bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quantized stabilizing control of state‐dependent switching affine systems with control‐input and state‐measurement quantization
Authors: Cai Bo , Ning Zepeng , Cheng Yiming , Tian Yongxiao , Chen Guoliang
Published: January 2024

This paper addresses stability analysis and quantized stabilization of discrete‐time state‐dependent switching affine systems with quantized control inputs and state measurements. The employed controller is in a mode‐dependent affine form to improve the adaptation to the mode of the controlled system and then to acquire less conservative results. The quantization scheme is considered to be logarithmic and synchronized with the mode switching of the switching affine system and the controller. Aiming at achieving lower conservative criteria, a mode‐dependent Lyapunov function incorporating quantization uncertainties is constructed. Correspondingly, the stability analysis and the stabilizing control synthesis are implemented. In the end, the proposed quantized control strategy is applied to a vehicle path‐following problem to exemplify its effectiveness and robustness against data quantization in control inputs and state measurements.
FMCW Radar on LiDAR map localization in structural urban environments
Authors: Ma Yukai , Li Han , Zhao Xiangrui , Gu Yaqing , Lang Xiaolei , Li Laijian , Liu Yong
Published: January 2024

Multisensor fusion‐based localization technology has achieved high accuracy in autonomous systems. How to improve the robustness is the main challenge at present. The most commonly used LiDAR and camera are weather‐sensitive, while the frequency‐modulated continuous wave Radar has strong adaptability but suffers from noise and ghost effects. In this paper, we propose a heterogeneous localization method called Radar on LiDAR Map, which aims to enhance localization accuracy without relying on loop closures by mitigating the accumulated error in Radar odometry in real time. To accomplish this, we utilize LiDAR scans and ground truth paths as Teach paths and Radar scans as the trajectories to be estimated, referred to as Repeat paths. By establishing a correlation between the Radar and LiDAR scan data, we can enhance the accuracy of Radar odometry estimation. Our approach involves embedding the data from both Radar and LiDAR sensors into a density map. We calculate the spatial vector similarity with an offset to determine the corresponding place index within the candidate map and estimate the rotation and translation. To refine the alignment, we utilize the Iterative Closest Point algorithm to achieve optimal matching on the LiDAR submap. The estimated bias is subsequently incorporated into the Radar SLAM for optimizing the position map. We conducted extensive experiments on the Mulran Radar Data set, Oxford Radar RobotCar Dataset, and our data set to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposed approach. Our proposed scan projection descriptors achieves homogeneous and heterogeneous place recognition and works much better than existing methods. Its application to the Radar SLAM system also substantially improves the positioning accuracy. All sequences' root mean square error is 2.53 m for positioning and 1.83° for angle.
Photothermal Conversion of the Oleophilic PVDF/Ti3C2Tx Porous Foam Enables Non‐Aqueous Liquid System Applicable Actuator
Authors: Chen Ruoqi , Zhang Huanrong , Du Yuhang , Ma Hui , Ma Xinlei , Ji Junhui , Wang Xusheng , Xue Mianqi
Published: January 2024

Various physical and chemical reaction processes occur in non‐aqueous liquid systems, particularly in oil phase systems. Therefore, achieving efficient, accurate, controllable, and cost‐effective movement and transfer of substances in the oil phase is crucial. Liquid‐phase photothermal actuators (LPAs) are commonly used for material transport in liquid‐phase systems due to their remote operability and precise control. However, existing LPAs typically rely on materials like hydrogels and flexible polymers, commonly unsuitable for non‐aqueous liquids. Herein, a 3D porous poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/Ti3C2Tx actuator is developed using a solvent displacement method. It demonstrates directional movement and controlled material transport in non‐aqueous liquid systems. When subject to infrared light irradiation (2.0 W cm−2), the actuator achieves motion velocities of 7.3 and 6 mm s−1 vertically and horizontally, respectively. The actuator's controllable motion capability is primarily attributed to the foam's oil‐wettable properties, 3D porous oil transport network, and the excellent photothermal conversion performance of Ti3C2Tx, facilitating thermal diffusion and the Marangoni effect. Apart from multidimensional directions, the actuator enables material delivery and obstacle avoidance by transporting and releasing target objects to a predetermined position. Hence, the developed controllable actuator offers a viable solution for effective motion control and material handling in non‐aqueous liquid environments.
Effect of Ordered Vacancy Compounds on the Carrier Collection in Wide‐Gap (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells
Authors: Keller Jan , Martin Natalia , Donzel‐Gargand Olivier , Kiselman Klara , Zimmermann Uwe , Stolt Lars , Platzer‐Björkman Charlotte , Edoff Marika
Published: January 2024

