bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Predictors of Physical Activity Levels in Ambulant/Semiambulant Children and Adolescents With Cerebral Palsy: A Clinical Cohort Study
Authors: Fonvig Christina Esmann , Troelsen Jens , Brønd Jan Christian , Möller Sören , Holsgaard-Larsen Anders
Published: March 2023

Children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) show a reduced physical activity (PA) level compared with their typically developed peers. This study aimed to identify potential predictors of objectively evaluated habitual PA using data from a national clinical registry—the Cerebral Palsy Follow-Up Program (CPFP)—and proxy-reported questionnaires. Data from the CPFP database showed that female sex was associated with a lower PA level. Additional questionnaire data revealed age, popliteal angle limitation, Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument–Sports and Physical Functioning Scale score, screen time, Functional Mobility Scale score at 50 m, and fatigue as predictors. The proposed models can be used for the prediction and early detection of the PA level and consequently for the potential improvement among ambulant/semiambulant individuals with CP. Further research should investigate the predictive impact of personal, social, and environmental factors on the PA level and the gap in PA levels between girls and boys.
Dimensions of Physical Activity Are Important in Managing Anxiety in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Ofosu Esther Frema , de Nys Len , Connelly Jenni , Ryde Gemma Cathrine , Whittaker Anna C.
Published: March 2023

Physical activity (PA) is a known approach for managing anxiety symptoms in older adults. This systematic review and meta-analysis address the benefits of PA and its dimensions (frequency, session time, type, and intervention period) on anxiety symptoms in older adults aged 65 years and above. Searches covered eight databases reporting eight randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and five non-RCTs. Meta-analysis of RCTs (standardized mean difference = −0.41; 95% confidence interval [−0.58, −0.24]; p < .00001) and Fisher’s method of combining p values for non-RCTs supported the effectiveness of PA for managing anxiety symptoms in older adults. Subgroup analysis revealed significant effects for all PA types, session times, frequency, and intervention periods compared with control groups, albeit with different magnitudes of effect. In conclusion, although some dimensions of PA contribute to its effectiveness for anxiety, PA intensity and mode required to maximize PA effects remain unclear.
Low sulfide concentration in Mercury’s smooth plains inhibits hollows
Authors: Barraud Océane , Besse Sébastien , Doressoundiram Alain
Published: March 2023

MESSENGER (Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) mission to Mercury led to the discovery of hollows. These geological landforms have no close counterpart on other airless silicate bodies. Multispectral images and geochemical measurements by MESSENGER suggest that hollows are formed by the loss of volatile-bearing minerals. We investigated the mineralogical composition of the hollows using near-ultraviolet to near-infrared spectra obtained by MESSENGER. We compared reflectance spectra of hollows with laboratory spectra of Mercury’s analogs: sulfides, chlorides, silicates, and graphite. The best candidates to reproduce the curvature of the hollow spectra are calcium sulfide, magnesium sulfide, and sodium sulfide. In addition, we performed spectral modeling with spectra obtained at the highest spectral and spatial resolution within the hollows. Our results show that the enrichment of sulfides in hollow material is up to two times higher than the sulfide concentration derived from chemical measurements of Mercury’s high-reflectance smooth plains. This result explains the small percentage of hollows found within these plains.
Nonlinear up-conversion of a polarization Möbius strip with half-integer optical angular momentum
Authors: Luttmann Martin , Vimal Mekha , Guer Matthieu , Hergott Jean-François , Khoury Antonio Z. , Hernández-García Carlos , Pisanty Emilio , Ruchon Thierry
Published: March 2023

Symmetries and conservation laws of energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum play a central role in nonlinear optics. Recently, paraxial light fields with nontrivial topology have been attracting a keen interest. Despite not being eigenstates of the orbital and spin angular momenta (OAM and SAM), they are eigenstates of the generalized angular momentum (GAM) operator—a mixture of the OAM and SAM operators with fractional eigenvalues. By driving high harmonic generation with a polarization Möbius strip carrying a half-integer GAM charge and implementing angular momentum characterization methods in the extreme ultraviolet range, we demonstrate the linear scaling of the GAM with the harmonic order, each harmonic carrying a precise half-integer GAM charge. Our work shows that beyond SAM and OAM, the GAM is, in some situations, an appropriate quantum number. It paves the way for finer manipulations and applications of light beams containing fractional-order polarization singularities.
Label-free structural and functional volumetric imaging by dual-modality optical-Raman projection tomography
Authors: Wang Nan , Wang Xinyu , Yan Tianyu , Xie Hui , Wang Lin , Ren Feng , Chen Dan , Zhang Dongjie , Zeng Qi , Zhu Shouping , Chen Xueli
Published: March 2023

