bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Occupational socioeconomic risk associations for head and neck cancer in Europe and South America: individual participant data analysis of pooled case–control studies within the INHANCE Consortium
Authors: Conway David I , Hovanec Jan , Ahrens Wolfgang , Ross Alastair , Holcatova Ivana , Lagiou Pagona , Serraino Diego , Canova Cristina , Richiardi Lorenzo , Healy Claire , Kjaerheim Kristina , Macfarlane Gary J , Thomson Peter , Agudo Antonio , Znaor Ariana , Brennan Paul , Luce Danièle , Menvielle Gwenn , Stucker Isabelle , Benhamou Simone , Ramroth Heribert , Boffetta Paolo , Vilensky Marta , Fernandez Leticia , Curado Maria Paula , Menezes Ana , Daudt Alexander , Koifman Rosalina , Wunsch-Filho Victor , Yuan-Chin Amy Lee , Hashibe Mia , Behrens Thomas , McMahon Alex D
Published: February 2021

Background

The association between socioeconomic disadvantage (low education and/or income) and head and neck cancer is well established, with smoking and alcohol consumption explaining up to three-quarters of the risk. We aimed to investigate the nature of and explanations for head and neck cancer risk associated with occupational socioeconomic prestige (a perceptual measure of psychosocial status), occupational socioeconomic position and manual-work experience, and to assess the potential explanatory role of occupational exposures.

Methods

Pooled analysis included 5818 patients with head and neck cancer (and 7326 control participants) from five studies in Europe and South America. Lifetime job histories were coded to: (1) occupational social prestige—Treiman’s Standard International Occupational Prestige Scale (SIOPS); (2) occupational socioeconomic position—International Socio-Economic Index (ISEI); and (3) manual/non-manual jobs.

Results

For the longest held job, adjusting for smoking, alcohol and nature of occupation, increased head and neck cancer risk estimates were observed for low SIOPS OR=1.88 (95% CI: 1.64 to 2.17), low ISEI OR=1.74 (95% CI: 1.51 to 1.99) and manual occupations OR=1.49 (95% CI: 1.35 to 1.64). Following mutual adjustment by socioeconomic exposures, risk associated with low SIOPS remained OR=1.59 (95% CI: 1.30 to 1.94).

Conclusions

These findings indicate that low occupational socioeconomic prestige, position and manual work are associated with head and neck cancer, and such risks are only partly explained by smoking, alcohol and occupational exposures. Perceptual occupational psychosocial status (SIOPS) appears to be the strongest socioeconomic factor, relative to socioeconomic position and manual/non-manual work.
Downstream testing after CT coronary angiography: time for a rethink?
Authors: Morgan-Hughes Gareth , Williams Michelle Claire , Loudon Margaret , Roobottom Carl A , Veitch Alice , Van Lingen Robin , Holloway Ben , Bellenger Nicholas , Schmitt Matthias , Bull Russel
Published: February 2021

Objective

We surveyed UK practice and compliance with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) ‘recent-onset chest pain’ guidance (Clinical Guideline 95, 2016) as a service quality initiative. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic utility and efficacy of CT coronary angiography (CTCA), NICE-guided investigation compliance, invasive coronary angiography (ICA) use and revascularisation.

Methods

A prospective analysis was conducted in nine UK centres between January 2018 and March 2020. The reporter decided whether the CTCA was diagnostic. Coronary artery disease was recorded with the Coronary Artery Disease–Reporting and Data System (CAD-RADS). Local electronic records and picture archiving/communication systems were used to collect data regarding functional testing, ICA and revascularisation. Duplication of coronary angiography without revascularisation was taken as a surrogate for ICA overuse.

Results

5293 patients (mean age, 57±12 years; body mass index, 29±6 kg/m²; 50% men) underwent CTCA, with a 96% diagnostic scan rate. 618 (12%) underwent ICA, of which 48% (298/618) did not receive revascularisation. 3886 (73%) had CAD-RADS 0–2, with 1% (35/3886) undergoing ICA, of which 94% (33/35) received ICA as a second-line test. 547 (10%) had CAD-RADS 3, with 23% (125/547) undergoing ICA, of which 88% (110/125) chose ICA as a second-line test, with 26% (33/125) leading to revascularisation. For 552 (10%) CAD-RADS 4 and 91 (2%) CAD-RADS 5 patients, ICA revascularisation rates were 64% (221/345) and 74% (46/62), respectively.