This contribution studies the effect of ordered vacancy compounds (OVCs) on the minority carrier collection in wide‐gap (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se2 (ACIGS) solar cells. For this purpose, three samples with different ([Ag]+[Cu])/([In]+[Ga]) (I/III) values were processed: 1) a very off‐stoichiometric absorber (I/III = 0.31), consisting of isolated chalcopyrite patches embedded in a major OVC bulk phase, 2) a moderately off‐stoichiometric absorber (I/III = 0.77) with OVC patches at the front and back interfaces and 3) a close‐stoichiometric absorber (I/III = 0.94) with only very few, isolated OVC patches. For each of these samples, synchrotron‐based X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) was measured on a nanoscale (55 nm resolution), while simultaneously recording the X‐ray beam induced current (XBIC). The results, complemented by transmission electron microscopy and electron‐beam induced current analyses, clearly indicate that the presence of the OVC phase reduces the carrier collection and thus the short‐circuit current density of off‐stoichiometric wide‐gap ACIGS solar cells.
General Introduction
Authors: Hofstetter Rita , Schneuwly Bernard
Published: January 2024

First, we show that the IBE, founded in 1925, can be considered as a matrix of educational internationalism. It became the first intergovernmental institution in education in 1929, and under the aegis of Piaget, it developed a more and more resolutely universal and universalist ambition. This orientation of the IBE sets the point of view adopted for the analysis of its history.

We then forge theoretical tools based on the ongoing debate on the universal in order to proceed to a critical sociogenesis of the IBE’s ambitions and achievements within its relational network and the educational context of the twentieth century and we formulate our research questions.

We finally present the five parts which make up the book, each representing a particular point of view on the IBE’s history, written thanks to the rich archival heritage which is briefly described. A brief conclusion highlights some contradictions still present today which are then taken up in our general conclusion.
Challenging the Institutional Politics of Life in the Making of Refused Knowledge
Authors: Crabu Stefano
Published: January 2024

Refused knowledge communities (RKCs) can be analytically framed as specific social worlds, in the context of which questioning science-related epistemic, professional, and political arrangements is a crucial dimension of mutual concern. Hence, understanding refused knowledge followers’ attitudes to biomedical theories and their part in public health and healthcare systems and professional healthcare practice is urgent if we are to cast light on the conditions nurturing the legitimacy of knowledge emerging outside the boundaries of science. Against this backdrop, the aim of this chapter is to shed light on how RKCs engage in a contentious relationship with the conditions under which biomedical knowledge is shaped and mobilised by health professionals. In so doing, it elucidates how these contentious dynamics are entangled with the ways in which RKCs confer credibility and reliability on refused knowledge itself. Indeed, RKCs are not merely concerned with challenging the content of scientific and biomedical knowledge. They also question its epistemic, professional, and economic roots, that is, RKCs argue that claims and knowledge elaborated and enacted in the context of biomedicine, and the life sciences in general, are enmeshed with specific social, political, and material interests, and therefore either not to be believed or at least treated with scepticism.
Inzidenz des plötzlichen Epilepsietodes (SUDEP): Update und Limitationen
Authors: Wartmann Hannes , Effenberger Timo , Klähn Hendrik , Volmer Timm , Surges Rainer
Published: January 2024

Hintergrund

Der plötzliche, unerwartete Tod bei Epilepsie (SUDEP) ist in den meisten Fällen wahrscheinlich eine fatale Komplikation tonisch-klonischer Anfälle und trägt maßgeblich zur vorzeitigen Sterblichkeit von Menschen mit Epilepsie bei. Die Angaben zum SUDEP-Risiko schwanken erheblich je nach Studienpopulation, sodass systematische Zusammenfassungen unter Einbeziehung aktueller Studien zur belastbaren Schätzung und Verbesserung der Beratung von Menschen mit Epilepsie erforderlich sind.

Ziel der Arbeit

Ziel der Arbeit ist es, einen Überblick über die gegenwärtige Forschungslage hinsichtlich der SUDEP-Inzidenz in unterschiedlichen Patientenpopulationen zu geben und potenzielle Schlussfolgerungen sowie bestehende Limitationen zu diskutieren.

Material und Methoden

Es wurde eine systematische Literaturrecherche zur Inzidenz des SUDEP in MEDLINE und EMBASE mit ergänzender Handsuche im Juni 2023 durchgeführt. Von insgesamt 3324 Publikationen wurden 50 für diese Arbeit ausgewertet.

Ergebnisse

Die analysierten Studien zeigen eine signifikante Heterogenität in Bezug auf Kohorten, Studiendesign und Datenquellen. Untersuchungen, die ohne spezifische Kriterien durchgeführt wurden und sich auf umfangreiche Register stützten, weisen eine Inzidenz von 0,78 bis 1,2 pro 1000 Patientenjahre auf. Studien, welche die Inzidenz für mehrere Altersgruppen angeben, weisen mehrheitlich eine Erhöhung der Inzidenz mit zunehmendem Alter auf; mit dem Höhepunkt im mittleren Alter.

Diskussion

Aufgrund unterschiedlicher Methoden der Datenerhebung und Inzidenzberechnung gestaltet sich ein Vergleich zwischen den Studien als herausfordernd. Die Verbindung zwischen Lebensalter könnte möglicherweise auf eine Unterrepräsentation von Kindern, Jugendlichen und Patienten über 60 Jahre zurückzuführen sein.