Mesoscale volumetric imaging is of great importance for the study of bio-organisms. Among others, optical projection tomography provides unprecedented structural details of specimens, but it requires fluorescence label for chemical targeting. Raman spectroscopic imaging is able to identify chemical components in a label-free manner but lacks microstructure. Here, we present a dual-modality optical-Raman projection tomography (ORPT) technology, which enables label-free three-dimensional imaging of microstructures and components of millimeter-sized samples with a micron-level spatial resolution on the same device. We validate the feasibility of our ORPT system using images of polystyrene beads in a volume, followed by detecting biomolecules of zebrafish and
Arabidopsis
, demonstrating that fused three-dimensional images of the microstructure and molecular components of bio-samples could be achieved. Last, we observe the fat body of
Drosophila melanogaster
at different developmental stages. Our proposed technology enables bimodal label-free volumetric imaging of the structure and function of biomolecules in a large sample.
Clinical PARP inhibitors allosterically induce PARP2 retention on DNA
Authors: Langelier Marie-France , Lin Xiaohui , Zha Shan , Pascal John M.
Published: March 2023

PARP1 and PARP2 detect DNA breaks, which activates their catalytic production of poly(ADP-ribose) that recruits repair factors and contributes to PARP1/2 release from DNA. PARP inhibitors (PARPi) are used in cancer treatment and target PARP1/2 catalytic activity, interfering with repair and increasing PARP1/2 persistence on DNA damage. In addition, certain PARPi exert allosteric effects that increase PARP1 retention on DNA. However, no clinical PARPi exhibit this allosteric behavior toward PARP1. In contrast, we show that certain clinical PARPi exhibit an allosteric effect that retains PARP2 on DNA breaks in a manner that depends on communication between the catalytic and DNA binding regions. Using a PARP2 mutant that mimics an allosteric inhibitor effect, we observed increased PARP2 retention at cellular damage sites. The PARPi AZD5305 also exhibited a clear reverse allosteric effect on PARP2. Our results can help explain the toxicity of clinical PARPi and suggest ways to improve PARPi moving forward.
DNA repair mechanisms that promote insertion-deletion events during immunoglobulin gene diversification
Authors: Hao Qian , Zhan Chuanzong , Lian Chaoyang , Luo Simin , Cao Wenyi , Wang Binbin , Xie Xia , Ye Xiaofei , Gui Tuantuan , Voena Claudia , Pighi Chiara , Wang Yanyan , Tian Ying , Wang Xin , Dai Pengfei , Cai Yanni , Liu Xiaojing , Ouyang Shengqun , Sun Shiqi , Hu Qianwen , Liu Jun , Ye Youqiong , Zhao Jingkun , Lu Aiguo , Wang Ji-Yang , Huang Chuanxin , Su Bing , Meng Fei-Long , Chiarle Roberto , Pan-Hammarström Qiang , Yeap Leng-Siew
Published: March 2023

Insertions and deletions (indels) are low-frequency deleterious genomic DNA alterations. Despite their rarity, indels are common, and insertions leading to long complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) are vital for antigen-binding functions in broadly neutralizing and polyreactive antibodies targeting viruses. Because of challenges in detecting indels, the mechanism that generates indels during immunoglobulin diversification processes remains poorly understood. We carried out ultra-deep profiling of indels and systematically dissected the underlying mechanisms using
passenger-immunoglobulin
mouse models. We found that activation-induced cytidine deaminase–dependent ±1–base pair (bp) indels are the most prevalent indel events, biasing deleterious outcomes, whereas longer in-frame indels, especially insertions that can extend the CDR3 length, are rare outcomes. The ±1-bp indels are channeled by base excision repair, but longer indels require additional DNA-processing factors. Ectopic expression of a DNA exonuclease or perturbation of the balance of DNA polymerases can increase the frequency of longer indels, thus paving the way for models that can generate antibodies with long CDR3. Our study reveals the mechanisms that generate beneficial and deleterious indels during the process of antibody somatic hypermutation and has implications in understanding the detrimental genomic alterations in various conditions, including tumorigenesis.
Formation of Eocene−Miocene felsic magmatic rocks along N-S−trending Yardoi-Kongbugang mountain ranges in the eastern Himalaya: New insights into surface uplift and the initiation of E-W extension in southern Tibet
Authors: Fan Jing-Jing , Zhang Xiu-Zheng , Ma Lin , Wang Qiang , Jiang Zi-Qi , Xia Xiao-Ping , Wei Gang-Jian , Wang Zi-Long , Zhou Jin-Sheng , Li Qi-Wei , Liu Xiao , Huang Tong-Yu , Zhang Miao-Yan , Liu Jin-Heng
Published: March 2023

Large-scale N-S shortening induced by India-Asia convergence caused the formation of numerous E-W−trending mountain ranges in Tibet. However, the mechanism(s) of formation of N-S−trending mountain ranges remains elusive. We report on a felsic magmatic belt located along the N-S−trending Yardoi-Kongbugang mountain ranges on the flank of the Cona rift in the eastern Tethyan Himalaya. Zircon and monazite geochronology and whole-rock geochemistry revealed three epochs of middle- to lower-crustal anatexis beneath the Cona rift at ca. 47−42 Ma, 35−34 Ma, and 24−14 Ma. The mid-Eocene and early Oligocene granitoids show adakitic signatures indicating continuous crustal thickening, while the formation of Miocene leucogranites and N-S−trending dacitic dikes was related to ductile crustal extension. Silicic melts were exposed along the whole rift since the early Oligocene, suggesting that the early Oligocene could be regarded as a transitional epoch from tectonic compression to orogen-parallel extension. Widespread mid-Eocene and Miocene magmatism in the Himalaya, together with coeval metamorphic anatexis, represents two phases of crustal weakening. The weakened crustal zones under continued India-Asia convergence may have favored uplift and subsequent lateral flow of the weak zones, which initiated E-W extension. Finally, significant upwelling of the weak zones evolved into magma extrusion and formed the N-S−trending mountain ranges. This study provides new insights into the mechanisms of surface uplift and E-W extension and challenges the common view of initiation of E-W extension in southern Tibet not earlier than the early Miocene.
Effect of digital health, biomarker feedback and nurse or midwife-led counselling interventions to assist pregnant smokers quit: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Tahan Chadi , Dobbins Timothy , Hyslop Fran , Lingam Raghu , Richmond Robyn
Published: March 2023