Conclusions

While CTCA for recent-onset chest pain assessment has been shown to be a robust test, which negates the need for further investigation in three-quarters of patients, subsequent ICA overuse remains with almost half of these procedures not leading to revascularisation.
Arterial and venous thromboembolism in COVID-19: a study-level meta-analysis
Authors: Tan Boun Kim , Mainbourg Sabine , Friggeri Arnaud , Bertoletti Laurent , Douplat Marion , Dargaud Yesim , Grange Claire , Lobbes Hervé , Provencher Steeve , Lega Jean-Christophe
Published: February 2021

Background

The prevalence of venous thromboembolic event (VTE) and arterial thromboembolic event (ATE) thromboembolic events in patients with COVID-19 remains largely unknown.

Methods

In this meta-analysis, we systematically searched for observational studies describing the prevalence of VTE and ATE in COVID-19 up to 30 September 2020.

Results

We analysed findings from 102 studies (64 503 patients). The frequency of COVID-19-related VTE was 14.7% (95% CI 12.1% to 17.6%, I2=94%; 56 studies; 16 507 patients). The overall prevalence rates of pulmonary embolism (PE) and leg deep vein thrombosis were 7.8% (95% CI 6.2% to 9.4%, I2=94%; 66 studies; 23 117 patients) and 11.2% (95% CI 8.4% to 14.3%, I2=95%; 48 studies; 13 824 patients), respectively. Few were isolated subsegmental PE. The VTE prevalence was significantly higher in intensive care unit (ICU) (23.2%, 95% CI 17.5% to 29.6%, I2=92%, vs 9.0%, 95% CI 6.9% to 11.4%, I2=95%; pinteraction<0.0001) and in series systematically screening patients compared with series testing symptomatic patients (25.2% vs 12.7%, pinteraction=0.04). The frequency rates of overall ATE, acute coronary syndrome, stroke and other ATE were 3.9% (95% CI 2.0% to to 3.0%, I2=96%; 16 studies; 7939 patients), 1.6% (95% CI 1.0% to 2.2%, I2=93%; 27 studies; 40 597 patients) and 0.9% (95% CI 0.5% to 1.5%, I2=84%; 17 studies; 20 139 patients), respectively. Metaregression and subgroup analyses failed to explain heterogeneity of overall ATE. High heterogeneity limited the value of estimates.

Conclusions

Patients admitted in the ICU for severe COVID-19 had a high risk of VTE. Conversely, further studies are needed to determine the specific effects of COVID-19 on the risk of ATE or VTE in less severe forms of the disease.
Photoproduction of strange hidden-charm and hidden-bottom states
Authors: Cao Xu , Dai Jian-Ping , Yang Zhi
Published: February 2021

Recently BESIII collaboration discovered a charged strange hidden-charm state $$Z_{cs}$$

Z

cs

(3985) in the $$D_s^-D^{*0} + D_s^{*-}D^{0}$$

D
s
-

D

∗
0

+

D
s

∗
-

D
0

spectrum. A higher $$Z'_{cs}$$

Z

cs

′

state coupling to $${\bar{D}}_s^{*-}D^{*0}$$

D

¯

s

∗
-

D

∗
0

is expected by SU(3)-flavor symmetry, and their bottom partners are anticipated by heavy quark flavor symmetry. Here we study the photoproduction of these exotic states and investigate carefully the background from Pomeron exchange. Our results indicate that the maximal photoproduction cross section of strange partner is around 1–2 orders of magnitude smaller than that of the corresponding non-strange states. The possibility of searching for them in future electron-ion colliders (EIC) is briefly discussed.
Probing unified theories with reduced couplings at future hadron colliders
Authors: Heinemeyer S. , Kalinowski J. , Kotlarski W. , Mondragón M. , Patellis G. , Tracas N. , Zoupanos G.
Published: February 2021

The search for renormalization group invariant relations among parameters to all orders in perturbation theory constitutes the basis of the reduction of couplings concept. Reduction of couplings can be achieved in certain $$N=1$$