Schlussfolgerung

Betrachtet man alle Altersgruppen und Epilepsieformen, ergibt sich, dass jährlich etwa 1 von 1000 Menschen mit Epilepsie an SUDEP verstirbt. Bei einer angenommenen Epilepsieprävalenz von 0,6 % in Deutschland könnte dies zu mehr als einem SUDEP-Fall täglich führen. Um zu weiteren Erkenntnissen zu gelangen, ist eine Standardisierung der Untersuchungsmethoden essenziell.
The associations between management control systems, organisational capabilities and performance
Authors: Phan Thanh , Baird Kevin , Bhuyan Mohammed , Tung Amy
Published: January 2024

This study examines the associations between Simons’ (Levers of control: how managers use innovative control systems to drive strategic renewal. Harvard Business Press, Brighton, 1995) positive systems (belief systems and interactive control systems) and two organisational capabilities (organisational resilience and workplace flexibility), and the subsequent impact of these capabilities on organisational performance. Based upon the survey responses received from the managers of 337 Australian organisations, we found that the use of both belief systems and interactive control systems are positively associated with the level of organisational resilience and workplace flexibility, which in turn, exhibit a significant positive effect on organisational performance. In addition, the two organisational capabilities are found to mediate the associations between the positive systems and organisational performance. The findings suggest that organisations should place greater emphasis on the use of positive systems and endeavour to develop and enhance organisational resilience and workplace flexibility to facilitate organisational performance.
Loewner Theory for Bernstein Functions I: Evolution Families and Differential Equations
Authors: Gumenyuk Pavel , Hasebe Takahiro , Pérez José-Luis
Published: January 2024

One-parameter semigroups of holomorphic functions appear naturally in various applications of Complex Analysis, and in particular, in the theory of (temporally) homogeneous branching processes. A suitable analogue of one-parameter semigroups in the inhomogeneous setting is the notion of a (reverse) evolution family. In this paper we study evolution families formed by Bernstein functions, which play the role of Laplace exponents for inhomogeneous continuous-state branching processes. In particular, we characterize all Herglotz vector fields that generate such evolution families and give a complex-analytic proof of a qualitative description equivalent to Silverstein’s representation formula for the infinitesimal generators of one-parameter semigroups of Bernstein functions. We also establish a sufficient condition for families of Bernstein functions, satisfying the algebraic part in the definition of an evolution family, to be absolutely continuous and hence to be described as solutions to the generalized Loewner–Kufarev differential equation. Most of these results are then applied in the sequel paper [35] to study continuous-state branching processes.
Turbulence in the Strongly Heterogeneous Near-Surface Boundary Layer over Patchy Snow
Authors: Haugeneder Michael , Lehning Michael , Stiperski Ivana , Reynolds Dylan , Mott Rebecca
Published: January 2024

The near-surface boundary layer above patchy snow cover in mountainous terrain is characterized by a highly complex interplay of various flows on multiple scales. In this study, we present data from a comprehensive field campaign that cover a period of 21 days of the ablation season in an alpine valley, from continuous snow cover until complete melt out. We recorded near-surface eddy covariance data at different heights and investigated spectral decompositions. The topographic setting led to the categorisation of flows into up and down valley flows, with a down valley Föhn event in the middle of the observation period. Our findings reveal that the snow cover fraction is a major driver for the structure and dynamics of the atmospheric layer adjacent to the snow surface. With bare ground emerging, stable internal boundary layers (SIBL) developed over the snow. As the snow coverage decreased, the depth of the SIBL decreased below 1 m and spectra of air temperature variance showed a transition towards turbulent time scales, which were caused by the intermittent advection of shallow plumes of warm air over the snow surface. The intermittent advection could also be observed visually with high spatio-temporal resolution measurements using a thermal infrared camera. While the shallow advection only affected the lowest measurement level at 0.3 m, the measurements above at 1 m, 2 m, and 3 m indicate that the distribution of eddy size and, thus, the turbulence structure, did not distinctly change with height.
Deficiency of copper responsive gene stmn4 induces retinal developmental defects
Authors: Jing YuanYuan , Luo Yi , Li LingYa , Liu Mugen , Liu Jing-Xia
Published: January 2024

As part of the central nervous system (CNS), the retina senses light and also conducts and processes visual impulses. The damaged development of the retina not only causes visual damage, but also leads to epilepsy, dementia and other brain diseases. Recently, we have reported that copper (Cu) overload induces retinal developmental defects and down-regulates microtubule (MT) genes during zebrafish embryogenesis, but whether the down-regulation of microtubule genes mediates Cu stress induced retinal developmental defects is still unknown. In this study, we found that microtubule gene stmn4 exhibited obviously reduced expression in the retina of Cu overload embryos. Furthermore, stmn4 deficiency (stmn4−/−) resulted in retinal defects similar to those seen in Cu overload embryos, while overexpression of stmn4 effectively rescued retinal defects and cell apoptosis occurred in the Cu overload embryos and larvae. Meanwhile, stmn4 deficient embryos and larvae exhibited reduced mature retinal cells, the down-regulated expression of microtubules and cell cycle-related genes, and the mitotic cell cycle arrests of the retinal cells, which subsequently tended to apoptosis independent on p53. The results of this study demonstrate that Cu stress might lead to retinal developmental defects via down-regulating expression of microtubule gene stmn4, and stmn4 deficiency leads to impaired cell cycle and the accumulation of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) and their subsequent apoptosis. The study provides a certain referee for copper overload in regulating the retinal development in fish.