Objective

To assess the effect of digital health (DH), biomarker feedback (BF) and nurse or midwife-led counselling (NoMC) interventions on abstinence in pregnant smokers during pregnancy and postpartum.

Settings

Any healthcare setting servicing pregnant women, including any country globally.

Participants

Pregnant women of any social, ethnic or geographical background who smoke.

Methods

We searched Embase, Medline, Web Of Science, Google Scholar, PsychINFO, CINAHL and PubMed between 2007 and November 2021. We included published original intervention studies in English with comparators (usual care or placebo). Two independent assessors screened and abstracted data. We performed a random-effects meta-analysis, assessed risk of bias with the Cochrane Tool and used Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation to assess the quality of evidence.

Results

We identified 57 studies and included 54 in the meta-analysis. Sixteen studies assessed DH (n=3961), 6 BF (n=1643), 32 NoMC (n=60 251), 1 assessed NoMC with BF (n=1120) and 2 NoMC with DH interventions (n=2107). DH interventions had moderate certainty evidence to achieve continuous abstinence (CA) at late pregnancy (4 studies; 2049 women; RR=1.98, 95% CI 1.08 to 3.64, p=0.03) and low certainty evidence to achieve point prevalence abstinence (PPA) postpartum (5 studies; 2238 women; RR=1.46, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.02, p=0.02). NoMC interventions had moderate certainty evidence to achieve PPA in late pregnancy (15 studies; 16 234 women; RR=1.54, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.06, p<0.01) and low certainty evidence to achieve PPA postpartum (13 studies; 5466 women; RR=1.79, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.83, p=0.01). Both DH and BF interventions did not achieve PPA at late pregnancy, nor NoMC interventions achieve CA postpartum. The certainty was reduced due to risk of bias, heterogeneity, inconsistency and/or imprecision.

Conclusion

NoMC interventions can assist pregnant smokers achieve PPA and DH interventions achieve CA in late pregnancy. These interventions may achieve other outcomes.
Diagnostic accuracy of heart auscultation for detecting valve disease: a systematic review
Authors: Davidsen Anne Herefoss , Andersen Stian , Halvorsen Peder Andreas , Schirmer Henrik , Reierth Eirik , Melbye Hasse
Published: March 2023

Objective

The objective of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy in detecting valvular heart disease (VHD) by heart auscultation, performed by medical doctors.

Design/methods

A systematic literature search for diagnostic studies comparing heart auscultation to echocardiography or angiography, to evaluate VHD in adults, was performed in MEDLINE (1947–November 2021) and EMBASE (1947–November 2021). Two reviewers screened all references by title and abstract, to select studies to be included. Disagreements were resolved by consensus meetings. Reference lists of included studies were also screened. The results are presented as a narrative synthesis, and risk of bias was assessed using Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2.

Main outcome measures

Sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios (LRs).

Results

We found 23 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Auscultation was compared with full echocardiography in 15 of the articles; pulsed Doppler was used as reference standard in 2 articles, while aortography and ventriculography was used in 5 articles. One article used point-of-care ultrasound. The articles were published from year 1967 to 2021. Sensitivity of auscultation ranged from 30% to 100%, and specificity ranged from 28% to 100%. LRs ranged from 1.35 to 26. Most of the included studies used cardiologists or internal medicine residents or specialists as auscultators, whereas two used general practitioners and two studied several different auscultators.

Conclusion

Sensitivity, specificity and LRs of auscultation varied considerably across the different studies. There is a sparsity of data from general practice, where auscultation of the heart is usually one of the main methods for detecting VHD. Based on this review, the diagnostic utility of auscultation is unclear and medical doctors should not rely too much on auscultation alone. More research is needed on how auscultation, together with other clinical findings and history, can be used to distinguish patients with VHD.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42018091675.
Epigenetic clocks in neurodegenerative diseases: a systematic review
Authors: Yang Tianmi , Xiao Yi , Cheng Yangfan , Huang Jingxuan , Wei Qianqian , Li Chunyu , Shang Huifang
Published: March 2023

Background

Biological ageing is one of the principal risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases. It is becoming increasingly clear that acceleration of DNA methylation age, as measured by the epigenetic clock, is closely associated with many age-related diseases.

Methods

We searched the PubMed and Web of Science databases to identify eligible studies reporting epigenetic clocks in several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington’s disease (HD).