N
=
1

supersymmetric grand unified theories and few of them can become even finite at all loops. We review the basic idea, the tools that have been developed as well as the resulting theories in which successful reduction of couplings has been achieved so far. These include: (i) a reduced version of the minimal $$N = 1\ SU(5)$$

N
=
1

S
U
(
5
)

model, (ii) an all-loop finite $$N = 1\ SU(5)$$

N
=
1

S
U
(
5
)

model, (iii) a two-loop finite $$N = 1\ SU(3)^3$$

N
=
1

S
U

(
3
)

3

model and finally (vi) a reduced version of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. In this paper we present a number of benchmark scenarios for each model and investigate their observability at existing and future hadron colliders. The heavy supersymmetric spectra featured by each of the above models are found to be beyond the reach of the 14 TeV HL-LHC. It is also found that the reduced version of the MSSM is already ruled out by the LHC searches for heavy neutral MSSM Higgs bosons. In turn the discovery potential of the 100 TeV FCC-hh is investigated and found that large parts of the predicted spectrum of these models can be tested, but the higher mass regions are beyond the reach even of the FCC-hh.
Reflection identities of harmonic sums and pole decomposition of BFKL eigenvalue
Authors: Joubat Mohammad , Prygarin Alex
Published: February 2021

We analyze the recent results of next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) singlet BFKL eigenvalue in [Formula: see text] SYM written in terms of harmonic sums. The nested harmonic sums building known NNLO BFKL eigenvalue for specific values of the conformal spin have poles at negative integers. We sort the harmonic sums according to the complexity with respect to their weight and depth and use their pole decomposition in terms of the reflection identities to find the most complicated terms of NNLO BFKL eigenvalue for an arbitrary value of the conformal spin. The obtained result is compatible with the Bethe–Salpeter approach to the BFKL evolution.
Generalized heredity in ℬ-free systems
Authors: Keller Gerhard
Published: February 2021

Let [Formula: see text] be a primitive set, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and denote by [Formula: see text] the orbit closure of [Formula: see text] under the shift. We complement results on heredity of [Formula: see text] from [Dymek et al., [Formula: see text]-free sets and dynamics, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 370 (2018) 5425–5489] in two directions: In the proximal case we prove that a certain subshift [Formula: see text], which coincides with [Formula: see text] when [Formula: see text] is taut, is always hereditary. (In particular there is no need for the stronger assumption that the set [Formula: see text] has light tails, as in [Dymek et al., [Formula: see text]-free sets and dynamics, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 370 (2018) 5425–5489].) We also generalize the concept of heredity to include the non-proximal (and hence non-hereditary) case by proving that [Formula: see text] is always “hereditary above its unique minimal (Toeplitz) subsystem”. Finally, we characterize this Toeplitz subsystem as being a set [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] for a set [Formula: see text] that can be derived from [Formula: see text], and draw some further conclusions from this characterization. Throughout results from [Kasjan et al., Dynamics of [Formula: see text]-free sets: A view through the window, Int. Math. Res. Not. 2019 (2019) 2690–2734] are heavily used.
Up-Conversion Luminescence Properties of Nd3+/Yb3+ Doped Lutetium-Based Oxyfluoride Glass Ceramic
Authors: Ou Yuan , Yan Xuefei , Lv Yong , Niu Chunhui
Published: February 2021

Nd[Formula: see text]/Yb[Formula: see text] co-doped lutetium-based glass sample and glass ceramic sample were prepared with the molar ratios of 52SiO2-8Na2CO3-16Al2O3-33NaF-3LuF3-0.15Yb2O3-0.03Nd2O3 by the high temperature melting method in 1400∘C. Under the excitation of 980[Formula: see text]nm diode laser, up-conversion luminescence spectrum of glass sample and glass ceramic sample was measured and three stronger up-conversion luminescence peaks at the wavelength of 552[Formula: see text]nm, 656[Formula: see text]nm and 668[Formula: see text]nm were observed, and up-conversion luminescence strengths of glass ceramic sample are higher than those of glass sample. The two-photon absorption of three emission peaks was determined by the fitting curve graph of up-conversion emission power and LD wording current. Absorption spectrum of glass ceramic sample was obtained and spectral strength parameters were computed as [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]cm2, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]cm2, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]cm2 by adopting Judd–Ofelt theory, and the root mean square deviation between the theoretical oscillator strength and the experimental oscillator strength were calculated as [Formula: see text]. Transition probability, branching ratio of 4F[Formula: see text] to its lower level and lifetime of 4F[Formula: see text] level of Nd[Formula: see text] ions were calculated, and the results indicate that the prepared Nd[Formula: see text]/Yb[Formula: see text] co-doped glass ceramic sample is a kind of good up-conversion material.
Interactive Sequential Basket Recommendation by Learning Basket Couplings and Positive/Negative Feedback
Authors: Wang Wei , Cao Longbing
Published: February 2021