Graphical Abstract
Bad Feelings, Best Explanations: In Defence of the Propitiousness Theory of the Low Mood System
Authors: Turner James
Published: January 2024

There are three main accounts of the proper function of the low mood system (LMS): the social risk theory, the disease theory, and the propitiousness theory. Adjudicating between these accounts has proven difficult, as there is little agreement in the literature about what a theory of the LMS’s proper function is supposed to explain. In this article, drawing upon influential work on the evolution ofotheraffective systems, such as the disgust system and the fear system, I argue that a theory of the proper function of the low mood system should: (i) account for the reliable, distal causes and effects of the system’s activation, and (ii) explain how having a system that performed such a function increased fitness in ancestral environments. On this basis, I show that the proper function of the low mood system is to limit resource expenditure in relatively unpropitious circumstances, exactly as hypothesised by the propitiousness theory.
On the Nature (and Irrationality) of Non-religious Faith
Authors: Gaultier M. Benoit
Published: January 2024

My main aim in this paper is to contribute to the elucidation of the nature of non-religious faith. I start by summarising several well-known arguments that belief is neither necessary nor sufficient for faith. I then try to identify the nature of the positive cognitive attitude towards p that is involved in having faith that p. After dismissing some candidates for the role, I explore the idea that faith and hope are similar attitudes. On this basis, I then advance a new characterisation of faith. Finally, I turn to the question of the rationality of faith. I argue that faith is intrinsically irrational because it is an intrinsically incoherent propositional attitude, but that there is nonetheless a sense in which faith is neither intrinsically epistemically irrational nor intrinsically practically irrational.
Whose Cultural Ecosystem Service Values Matter? Exploring Power Inequities in Diverse Mangrove Communities
Authors: Scott Cinda P. , Mach Leon , Lucas Katherine M. , Myers Anna E.
Published: January 2024

Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) are often contextualized as intrinsically derived or as providing important non-monetary benefits, which many argue are discounted, improperly categorized, disregarded, or inadequately converted into direct monetary values. Assessing and communicating CES benefits with nuance is even more difficult when considering different cultural values held within a community. Drawing on frameworks that center culture, equity, and power, we conducted a CES evaluation of mangrove ecosystems in Bocas del Toro (BDT), Panamá via semi-structured interviews with individuals from culturally diverse groups. Our study is one of the first to examine mangrove CES from the perspective of different stakeholder groups while also including dimensions of equity and power to better understand how they are understood and accessed differently by diverse users who interact with these ecosystems. Our results show that mental health benefits are multi-dimensional, experienced differently across stakeholder groups, and should be considered a dominant CES that deserves more dedicated attention. Findings also suggest that the loss of CES benefits in the context of ecosystem loss represents an important form of ecological grief. Finally, our findings support the ongoing calls for inclusion of local and Indigenous voices when designing, developing, and steering CES-based research to more adequately identify the needs of individual communities but also for our collective survival.
Engaging Families in Supporting the Whole Child: Chicago West Side Parents’ Perceptions of Child Health
Authors: Jarpe-Ratner Elizabeth , Offstein Maddie , Williams Angel , Odoms-Young Angela , Chriqui Jamie F.
Published: January 2024

Schools and districts nationwide have heavily emphasized supporting students’ health and wellbeing by engaging families and caregivers to truly support the “whole child,” as outlined in the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. The COVID-19 pandemic only heightened the important role of school and family partnerships in supporting children’s health. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Healthy CPS initiative is designed to support schools in their compliance with existing health and wellness policies to support child health. This study aimed to explore parents’ primary health concerns for their children, characterize these views, explore any alignment with WSCC, and identify recommendations for family engagement in school health promotion. Eleven semi-structured focus groups (seven English, four Spanish) were conducted with CPS parents/caregivers. Groups were conducted in spring 2021 on Chicago’s West Side, one of the more historically disinvested communities in the city. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using constant comparison, incorporating both inductive and deductive approaches. Key themes emerged related to parents’ perceptions of schools’ role in promoting health including: (1) parents see child health as a shared responsibility between families and schools; and (2) parents identify significant structural barriers and inequities that impede child health, such as racism, community violence, and a lack of community resources in their neighborhoods, and believe schools can do more to address them. Parents’ viewed child health and wellbeing as multidimensional and stated that these dimensions must be considered holistically. Their views aligned with WSCC family engagement-related components. Parents recommended that schools employ a variety of strategies to engage families. Findings from this paper have implications for engaging families in school health policy and program development as well as implementation, particularly those in lower income, urban communities that have faced a history of structural inequities.
Should dualists locate the physical basis of experience in the head?
Authors: Saad Bradford
Published: January 2024