Results

Twenty-three studies (12 for AD, 4 for PD, 5 for ALS, and 2 for HD) were included. We systematically summarised the clinical utility of 11 epigenetic clocks (based on blood and brain tissues) in assessing the risk factors, age of onset, diagnosis, progression, prognosis and pathology of AD, PD, ALS and HD. We also critically described our current understandings to these evidences, and further discussed key challenges, potential mechanisms and future perspectives of epigenetic ageing in neurodegenerative diseases.

Conclusions

Epigenetic clocks hold great potential in neurodegenerative diseases. Further research is encouraged to evaluate the clinical utility and promote the application.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42022365233.
Psychologically informed leadership coaching positively impacts the mental well-being of 80 senior doctors, medical and public health leaders
Authors: Day Fiona Jane
Published: March 2023

Introduction

Senior doctors, medical and public health leaders frequently experience poor levels of mental well-being. The aim was to investigate whether psychologically informed leadership coaching impacted on the mental well-being of 80 UK-based senior doctors, medical and public health leaders.

Methods

A pre–post study was undertaken during 2018–2022 of 80 UK senior doctors, medical and public health leaders. Before and after measures of mental well-being were measured using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale. The age range was 30–63 years (mean 44.5, mode and median, 45.0). Thirty-seven participants were male (46.3%). The proportion of non-white ethnicity was 21.3%.

Participants undertook an average of 8.7 hours of bespoke 1:1 psychologically informed leadership coaching.

Results

The mean well-being score before the intervention was 21.4 (SD=3.28). The mean well-being score after the intervention increased to 24.5 (SD=3.38). A paired samples t-test found that the increase in metric well-being scores after the intervention was statistically significant (t=−9.52, p<0.001; Cohen’s d=3.14).The mean improvement was+17.4% (median 115.8%, mode 100, range −17.7% to+202.4%). This was observed particularly in two subdomains.

Conclusion

Psychologically informed leadership coaching may be an effective way to improve mental well-being outcomes in senior doctors, medical and public heath leaders. The contribution of psychologically informed coaching is currently limited in medical leadership development research.
Oral candidiasis in a specialist palliative care unit: assessment, diagnosis, management
Authors: Bishop Browne Sarah , Munn Tanya , Cheng Anna , Lee Jessica Tsuann
Published: March 2023

Objectives

To evaluate current clinical practices of assessment, diagnosis and management of oral candidiasis in a specialist palliative care unit to improve patient outcomes through compliance with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care Antimicrobial Stewardship Clinical Care Standard.

Methods

A clinical audit cycle: review of 100 patient records preceded an educational intervention delivered over 4 weeks to clinical stakeholders, followed by a review of an additional 100 records.

Results

Eleven patients in each cohort had oral candidiasis. A statistically significant improvement in documented rates of oral examination (33% to 51%, p=0.015) and appropriate microbiological testing (0% to 63.6%, p=0.004) was achieved. Documentation of oral symptoms and prescribing practices were unchanged.

Conclusions

Meaningful changes in practice relating to oral assessment and diagnosis of oral candidiasis are possible. Future iterations of the audit cycle may benefit from multimodal interventions to encourage further practice change.
Rejuvenating infall: a crucial yet overlooked source of mass and angular momentum
Authors: Kuffmeier Michael , Jensen Sigurd S. , Haugbølle Troels
Published: March 2023

MHD models and the observation of accretion streamers confirmed that protostars can undergo late accretion events after the initial collapse phase. To provide better constraints, we study the evolution of stellar masses in MHD simulations of a 4 pc$$^{3}$$3molecular cloud. Tracer particles allow us to accurately follow the trajectory of accreting material for all protostars and thereby constrain the accretion reservoir of the stars. The diversity of the accretion process implies that stars in the solar mass regime can have vastly different accretion histories. Some stars accrete most of their mass during the initial collapse phase, while others gain$$>50 \%$$>50%of their final mass from late infall. The angular momentum budget of stars that experience substantial late infall, so-called late accretors, is significantly higher than for stars without or with only little late accretion. As the probability of late infall increases with increasing final stellar mass, the specific angular momentum budget of higher mass stars is on average higher. The hypothetical centrifugal radius computed from the accreting particles at the time of formation is orders of magnitude higher than observed disk sizes, which emphasizes the importance of angular momentum transport during disk formation. Nevertheless, we find a correlation that the centrifugal radius is highest for stars with substantial infall, which suggests that very large disks are the result of recent infall events. There are also indications for a subtle trend of increasing centrifugal radius with increasing final stellar mass, which is in agreement with an observed marginal correlation of disk size and stellar mass. Finally, we show that late accretors become more embedded again during late infall. As a consequence, late accretors are (apparently) rejuvenated and would be classified as Class 0 objects according to their bolometric temperature despite being$$\sim 1$$∼1Myr old.
Accelerator mass spectrometry: an analytical tool with applications for a sustainable society
Authors: Kieser William E.
Published: March 2023