Sequential recommendation
, such as
next-basket recommender systems
(NBRS), which model users’ sequential behaviors and the relevant context/session, has recently attracted much attention from the research community. Existing
session-based NBRS
involve session representation and inter-basket relations but ignore their hybrid couplings with the intra-basket items, often producing irrelevant or similar items in the next basket. In addition, they do not predict next-baskets (more than one next basket recommended).
Interactive recommendation
further involves user feedback on the recommended basket. The existing work on next-item recommendation involves positive feedback on selected items but ignores negative feedback on unselected ones. Here, we introduce a new setting—
interactive sequential basket recommendation
, which iteratively predicts next baskets by learning the intra-/inter-basket couplings between items and both positive and negative user feedback on recommended baskets. A
hierarchical attentive encoder-decoder model
(HAEM) continuously recommends next baskets one after another during sequential interactions with users after analyzing the item relations both within a basket and between adjacent sequential baskets (i.e., intra-/inter-basket couplings) and incorporating the user selection and unselection (i.e., positive/negative) feedback on the recommended baskets to refine NBRS. HAEM comprises a basket encoder and a sequence decoder to model intra-/inter-basket couplings and a prediction decoder to sequentially predict next-baskets by interactive feedback-based refinement. Empirical analysis shows that HAEM significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines for NBRS and session-based recommenders for accurate and novel recommendation. We also show the effect of continuously refining sequential basket recommendation by including unselection feedback during interactive recommendation.
Toward Comprehensive User and Item Representations via Three-tier Attention Network
Authors: Liu Hongtao , Wang Wenjun , Peng Qiyao , Wu Nannan , Wu Fangzhao , Jiao Pengfei
Published: February 2021

Product reviews can provide rich information about the opinions users have of products. However, it is nontrivial to effectively infer user preference and item characteristics from reviews due to the complicated semantic understanding. Existing methods usually learn features for users and items from reviews in single static fashions and cannot fully capture user preference and item features. In this article, we propose a neural review-based recommendation approach that aims to learn comprehensive representations of users/items under a three-tier attention framework. We design a review encoder to learn review features from words via a word-level attention, an aspect encoder to learn aspect features via a review-level attention, and a user/item encoder to learn the final representations of users/items via an aspect-level attention. In word- and review-level attentions, we adopt the context-aware mechanism to indicate importance of words and reviews dynamically instead of static attention weights. In addition, the attentions in the word and review levels are of multiple paradigms to learn multiple features effectively, which could indicate the diversity of user/item features. Furthermore, we propose a personalized aspect-level attention module in user/item encoder to learn the final comprehensive features. Extensive experiments are conducted and the results in rating prediction validate the effectiveness of our method.
Comparative Evaluation of LMR-NCM and NCA Cathode Active Materials in Multilayer Lithium-Ion Pouch Cells: Part II. Rate Capability, Long-Term Stability, and Thermal Behavior
Authors: Kraft Ludwig , Zünd Tanja , Schreiner David , Wilhelm Rebecca , Günter Florian J. , Reinhart Gunther , Gasteiger Hubert A. , Jossen Andreas
Published: February 2021