Dualism holds that experiences are non-physical states that exist alongside physical states. Dualism leads to the postulation of psychophysical laws that generate experiences by operating on certain sorts of physical states. What sorts of physical states? To the limited extent that dualists have addressed this question, they have tended to favor a brain-based approach that locates the physical basis of experience in the head. In contrast, this paper develops an argument for a form of dualism on which experience has a physical basis that reaches out into the world. Specifically, the argument uses a puzzle about spatial experience to support a theory I calltracking dualism. On tracking dualism, a psychophysical law generates experiences by operating on complex physical states that involve both brain states and tracking relations that they bear to features of the environment. To develop the argument, I discuss tracking dualism alongside its more familiar physicalist counterpart, the tracking intentionalist theory associated with Dretske, Lycan, and Tye. I conclude by outlining a tracking dualist research agenda.
Earning epistemic trustworthiness: an impact assessment model
Authors: Rolin Kristina H.
Published: January 2024

Epistemic trustworthiness depends not only on one’s epistemic but also on moral qualities. Such qualities need to be upheld by scientific communities and institutions as well as by individual scientific experts. While non-experts can often take scientific experts’ epistemic trustworthiness for granted, in some cases they cannot rationally treat it as the default, and they need to be convinced of the experts’ commitment to the well-being of others. This study contributes to philosophical discussions on public trust in science by introducing an impact assessment model. The model helps philosophers understand how scientific experts can build and maintain epistemic trustworthiness in relation to those social groups who have reasons to distrust scientists.
Development and Content Validation of the 10-item Well-being Instrument (WiX) for use in Economic Evaluation Studies
Authors: Voormolen Daphne C. , Bom Judith A. M. , de Bekker-Grob Esther W. , Brouwer Werner B. F. , van Exel Job
Published: January 2024

It’s increasingly recognized that the evaluative space of economic evaluations in health and social care needs to be broadened and instruments measuring well-being are required. A generic measure of well-being comprehensively capturing all relevant domains of well-being in the adult population is not available. The aim is to describe the development of such an instrument, the 10-item Well-being instrument (WiX), and to report the findings from a content validation study. A draft version of the instrument was based on available instruments pursuing the same aim, a comprehensive theoretical framework of the domains of well-being, and recent empirical evidence from the general population about the constituents of well-being. Content validation was conducted following COSMIN methodology and investigated relevance, comprehensiveness, and comprehensibility. In the qualitative content validation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts and members of the general population. During quantitative content validation, a representative sample (n = 501) from the general population completed an online survey. The qualitative validation showed the relevance and comprehensiveness of the WiX were adequate, but several changes were made to consecutive draft versions of the items and their descriptions and response levels to improve comprehensibility. The quantitative validation confirmed these findings and resulted in some additional, minor changes. A new instrument aiming to capture overall (or general) quality-of-life in terms of subjective well-being by measuring how satisfied people are on ten important domains of life in the adult general population was developed. The content validation results are encouraging, but further validation and valuation steps are necessary before the WiX can be used in (economic) evaluation studies of interventions with impacts broader than health.
Special on purpose: complementary currencies in the hierarchy of money
Authors: Olk Christopher
Published: January 2024

No money is universally acceptable. What distinguishes special-purpose monies (SPMs) from national currencies is not the fact of geographical or institutional constraints on their acceptability as such, but the intentional imposition of such constraints as a design priority. This article integrates SPMs into the theoretical framework of the credit theory of money and proposes a novel typology of complementary currencies. In this view, any money is part of a global hierarchy of credit monies. The position of each money in that hierarchy depends on its liquidity, including the degree of commensurability and convertibility, and on the degree of sovereignty that backs it, including aspects of sovereignty that are based on monopoly power and social norms that have no necessary link to states. The position of national currencies in the global hierarchy can be assessed along the dimensions of liquidity and sovereignty. Along the same lines, four types of SPMs can be distinguished. Non-commensurable SPMs backed by some form of sovereignty and connected to public provisioning systems appear to be a more promising instrument than private convertible currencies for supporting effective sustainability transitions.
Innovative pilot plant capacitive deionization for desalination brackish water
Authors: Alotaibi Zaid S. , Alharbi Khalid N. , Alharbi Yaseen , Almoiqli Mohammed S.
Published: January 2024