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) adds the techniques of higher energy charged particle acceleration to the basic principles of Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) to provide extremely low detection capability (below 1 femtogram) of rare isotopes in samples of natural materials as small as 1 mg. Depending on the element selected and the configuration of the equipment, rare isotope sensitivities can reach less than one part in 1015. The advantages of this small sample size and high sensitivity for the detection of rare isotopes include a) the economic benefit of collecting, shipping and preparing much smaller samples, and b) the ability to analyse specific chemical compounds within the sample. For the latter advantage, the pathway taken by that compound through a complex system can be more precisely traced or, in the case of radioactive isotopes, more precise chronological information can be provided. The paper is an amplification of material which was presented at the IAEA International Conference on Accelerators for Research and Sustainable Development: novel concepts and technical innovation. It begins with a basic overview of AMS technology, with an emphasis on how the use of higher energy contributes to this enhanced sensitivity, and then provides several examples of new AMS technologies which reduce the energy and space requirements for such systems. Several examples of applications which contribute to the investigation of sustainability in other areas of environmental concern are then briefly described.
One-Dimensional Local Binary Pattern and Common Spatial Pattern Feature Fusion Brain Network for Central Neuropathic Pain
Authors: Xu Fangzhou , Wang Chongfeng , Yu Xin , Zhao Jinzhao , Liu Ming , Zhao Jiaqi , Gao Licai , Jiang Xiuquan , Zhu Zhaoxin , Wu Yongjian , Wang Dezheng , Feng Shanxin , Yin Sen , Zhang Yang , Leng Jiancai
Published: March 2023

Central neuropathic pain (CNP) after spinal cord injury (SCI) is related to the plasticity of cerebral cortex. The plasticity of cortex recorded by electroencephalogram (EEG) signal can be used as a biomarker of CNP. To analyze changes in the brain network mechanism under the combined effect of injury and pain or under the effect of pain, this paper mainly studies the changes of brain network functional connectivity in patients with neuropathic pain and without neuropathic pain after SCI. This paper has recorded the EEG with the CNP group after SCI, without the CNP group after SCI, and a healthy control group. Phase-locking value has been used to construct brain network topological connectivity maps. By comparing the brain networks of the two groups of SCI with the healthy group, it has been found that in the [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] frequency bands, the injury increases the functional connectivity between the frontal lobe and occipital lobes, temporal, and parietal of the patients. Furthermore, the comparison of brain networks between the group with CNP and the group without CNP after SCI has found that pain has a greater effect on the increased connectivity within the patients’ frontal lobes. Motor imagery (MI) data of CNP patients have been used to extract one-dimensional local binary pattern (1D-LBP) and common spatial pattern (CSP) features, the left and right hand movements of the patients’ MI have been classified. The proposed LBP-CSP feature method has achieved the highest accuracy of 98.6% and the average accuracy of 91.5%. The results of this study have great clinical significance for the neural rehabilitation and brain–computer interface of CNP patients.
Effects of influencing factors on the performance and morphology of shock waves in ejectors: A review
Authors: Sadasivan Sreeja , Arumugam Senthil Kumar , R. Jishnu Chandran , Aggarwal Mahesh C.
Published: March 2023

This paper presents a detailed literature review on the studies carried out in the last three decades, for understanding the factors affecting the performance of the ejector. An ejector is one of the important components in many industrial applications in the field of refrigerant expansion, circulation of fluids, vacuum creation, etc. From the analysis of the reported works of the ejector, the CFD modeling has proved to be a convenient method for analyzing the complex phenomenon in the ejector like mixing process, turbulence characteristics, shock interactions, and condensation process. The first part of this paper discusses the operation of ejector, flow structure, parameters required for the computational modeling, governing equations, etc. The second part discusses the influence of geometrical parameters and various operating conditions on the ejector performance. The shape and position of shock waves in the ejector for various operating conditions are also narrated under the same section. Third part of this paper is devoted to discussions on advances in modeling to be considered for the performance improvement of ejectors. Finally, the paper concludes with clear guidelines for the effective ejector modeling. Future scope of ejector research, pathways to progress, etc., mentioned in the conclusion section should help researchers and designers in this field.
On the role of hubs in the coherence of unicyclic and bicyclic networks
Authors: Zhou Ling , Li Xiangdong , Sun Weigang
Published: March 2023

In this paper, we aim to study the role of hubs in the network coherence quantified by the Laplacian spectra and choose two families of unicyclic and bicyclic networks with the same network size as our network models. In order to investigate the influence of adding links on the coherence, we construct four types of bicyclic networks with the same average degree. Using the network’s regular structures and matrix theories, we obtain analytical solutions of the coherences regarding the degrees of hub nodes. Based on these exact results for the coherence, the network with one hub displays higher coherence compared to the network with two hubs. We then obtain exact relations for the coherences of the bicyclic networks with the same average degree and show that different adding links and hub’s positions are responsible for distinct performance of the consensus algorithms. Finally, we show that the coherence and average path length behave in a linear way meaning that smaller average path length results in better coherence.
The decoherence effect of qubit in 1D transverse Ising model
Authors: Li Bobin
Published: March 2023