A lithium- and manganese-rich layered transition metal oxide-based cathode active material (LMR-NCM) with a reversible capacity of 250 mAh g−1 vs graphite is compared to an established NCA/graphite combination in multilayer lithium-ion pouch cells with a capacity of 5.5 Ah at a 1C discharge rate. The production of the cells, the electrode characterization as well as the formation is described in Part I of this study. In Part II, the two cell types are evaluated for their rate capability and their long-term stability. The specific capacity of the LMR-NCM pouch cells is ≈30% higher in comparison to the NCA pouch cells. However, due to the lower mean discharge voltage of LMR-NCM, the energy density on the cell level is only 11% higher. At higher discharge currents, a pronounced heat generation of the LMR-NCM pouch cells was observed, which is ascribed to the LMR-NCM voltage hysteresis and is only detectable in large-format cells. The cycling stability of the LMR-NCM cells is somewhat inferior due to their faster capacity and voltage fading, likely also related to electrolyte oxidation. This results in a lower energy density on the cell level after 210 cycles compared to the NCA pouch cells.
An Ochratoxin A Electrocatalytic Sensor Based on Electron Mediator Decorated Nanoalloy Biomimetic Enzyme Coupling with Label-Free Hair Aptamer
Authors: Wang Xiaoying , Lv Liangrui , Chen Qingqing , Xu Mingming , Yu Bingjia
Published: February 2021

An electrocatalytic sensor based on electron mediator toluidine blue (Tb) decorated PtPd nanoalloys (PtPdNAs) biomimetic enzyme coupling with label-free hair aptamer (HA) for OTA detection was successfully constructed. In this work, label-free HA was designed containing anti-OTA aptamer sequence (APT) and complementary sequence (cDNA) of report DNA (rDNA). rDNA and Tb joint decorated PtPdNAs (Tb-PtPd-rDNA) was used as a signal probe. The peroxidase-like activity of the PtPdNAs combined with the synergistic catalysis of the Poly 3,4-ethoxylene dioxy thiophene-AuNPs (PEDOT-AuNPs) coated glass-carbon electrode (PE-Au/GCE) resulted in strong catalytic current of Tb and eventually significantly improved the sensitivity of the sensor. The response current had a good metrological-signal relationship with OTA concentration from 0.1 pg ml-1 to 0.1 ng ml-1, and the low detection limit of 0.05 pg ml-1 was obtained. Meanwhile, the proposed sensor exhibited a good correlation with HPLC when it was applied for OTA detection in red wine samples. The strategy broadens the design of catalytic sensor and can be applied to the detection of other small molecules.
Evaluation of Process Damage Induced by Sputtering of Transparent Conductive Oxide Films for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells
Authors: Kanai H. , Nishihara T. , Ogura A.
Published: February 2021

We evaluated the damage to crystalline silicon caused by sputtering deposition of transparent conductive oxide films (TCO). We confirmed that direct deposition of TCO on the crystalline silicon deteriorates the carrier lifetime. Also, the difference in discharge voltage during the TCO sputtering has an influence on plasma damage and damage penetration depth to the crystalline silicon. We consider that the carrier lifetime is reduced because of the surface recombination posed by the damage. Furthermore, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy was performed, and the so-called “irradiation-induced defects,” defects that are formed typically after electron beam and ion irradiation, were observed at deep levels of 0.789 eV, 0.767 eV, and 0.714 eV. These irradiation-induced defects act as recombination centers and may cause the deterioration of the conversion efficiency in crystalline silicon solar cells. We believe understanding and controlling these defects are important for improving the conversion efficiency of solar cells.
The Thermal-Oxidation Behavior of Pristine and Doped Magnéli Phase Titanium Oxides
Authors: English Joseph T. , Wilkinson David P.
Published: February 2021

Magnéli phase titanium oxides (Ti
n
O2n−1, 4 ≤ n ≤ 10) are important materials for solid state and electrochemical technologies such as memristors, batteries, fuel cells, and electrochemical devices for water treatment. Developing an understanding of transitions between Ti
n
O2n−1 and its product of oxidation, titanium(IV) oxide (TiO2), as well as strategies such as doping to modulate the conditions for such changes will enable the development of more effective devices. To elucidate a mechanism for their thermal oxidation and investigate the influence of doping, the thermal-oxidation behavior in air of Ti4O7 doped with vanadium, chromium, and iron were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). These powders prepared by high-temperature H2 reduction of dopant-containing TiO2 were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), gas adsorption analysis, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). V- and Fe-‍doping improved the thermal stability of Ti4O7 as evidenced by higher onset temperatures in their thermograms. Three-dimensional diffusion reaction models adequately describe the solid-state kinetics of thermal oxidation of Ti4O7 in air as demonstrated by linear model-fitting. Doping shows a mixed influence on the kinetics for thermal oxidation in air reducing both the Arrhenius pre-exponential factor and the activation energy.
The Influence of Fair Value Measurement on Radical Financing of Irrational Managers Based on Fixed Effects Model and Fisher Permutation Test
Authors: Wang Wei , Qu Xiao-hui , Du Jian-Ju , Zhu Jia-Ming
Published: February 2021