A semi-industrial demineralization facility was used in six CDI cells to desalinate in two steps. A desalination cycle lowered the feedwater salinity from 1 to 0.5 g/L and produced 200 l/h of demineralized water. This process may be repeated to increase efficiency. Initially, feedwater commenced at 1 g/L. Monitoring both voltage and current during the salt ion removal indicated that CDI cells may recover 30% of the energy utilized. Furthermore, V–Q curves using charge and voltage measurements increased energy recovery by 30%. By cutting off the CDI cells' power source, the electrodes' operating voltage was recorded between 0.85 and 0.9 V, much lower than the external contacts' 1.2 V. The desalination system's efficiency could rise if the electrode voltage was measured and adjusted. In conclusion, storage tanks can provide desalinated water while minimizing water waste; hence, they should be installed. This study examined the physical–technical parameters of a CDI desalination system through experiments and several operational modes. Moreover, it revealed CDI desalination system improvements.
Predicting Individual Treatment Effects: Challenges and Opportunities for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Jaki Thomas , Chang Chi , Kuhlemeier Alena ,   The Pooled Resource Open-Access ALS Clinical Trials Consortium, Van Horn M. Lee
Published: January 2024

Personalized medicine seeks to identify the right treatment for the right patient at the right time. Predicting the treatment effect for an individual patient has the potential to transform treatment of patients and drastically improve patients outcomes. In this work, we illustrate the potential for ML and AI methods to yield useful predictions of individual treatment effects. Using the predicted individual treatment effects (PITE) framework which uses baseline covariates (features) to predict whether a treatment is expected to yield benefit for a given patient compared to an alternative intervention we provide an illustration of the potential of such approaches and provide a detailed discussion of opportunities for further research and open challenges when seeking to predict individual treatment effects.
Pushing-in single-sex schools for enrichment of both enrolment and gender equity in STEM careers
Authors: Kibona Isack E. , Nkya Henry E.
Published: January 2024

Background

Quality education has been emphasized by the world Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) of the 17 goals the world set to achieve by 2030. According to the twenty-first century skills, quality education obliges to equip learners to compete in the twenty-first century job market. In addition to enriching enrolment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), leveraging of gender equity is indispensable.

Objectives

This study revealed and processed data to guide education policy maker’s decisions that could ensure quality education. Thus, the study shall lead to shape educational practices leading to achieve SDG4 timelines.

Methodology

The authors studied results of the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE) of 52 coeducations and six single-sex secondary schools in Mbeya city. Out of 52 co-education secondary schools, the researchers selected the best six secondary schools in performance and compared those to the six single-sex secondary schools.

Results

The study revealed that, the six single-sex schools outperformed co-education schools. In addition, single-sex schools were richer of girls’ enrolment than coeducation schools in STEM education. Although, coeducation schools leveraged gender equity in STEM performance, but there was an acute drop of number of number of girls in coeducation schools.

Conclusion

This study calls for awareness and seek for more insights into the acute girl’s school dropouts in best-performing coeducation schools, review of educational policies so that the world achieves SDG4 by 2030. Therefore, the study wide-opens that though challenged by many, single-sex schools are decent and remains an addition to achieve the SDG4.
Enhancing mechanical performance of biodegradable automotive composites with EPO and graphene
Authors: Jiyas N. , Sasidharan Indu , Kumar K. Bindu
Published: January 2024

Recent strides in composite manufacturing technology have sparked a widespread embrace of natural fiber composites in engineering applications, exemplified by flax fiber. The crux of this development centers on the creation of an environmentally friendly composite, utilizing alkali-treated flax fiber reinforcement and poly lactic acid (PLA) as the polymer matrix through a hot compression technique. The investigation into water absorption unveils that alkaline treatment augments the hydrophobic nature and enhances the crystallinity of flax fibers, resulting in improved adhesion between the reinforcement and polymer matrix. The introduction of 5% wt of epoxidized palm oil (EPO) as plasticizers not only counters brittleness but also elevates thermal stability. Further enhancements are achieved through the addition of 0.5 wt% of graphene nanoparticles as nano-fillers, culminating in superior mechanical properties. This research places a focal point on a thorough mechanical characterization of these green composites, encompassing tensile, flexural, and impact properties, along with an assessment of inter-laminar shear strength. A detailed analysis of dimensional stability is conducted, while morphological scrutiny is performed using scanning electron microscopy. This study marks a significant leap towards sustainable engineering, presenting innovative natural fiber green composites that exhibit heightened mechanical and environmental performance.
Disinhibited or Disconnected? Dietary Restraint Attenuates the Relationship Between Heart Rate Variability and Stress-Induced Suppression of Food Intake
Authors: McGeown Laura , Mushquash Aislin R. , De Young Kyle P.
Published: January 2024