With the development of lab technology, the low-order correlation function can no longer describe the main effect of decoherence in the quantum many-body system, so it is imperative to study the higher-order correlation function of the system. In this paper, the higher-order correlation function is discussed analytically in the 1D transverse Ising model, and it is searched when the third-order or higher correlation functions play a key role in the decoherence effect. Under the cases of strong coupling and long coherence time, it is indicated that the effect of high-order correlation functions cannot be ignored, and the approximation of the classical Markov process is limited. But the low-order correlation function can describe well in the case of weak coupling and short coherence time.
NON-DIFFERENTIABLE EXACT SOLUTIONS OF THE LOCAL FRACTIONAL ZAKHAROV–KUZNETSOV EQUATION ON THE CANTOR SETS
Authors: WANG KANG-JIA , SHI FENG , SI JING , LIU JING-HUA , WANG GUO-DONG
Published: March 2023

In this study, a new fractional Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation (ZKE) within the local fractional derivative (LFD) is derived. Yang’s non-differentiable (ND) traveling wave transform is introduced, then two novel techniques namely the Mittag-Leffler function-based method (MLFBM) and Yang’s special function method (Y-SFM) are adopted to seek for the ND exact solutions for the first time. With the aid of the Mathematica software, the dynamic behaviors of the different solutions on the Cantor sets are illustrated via the 3D plots by assigning the appropriate parameters. The attained results confirm that the mentioned methods are effective and straightforward, which can be used to study the ND exact solutions of the local fractional partial differential equations (PDEs).
The Organisation’s Size-Innovation Performance Relationship: The Role of Human Resource Development Mechanisms
Authors: Koster Ferry
Published: March 2023

Design: The paper relies on a quantitative analysis of 707 Dutch companies. Purpose: Prior research focussed on the positive relationship between organisation’s size and its innovation performance. This study investigates the role of human resource development mechanisms, in particular organisational learning and renewal of human resource management practices in this relationship. Findings: The analysis of survey data revealed that, taking into account several background variables, smaller organisations have lower innovation performance than larger ones. The differences between organisations disappear after organisational learning practices and renewal of human resource management are taken into account. These two human resource development mechanisms are, in turn, positively related to innovation performance. Originality: Prior research focussed on the direct relationship between organisations’ size and innovation performance. This paper examines this relationship more closely by focussing on intermediating mechanisms.
Nano-Based Drug Delivery System in Breast Cancer Treatment
Authors: Jiang Lan , Li Xiang , Lu Yun Shu
Published: March 2023

Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that seriously endangers women’s health worldwide and is the number one cancer in terms of incidence. In recent years, although the research on interdisciplinary drug delivery systems that combine nanotechnology and medical oncology is fully developed with significant efficacy, such as nano-based drug delivery systems (NDDs), the current clinical translation rate of drug delivery systems is not high. Moreover, NDDs are designed as carrier systems for drug delivery to targets, prolonging drug circulation time in vivo, improving targeting, reducing tumor resistance, and providing new avenues for the prevention and treatment of many diseases. Herein, the current approaches of several commonly used carrier nanoparticles are discussed, mainly including liposomes, polymeric micelles, metals, inorganic nanoparticles and nanohydrogels, as well as composite NDDS in breast cancer treatment, including their properties, system design, major innovations, and applications in clinical settings.
Investigation of Gate Induced Drain Leakage in Nanotube and Nanowire: A Comprehensive Study
Authors: Thakur A. , Dhiman R. , Wadhwa G.
Published: March 2023

In this paper, a comprehensive study of gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) in conventional silicon-nanotube (Si-NT JLFET), SiGe Source/Drain silicon-nanotube junctionless field effect transistor (S/D Si-NT JLFET) and conventional nanowire (NW) have been performed using technology computer-aided design simulations. We have also demonstrated that inclusion of SiGe S/D in Si-NT JLFET reduced the OFF-state current by order of ~3 from NT JLFET and by order of ~6 from NW JLFET. The impact of variation of core gate thickness ([Formula: see text], germanium (Ge) content [Formula: see text], and location of SiGe in source and drain regions of the S/D Si-NT JLFET have been studied from the GIDL perspective. We found that SiGe S/D Si-NT JLFET exhibits impressively high [Formula: see text]/[Formula: see text] ratio [Formula: see text] with reduced lateral band-to-band tunneling (L-BTBT)-induced GIDL than the conventional nanowire device. The is due to SiGe S/D that creates a energy valence band discontinuity at source drain interfaces which limits the flow of electrons from channel to drain region in the OFF-state.
Binary (α–β) NiS/PANI Nanorods with Highly Efficient Catalytic Activity in Nonenzymatic Glucose Fuel Cells and Sensors
Authors: Qu Kaige , Wang Shuyue , Yin Haoyong , Gong Jianying , Wang Ling , Wu Shengji
Published: March 2023