Adopting fair value measurement may bring more earnings fluctuations and induce irrational psychology and radical financing behavior of managers. Based on behavioral corporate governance theory, using the sample of Chinese A‐share nonfinancial listed companies during 2007–2017, this paper empirically examines the regulatory effect of fair value measurement, that is, whether fair value measurement affects the company′s financing decisions when managers have irrational psychological characteristics, i.e., overconfidence. The study found that overconfident managers of the company that have fair value measurement assets will be more aggressive for debt decisions, indicating that fair value measurement has a positively regulatory effect on overconfident managers.
Chronic Pain after Open Appendectomy and Its Effects on Quality of Life in Children Aged 8–18 Years
Authors: Palabiyik Onur , Demir Gurkan
Published: February 2021

Background. Chronic postsurgical pain is an important problem for both children and adults. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of chronic postappendectomy pain (CPAP) in children and its social and physical effects. Methods. This prospective observational study was conducted on children aged 8–18 years who had undergone open appendectomies. In the sixth month after the surgical procedure, the presence of chronic pain was examined in the lower right abdominal area. CPAP and its effects on children’s daily life activities were assessed using the numeric rating scale (NRS) and the Pediatric Quality of Life Scale (PedsQL). Results. Analysis was performed on 158 children, 97 of whom were boys (61.4%) and 61 were girls (38.6%). The average age was 12.8 ± 3 years, the average NRS was 4.48 ± 1.1, and the average scar length was 6.09 ± 1.6 cm. Twenty-nine children described CPAP, and its prevalence at six months after the surgery was 18.4%. Of these, 16 (55.2%) complained of pain only during exercise and 13 (44.8%) experienced pain while resting. The rate of CPAP was significantly higher in girls. Female gender and longer scar length were associated with the development of chronic pain. The PedsQL scores from the children’s self-reports and their parents’ reports were significantly lower for children who described CPAP as compared to those without CPAP. Conclusion. CPAP occurs quite frequently in children, especially in girls, and negatively affects children’s quality of life.
An Adaptive Parallel Method for Indexing Transportation Moving Objects
Authors: Chen Kun-lun , Li Chuan-wen , Lu Guang , Li Jia-quan , Zhang Tong
Published: February 2021

Transportation cyber‐physical systems are constrained by spatiality and real‐time because of their high level of heterogeneity. Therefore, applications like traffic control generally manage moving objects in a single‐machine multithreaded manner, whereas suffering from frequent locking operations. To address this problem and improve the throughput of moving object databases, we propose a GPU‐accelerated indexing method, based on a grid data structure, combined with quad‐trees. We count object movements and decide whether a particular node should be split or be merged on the GPU. In this case, bottlenecked nodes can be translated to quad‐tree without interfering with the CPU. Hence, waiting time of other threads caused by locking operations raised by object data updating can be reduced. The method is simple while more adaptive to scenarios where the distribution of moving objects is skewed. It also avoids shortcomings of existing methods with performance bottleneck on the hot area or spending plenty of calculation resources on structure balancing. Experiments suggest that our method shows higher throughput and lower response time than the existing indexing methods. The advantage is even more significant under the skewed distribution of moving objects.
Study on Cracking Resistance of Basalt Fiber‐Reinforced Microbond Asphalt Macadam
Authors: Yan Xin , Ying Ronghua , Jin Jian , Zhang Yuntai
Published: February 2021

