis Clayton
Published: March 2020

The increased use of AI-based systems poses risks and opportunities for people with cognitive disabilities. On the one hand, automated administrative systems, such as job applicant screeners, may disadvantage people whose patterns of strengths and weaknesses, and whose life circumstances, differ from those commonly seen in pools of data. On the other hand, people with cognitive disabilities stand to gain from AI's potential to provide superior support, such as speaker-dependent speech recognition. Further, privacy concerns are heightened, both because of greater likelihood that people with uncommon combinations of attributes can be identified from their data, and because of the potential for discrimination and exploitation. It is important that people with disabilities are able to make self-directed choices about the tradeoffs among risks and benefits, not denying them the dignity of risk that others have. Enabling this calls for advances both in technology and in organization.
Fairness issues in AI systems that augment sensory abilities
Authors: Findlater Leah , Goodman Steven , Zhao Yuhang , Azenkot Shiri , Hanley Margot
Published: March 2020

Systems that augment sensory abilities are increasingly employing AI and machine learning (ML) approaches, with applications ranging from object recognition and scene description tools for blind users to sound awareness tools for Deaf users. However, unlike many other AI-enabled technologies, these systems provide information that is already available to non-disabled people. In this paper, we discuss unique AI fairness challenges that arise in this context, including accessibility issues with data and models, ethical implications in deciding what sensory information to convey to the user, and privacy concerns both for the primary user and for others.
Unintended machine learning biases as social barriers for persons with disabilitiess
Authors: Hutchinson Ben , Prabhakaran Vinodkumar , Denton Emily , Webster Kellie , Zhong Yu , Denuyl Stephen
Published: March 2020

Persons with disabilities face many barriers to full participation in society, and the rapid advancement of technology has the potential to create ever more. Building equitable and inclusive technologies for people with disabilities demands paying attention to more than accessibility, but also to how social attitudes towards disability are represented within technology. Representations perpetuated by machine learning (ML) models often inadvertently encode undesirable social biases from the data on which they are trained. This can result, for example, in text classification models producing very different predictions for
I am a person with mental illness
, and
I am a tall person
. In this paper, we present evidence of such biases in existing ML models, and in data used for model development. First, we demonstrate that a machine-learned model to moderate conversations classifies texts which mention disability as more "toxic". Similarly, a machine-learned sentiment analysis model rates texts which mention disability as more negative. Second, we demonstrate that neural text representation models that are critical to many ML applications can also contain undesirable biases towards mentions of disabilities. Third, we show that the data used to develop such models reflects topical biases in social discourse which may explain such biases in the models - for instance, gun violence, homelessness, and drug addiction are over-represented in discussions about mental illness.
Influence of Binder Coverage on Interfacial Chemistry of Thin Film LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 Cathodes
Authors: Phillip Nathan D. , Daniel Claus , Veith Gabriel M.
Published: March 2020

In this work, we explore the influence of binder coverage and chemistry on the interfacial properties of the textured Ni-rich cathode LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2. We find that the formation of the cathode/electrolyte interphase (CEI) composition varies significantly for cathodes coated with either poly(vinylene fluoride) (PVDF), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), or lithium polyacrylate (LiPAA) after cycling to high upper cutoff voltages (4.5 V vs Li/Li). The PVDF-coated samples had a thinner CEI and twice the relative concentration of LiF and Li2CO3 to LixPOyFz species in the CEI compared to the uncoated sample. This correlated with significantly lower interfacial impedance (285 vs ∼1700 Ohm-cm2) and improved capacity retention between cycles of the PVDF-coated samples compared to the other binder compositions and the uncoated sample. CMC-coated samples performed worst, with a CEI comprised of greater amounts of LixPOyFz. In addition, we find the choice of binder results in the selective protection or promotion of electrolyte reactions at the (104) surface of the 622 cathode. This suggests that the choice of binder can impact the surface chemistry and performance of high voltage cathodes and supports an avenue for interest in multifunctional binders for stabilizing the CEI.
Reduced O-GlcNAcylation and tubular hypoxia contribute to the antifibrotic effect of SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin in the diabetic kidney
Authors: Hodrea Judit , Balogh Dora B. , Hosszu Adam , Lenart Lilla , Besztercei Balazs , Koszegi Sandor , Sparding Nadja , Genovese Federica , Wagner Laszlo J. , Szabo Attila J. , Fekete Andrea
Published: March 2020

Diabetic kidney disease is a worldwide epidemic, and therapies are incomplete. Clinical data suggest that improved renal outcomes by Na+-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i) are partly beyond their antihyperglycemic effects; however, the mechanisms are still elusive. Here, we investigated the effect of the SGLT2i dapagliflozin (DAPA) in the prevention of elevated O-GlcNAcylation and tubular hypoxia as contributors of renal fibrosis. Type 1 diabetes was induced by streptozotocin in adult male Wistar rats. After the onset of diabetes, rats were treated for 6 wk with DAPA or DAPA combined with losartan (LOS). The effect of hyperglycemia was tested in HK-2 cells kept under normal or high glucose conditions. To test the effect of hypoxia, cells were kept in 1% O2 for 2 h. Cells were treated with DAPA or DAPA combined with LOS. DAPA slowed the loss of renal function, mitigated renal tubular injury markers (kidney injury molecule-1 and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin), and reduced tubulointerstitial fibrosis. DAPA diminished high glucose-induced protein O-GlcNAcylation and moderated the tubular response to hypoxia through the hypoxia-inducible factor pathway. DAPA alone was as effective as combined treatment with LOS in all outcome parameters. These data highlight the role of ameliorated O-GlcNAcylation and diminished tubular hypoxia as important benefits of SGLT2i treatment. Our results support the link between glucose toxicity, tubular hypoxia, and fibrosis, a vicious trio that could be targeted by SGLT2i in kidney diseases of other origins as well.