Improving the efficiency of glucose oxidation reaction (GOR) is extremely important to build high performance nonenzymatic glucose sensors and fuel cells. In this work, we designed a novel binary ([Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] NiS/PANI nanorods electrocatalyst with polyaniline (PANI) as the substrates and binary ([Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] NiS nanoparticles dispersing on the PANI nanorods. The as-prepared NiS/PANI nanorods were characterized by XRD, XPS and SEM. The electrochemical performance of NiS/PANI nanorods was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, which showed highly improved catalytic efficiency for GOR. When used as anodic catalysts in nonenzymatic glucose fuel cells, NiS/PANI nanorods displayed much higher power density of 1343.39 [Formula: see text] with an open circuit voltage of 0.84 V. NiS/PANI/NiS nanorods also presented excellent nonenzymatic sensing performance for glucose detection including a wide sensitivity of 682.21 [Formula: see text] (10–9000 [Formula: see text]M) and the low detection limit of 3.33 [Formula: see text]M ([Formula: see text]). The obviously improved electrochemical properties of NiS/PANI/NiS nanorods for GOR may be due to the synergistic effect of binary ([Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] NiS and PANI nanorods.
Extent and significance of the Racklan–Forward Orogen in Canada: far-field interior reactivation during Nuna assembly
Authors: Pehrsson Sally , Eglington Bruce , Rainbird Robert , Regis Daniele , Ramaekers Paul , Jefferson Charlie
Published: March 2023

Mesoproterozoic orogenesis is well established on the western and southern flanks of Laurentia in the well-known Racklan–Forward and Mazatzal orogens, but its significance within the previously assembled interior of the supercontinent Nuna has not been established. We examine regional isotopic and structural evidence for Mesoproterozoic deformation in the
c.
1.7–1.63 Ga Hornby Bay, Elu, Thelon and Athabasca intracontinental basins, and present evidence for Mesoproterozoic reactivation of Paleoproterozoic structures in the Wopmay and Trans-Hudson orogens. The Racklan–Forward Orogeny in the interior of north Laurentia comprises north–south-trending, high-angle, east-vergent folds and thrusts that occur across a region 1660 km wide and over 1000 km long, stretching from the Yukon to near Hudson Bay and from Banks Island to below the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. The structures progress from ductile amphibolite and greenschist facies in the Racklan type area to sub-greenschist facies and ultimately brittle or brittle-ductile in the far foreland, showing a predominant thick-skinned style typical of many intracontinental orogens. We present compiled low-temperature thermochronological data, including ages of spatially associated uraninite mineralization, to characterize the scope of reactivation of basement structures in the Archean Rae craton in Nuna's interior. We compare the nature of widespread far-field reactivation in the Racklan–Forward Orogen with other orogens of Nuna's assembly to show it is unusual for Nuna's peripheral margin. We suggest that
c.
1.6 Ga continent–continent collision of North Australia with NW Laurentia propagated stresses far into the interior as a result of combined favourable pre-existing structural grain and a weak subcontinental lithospheric mantle in the Rae craton due to repeated episodes of refertilization across 500 Ma of accretion and intrusion. Cratons that experience the complex, two-sided collision and protracted upper plate setting during supercontinent assembly noted herein may be particularly susceptible to extensive foreland propagation of peripheral orogens.
A thermophilous and arid-tolerant flora from the Lower Jurassic of the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, NW China, corresponding to the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event
Authors: Deng Shenghui , Yang Xiaoju , Lu Yuanzheng , Sha Jingeng
Published: March 2023

Twenty taxa of fossil plants are described from the Sangonghe Formation (Lower Jurassic) of the Haojiagou section in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, NW China. The Sangonghe flora consists of Equisetales, ferns, bennettitaleans, ginkgoes, conifers and gnetales, but is dominated by ferns. It is a low-species-diversity but extraordinary flora as it has a high proportion (45%) of thermophilous or arid-tolerant (xerophilous) elements, in comparison to 0% in the underlying Badaowan Formation and
c.
2% in the overlying Xishanyao Formation. These thermophilous or arid-tolerant (xerophilous) elements include
Marattiopsis asiatica
Kawasaki,
Phlebopteris polypodioides
Brongniart and
Dictyophyllum
sp. (ferns),
Otozamites leckenbyi
Harris,
Otozamites
sp.,
Zamites
sp. and
Dictyozamites
sp. (bennettitaleans),
Brachyphyllum
(
Hirmeriella
?) sp. (conifers) and
Cadmisega ephedroides
Krassilov and Bugdaeva (gnetales). Based on the geological ranges of the known species and comparisons with coeval floras in Eurasia, the age of the Sangonghe flora is Toarcian (Early Jurassic). The flora reveals a climatic warming and aridification event that occurred during the Toarcian in the Junggar Basin. Palaeontological (including palaeobotanical and palynological), sedimentological and geochemical data demonstrate that warming and aridification occurred widely across the north of China during the Toarcian, and that this might be the response of the terrestrial ecosystem to the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event.
ADATIME: A Benchmarking Suite for Domain Adaptation on Time Series Data
Authors: Ragab Mohamed , Eldele Emadeldeen , Tan Wee Ling , Foo Chuan-Sheng , Chen Zhenghua , Wu Min , Kwoh Chee-Keong , Li Xiaoli
Published: March 2023