Abstract: Literature on restrained eaters posits that the capacity to successfully diet is cognitively demanding, requiring exertion of cognitive control over one’s eating behaviour. Demands that deplete this limited inner resource can thus lead restrained eaters to become disinhibited and consume large amounts of food. Although self-regulation is inferred to play a role, it has not yet been studied in combination with its physiological correlates. As low heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with lower self-regulatory capacity, and acute mental stressors decrease HRV, it was hypothesized that reduced HRV during stress may mediate the relationship between stress and food intake, and that the mediation may be moderated by dietary restraint. Specifically, the moderation hypothesis predicted more restrained eaters would exhibit a stronger relationship between low HRV and intake. Female undergraduates ( n = 92) were randomized to a stress or control condition while HRV was recorded. Participants subsequently engaged in a bogus taste test to quantify post-stress consumption. Restraint was conceptualized using Hagan and colleagues’ (2017) latent restraint factors. A significant moderated mediation emerged for Weight-Focused Restraint, ab3 = .196, SE = .077, 95% CI [.060, .361] and Calorie Counting, ab3 = .062, SE = .023, 95% CI [.024, .115]. However, contrary to expectation, stress-induced HRV reduction was associated with decreased intake for those low in restraint, whereas intake was unrelated to HRV for individuals with higher dietary restraint. Further, there was no evidence of traditionally-defined disinhibition in more restrained eaters. Results suggest those with higher restraint show a relative disconnection from internal physiological cues shown to affect intake under stress in less restrained individuals.
Partial Ruptures Cannot Explain the Long Recurrence Intervals of Repeating Earthquakes
Authors: Turner A. R. , Hawthorne J. C. , Cattania C.
Published: January 2024

Repeating earthquakes repeatedly rupture the same fault asperities, which are likely loaded to failure by surrounding aseismic slip. However, repeaters occur less often than would be expected if these earthquakes accommodate all of the long‐term slip on the asperities. Here, we assess a possible explanation for this slip discrepancy: partial ruptures. On asperities that are much larger than the nucleation radius, a fraction of the slip could be accommodated by smaller ruptures on the same asperities. We search for partial ruptures of repeating earthquakes in Parkfield using the Northern California earthquakes catalog. We find 3991 individual repeaters which have 4468 partial ruptures. The presence of partial ruptures suggests that the asperities of repeating earthquakes are much larger than the nucleation radius. However, we find that partial ruptures could accommodate only around 25% of the slip on repeating earthquake patches. A 25% increase in the slip budget can explain only a small portion of the long recurrence intervals of repeating earthquakes.
Manufacturing of primary CAR-NK cells in an automated system for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia
Authors: Albinger Nawid , Müller Sabine , Kostyra Julia , Kuska Jan , Mertlitz Sarah , Penack Olaf , Zhang Congcong , Möker Nina , Ullrich Evelyn
Published: January 2024

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) still constitutes a dreadful disease with limited therapeutic options. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells struggle to target AML partly due to a lack of true AML-exclusive antigens and heterogeneity of the disease. Natural killer (NK) cells possess a high intrinsic killing capacity against AML and might be well suited for the treatment of this disease. However, the generation of primary CAR-NK cells can be difficult and time consuming. Therefore, robust systems for the generation of high numbers of CAR-NK cells under GMP conditions are required. Here we report on the automated generation of high numbers of primary CD33-targeting CAR-NK cells using the CliniMACS Prodigy® platform. Automated-produced CD33-CAR-NK cells showed similar phenotype and cytotoxicity compared to small-scale-produced CD33-CAR-NK cells in vitro and were able to strongly reduce leukemic burden in an OCI-AML2 NSG-SGM3 xenograft mouse model in vivo following a cross-site shipment of the cell product. This technology might be well suited for the generation of primary CAR-modified NK cells for a broad range of targets and could facilitate clinical transition.
A new perspective on intervertebral disc calcification—from bench to bedside
Authors: Novais Emanuel J. , Narayanan Rajkishen , Canseco Jose A. , van de Wetering Koen , Kepler Christopher K. , Hilibrand Alan S. , Vaccaro Alexander R. , Risbud Makarand V.
Published: January 2024

Disc degeneration primarily contributes to chronic low back and neck pain. Consequently, there is an urgent need to understand the spectrum of disc degeneration phenotypes such as fibrosis, ectopic calcification, herniation, or mixed phenotypes. Amongst these phenotypes, disc calcification is the least studied. Ectopic calcification, by definition, is the pathological mineralization of soft tissues, widely studied in the context of conditions that afflict vasculature, skin, and cartilage. Clinically, disc calcification is associated with poor surgical outcomes and back pain refractory to conservative treatment. It is frequently seen as a consequence of disc aging and progressive degeneration but exhibits unique molecular and morphological characteristics: hypertrophic chondrocyte-like cell differentiation; TNAP, ENPP1, and ANK upregulation; cell death; altered Pi and PPi homeostasis; and local inflammation. Recent studies in mouse models have provided a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying this phenotype. It is essential to recognize that the presentation and nature of mineralization differ between AF, NP, and EP compartments. Moreover, the combination of anatomic location, genetics, and environmental stressors, such as aging or trauma, govern the predisposition to calcification. Lastly, the systemic regulation of calcium and Pi metabolism is less important than the local activity of PPi modulated by the ANK-ENPP1 axis, along with disc cell death and differentiation status. While there is limited understanding of this phenotype, understanding the molecular pathways governing local intervertebral disc calcification may lead to developing disease-modifying drugs and better clinical management of degeneration-related pathologies.
Near vision data and near correction requirements from community eye health programmes in nine countries
Authors: Katibeh Marzieh , Watts Elanor , Gichangi Michael , Latorre-Arteaga Sergio , Bolster Nigel M. , Bastawrous Andrew
Published: January 2024

Background

Recent estimates of global prevalence of uncorrected presbyopia range from 510 to 826 million. There is a shortage of primary data regarding Near Visual Impairment (NVI) magnitude.