Unsupervised domain adaptation methods aim at generalizing well on unlabeled test data that may have a different (shifted) distribution from the training data. Such methods are typically developed on image data, and their application to time series data is less explored. Existing works on time series domain adaptation suffer from inconsistencies in evaluation schemes, datasets, and backbone neural network architectures. Moreover, labeled target data are often used for model selection, which violates the fundamental assumption of unsupervised domain adaptation. To address these issues, we develop a benchmarking evaluation suite (
AdaTime
) to systematically and fairly evaluate different domain adaptation methods on time series data. Specifically, we standardize the backbone neural network architectures and benchmarking datasets, while also exploring more realistic model selection approaches that can work with no labeled data or just a few labeled samples. Our evaluation includes adapting state-of-the-art visual domain adaptation methods to time series data as well as the recent methods specifically developed for time series data. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate 11 state-of-the-art methods on five representative datasets spanning 50 cross-domain scenarios. Our results suggest that with careful selection of hyper-parameters, visual domain adaptation methods are competitive with methods proposed for time series domain adaptation. In addition, we find that hyper-parameters could be selected based on realistic model selection approaches. Our work unveils practical insights for applying domain adaptation methods on time series data and builds a solid foundation for future works in the field. The code is available at
github.com/emadeldeen24/AdaTime
.
How Do Users Experience Traceability of AI Systems? Examining Subjective Information Processing Awareness in Automated Insulin Delivery (AID) Systems
Authors: Schrills Tim , Franke Thomas
Published: March 2023

When interacting with artificial intelligence (AI) in the medical domain, users frequently face automated information processing, which can remain opaque to them. For example, users with diabetes may interact daily with automated insulin delivery (AID). However, effective AID therapy requires traceability of automated decisions for diverse users. Grounded in research on human-automation interaction, we study Subjective Information Processing Awareness (SIPA) as a key construct to research users’ experience of explainable AI. The objective of the present research was to examine how users experience differing levels of traceability of an AI algorithm. We developed a basic AID simulation to create realistic scenarios for an experiment with
N
 = 80, where we examined the effect of three levels of information disclosure on SIPA and performance. Attributes serving as the basis for insulin needs calculation were shown to users, who predicted the AID system’s calculation after over 60 observations. Results showed a difference in SIPA after repeated observations, associated with a general decline of SIPA ratings over time. Supporting scale validity, SIPA was strongly correlated with trust and satisfaction with explanations. The present research indicates that the effect of different levels of information disclosure may need several repetitions before it manifests. Additionally, high levels of information disclosure may lead to a miscalibration between SIPA and performance in predicting the system’s results. The results indicate that for a responsible design of XAI, system designers could utilize prediction tasks in order to calibrate experienced traceability.
Integrating Reconstructor and Post-Editor into Neural Machine Translation
Authors: Yi Nian , Shao Chenze , Wumaier Aishan
Published: March 2023

Neural machine translation (NMT)
mainly comprises the encoder and decoder. The encoder is mainly used to extract the feature vector of the source language sentence. The decoder predicts the next token according to the feature vector extracted by the encoder and the information of the current moment. In this process, there is no guarantee that the features extracted by the encoder are indistinguishable from the meaning of the sentences in the source language. There is also no guarantee that the decoder can accurately predict the corresponding character. These issues can lead to over-translation and under-translation issues in the translated results. Previous researchers alleviated this problem by calculating the gap between the reconstructed source-language sentences and the source-language sentences. Inspired by this method, we propose to integrate a reconstructor and a post-editor into NMT during the training. The reconstructor takes the translation of NMT as input to reconstruct the source sentence, and the post-editor takes the translation as input and post-edits it to predict the target sentence. Through the training of the reconstructor and the post-editor, the semantics of the translation are forced to follow the source sentence and the target sentence. Experimental results show that our approach can effectively improve the performance of NMT on multiple translation tasks.
Self-Adaptation in Industry: A Survey
Authors: Weyns Danny , Gerostathopoulos Ilias , Abbas Nadeem , Andersson Jesper , Biffl Stefan , Brada Premek , Bures Tomas , Di Salle Amleto , Galster Matthias , Lago Patricia , Lewis Grace , Litoiu Marin , Musil Angelika , Musil Juergen , Patros Panos , Pelliccione Patrizio
Published: March 2023

Computing systems form the backbone of many areas in our society, from manufacturing to traffic control, healthcare, and financial systems. When software plays a vital role in the design, construction, and operation, these systems are referred to as software-intensive systems. Self-adaptation equips a software-intensive system with a feedback loop that either automates tasks that otherwise need to be performed by human operators or deals with uncertain conditions. Such feedback loops have found their way to a variety of practical applications; typical examples are an elastic cloud to adapt computing resources and automated server management to respond quickly to business needs. To gain insight into the motivations for applying self-adaptation in practice, the problems solved using self-adaptation and how these problems are solved, and the difficulties and risks that industry faces in adopting self-adaptation, we performed a large-scale survey. We received 184 valid responses from practitioners spread over 21 countries. Based on the analysis of the survey data, we provide an empirically grounded overview the of state of the practice in the application of self-adaptation. From that, we derive insights for researchers to check their current research with industrial needs, and for practitioners to compare their current practice in applying self-adaptation. These insights also provide opportunities for applying self-adaptation in practice and pave the way for future industry-research collaborations.