Methods

Near visual acuity (NVA) and NVI data was collected from over 388,000 people aged 35 or over across 9 countries, within Community Eye Health programmes between January 2022 and June 2023. In Kenya (n = 34,328), dioptric power of required near correction was also recorded, and any association with age, gender or level of NVA was assessed via linear regression model.

Results

146,801 of 388,939 people failed initial near vision screening (37.74%, 95% CI 37.59–37.89%), with significantly higher prevalence of NVI in Sub-Saharan Africa than South Asia. Of those with distance acuity 6/12 or better, 27.97% failed (95% CI 27.81–28.13%) with evidence of difference between genders (p < 0.001): 30.77% of women vs. 24.47% of men. The most commonly required dioptric powers of correction were +2.00D, +2.50D and +3.00D, and required power correlated with age and NVA.

Conclusions

NVI remains common among Community Eye Health programme participants aged 35 and over. Data from large scale programmes such as these provide an opportunity to contribute to more accurate epidemiological estimates, and to guide future research, resource planning and intervention, ideally with improved standardisation of testing in the future.
Segment anything in medical images
Authors: Ma Jun , He Yuting , Li Feifei , Han Lin , You Chenyu , Wang Bo
Published: January 2024

Medical image segmentation is a critical component in clinical practice, facilitating accurate diagnosis, treatment planning, and disease monitoring. However, existing methods, often tailored to specific modalities or disease types, lack generalizability across the diverse spectrum of medical image segmentation tasks. Here we present MedSAM, a foundation model designed for bridging this gap by enabling universal medical image segmentation. The model is developed on a large-scale medical image dataset with 1,570,263 image-mask pairs, covering 10 imaging modalities and over 30 cancer types. We conduct a comprehensive evaluation on 86 internal validation tasks and 60 external validation tasks, demonstrating better accuracy and robustness than modality-wise specialist models. By delivering accurate and efficient segmentation across a wide spectrum of tasks, MedSAM holds significant potential to expedite the evolution of diagnostic tools and the personalization of treatment plans.
Investigating the role of undercoordinated Pt sites at the surface of layered PtTe2 for methanol decomposition
Authors: Hsueh Jing-Wen , Kuo Lai-Hsiang , Chen Po-Han , Chen Wan-Hsin , Chuang Chi-Yao , Kuo Chia-Nung , Lue Chin-Shan , Lai Yu-Ling , Liu Bo-Hong , Wang Chia-Hsin , Hsu Yao-Jane , Lin Chun-Liang , Chou Jyh-Pin , Luo Meng-Fan
Published: January 2024

Transition metal dichalcogenides, by virtue of their two-dimensional structures, could provide the largest active surface for reactions with minimal materials consumed, which has long been pursued in the design of ideal catalysts. Nevertheless, their structurally perfect basal planes are typically inert; their surface defects, such as under-coordinated atoms at the surfaces or edges, can instead serve as catalytically active centers. Here we show a reaction probability > 90 % for adsorbed methanol (CH3OH) on under-coordinated Pt sites at surface Te vacancies, produced with Ar+ bombardment, on layered PtTe2 — approximately 60 % of the methanol decompose to surface intermediates CHxO (x = 2, 3) and 35 % to CHx (x = 1, 2), and an ultimate production of gaseous molecular hydrogen, methane, water and formaldehyde. The characteristic reactivity is attributed to both the triangular positioning and varied degrees of oxidation of the under-coordinated Pt at Te vacancies.
An improved pathway for autonomous bioluminescence imaging in eukaryotes
Authors: Shakhova Ekaterina S. , Karataeva Tatiana A. , Markina Nadezhda M. , Mitiouchkina Tatiana , Palkina Kseniia A. , Perfilov Maxim M. , Wood Monika G. , Hoang Trish T. , Hall Mary P. , Fakhranurova Liliia I. , Alekberova Anna E. , Malyshevskaia Alena K. , Gorbachev Dmitry A. , Bugaeva Evgenia N. , Pletneva Ludmila K. , Babenko Vladislav V. , Boldyreva Daria I. , Gorokhovatsky Andrey Y. , Balakireva Anastasia V. , Gao Feng , Choob Vladimir V. , Encell Lance P. , Wood Keith V. , Yampolsky Ilia V. , Sarkisyan Karen S. , Mishin Alexander S.
Published: January 2024

The discovery of the bioluminescence pathway in the fungus Neonothopanus nambi enabled engineering of eukaryotes with self-sustained luminescence. However, the brightness of luminescence in heterologous hosts was limited by performance of the native fungal enzymes. Here we report optimized versions of the pathway that enhance bioluminescence by one to two orders of magnitude in plant, fungal and mammalian hosts, and enable longitudinal video-rate imaging.