The aim of the present study was to explore the effect of basalt fibers on the cracking resistance of microbond asphalt macadam and reduce the occurrence of cracks in asphalt pavements with semirigid base. To this end, compressive resilient modulus tests, rutting tests, and semicircular bending tests were conducted on microbond asphalt macadam with different fiber contents, and the change trends of the compressive resilient modulus, dynamic stability, and flexibility index (FI) with fiber content were revealed. According to the results of this study, the addition of basalt fibers affected the compressive resilient modulus, dynamic stability, and FI of microbond asphalt macadam significantly. With the increase of fiber content, the compressive resilient modulus, dynamic stability, and FI presented a uniform trend of increasing first and decreasing afterwards. When the fiber content was 0.4%, various indices reached their maximum values, suggesting that the cracking resistance of the basalt fiber‐reinforced microbond asphalt macadam was optimal under this content. This study is of great significance for the application and promotion of basalt fiber‐reinforced microbond asphalt macadam.
Gastrostomy as a Preemptive Measure after Pancreatoduodenectomy against Delayed Gastric Emptying: A Small Case Series and a Review of the Literature
Authors: Floros G. , Galanis I. , Theodoropoulos P. , Bartziotas D. , Theodoropoulos C. , Metaxa M. , Giannos G. , Tsintavis P. , Stylianidis G. , Klimopoulos S.
Published: February 2021

Delayed gastric emptying (DGE) is a common (20–30%) postoperative complication following pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) (Parmar et al., 2013). Various causes and preemptive measures have been suggested to decrease the occurrence of DGE. We added a simple step in the procedure of 26 consecutive pancreatic head resections, which seems to alleviate DGE and has never been highlighted before.
Scrotal Verrucous Carcinoma: An Exceptional Localization of a Rare Tumor
Authors: Imrani K. , Lahfidi A. , Belkouchi L. , Jerguigue H. , Latib R. , Omor Y.
Published: February 2021

Scrotal verrucous carcinoma is a rare entity. It is rarely metastatic especially in lymph nodes. Imaging is important for local extension in order to guide the surgical procedure. The diagnostic is histological. The treatment is based on surgical excision. The prognosis is relatively good, but local recurrences are frequent. We report a case of scrotal verrucous carcinoma in a 49-year-old man evolving for 1 year.
Application of Vibration Signals for the Quantitative Analysis of the Optimal Threshold of Bearing Failure
Authors: Tang YaoChi , Li Kuohao
Published: February 2021

This study established the prognostics and health management system for bearing failure. The vibration signals measured during the bearing operation were used for prognostics. First, the time‐domain signal of vibration was calculated through generalized fractal dimensions, and the relationship diagram of generalized fractal dimensions and time was obtained. Then, the trend of bearing failure was compared by the GFDal results. However, the results can only be used for qualitative feature extraction. The bearing failure at the beginning cannot be determined by qualitative methods. Therefore, this study further converted the calculation results of GFDs into a Gauss distribution curve based on the statistical method under normal operation of the bearing. The Gauss distribution curve of the bearing under normal operation and at different time was overlapped. The overlap rate of the bearing area under different times was calculated. The minimum value was taken as the diagnostic standard, which was the optimal threshold of bearing failure defined in this study and was used as the quantitative basis for bearing failure. Therefore, the comparison of the area overlap rate under the Gauss distribution curve between the normal bearing and the bearing under test could provide diagnosis to the bearing failure. Moreover, the time point of the initial failure of the bearing could also be estimated based on the optimal failure threshold.
Statistically Quantifying the Uncertainty in Strength of Marine Clay Stabilized by a Type of Portland‐Fly Ash Cement
Authors: Zhu Zhi-Ren , Cheng Qiang-Qiang , Chen Yang-Yang , Chen Elton J. , Su Yuan
Published: February 2021

This study deals with the variation in strength of clays stabilized by a special binder—the CEM II/B‐V type of Portland‐fly ash cement. Two sources of uncertainties were examined, that is, the uncertainty in cement fraction in the binder, and the nonuniformity in binder concentration resulted from the process of mixing binder slurry with in situ clays. These two uncertainties were quantitatively described as two random variables, and the analyses were conducted through the Monte Carlo simulation method. Results indicate that the strength is insensitive to the cement fraction in the binder but is sensitive to the binder concentration; the variation of the latter even results in an amplified variation of strength. The variation of binder concentration is proposed to be linked up with the variation of strength through the operational parameter of blade rotation number. By doing so, the results could benefit designers in quality control prior to the construction of soil stabilization.
Reinforcement Learning in Neurocritical and Neurosurgical Care: Principles and Possible Applications
Authors: Liu Ying , Qiao Nidan , Altinel Yuksel
Published: February 2021

Dynamic decision-making was essential in the clinical care of surgical patients. Reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm is a computational method to find sequential optimal decisions among multiple suboptimal options. This review is aimed at introducing RL’s basic concepts, including three basic components: the state, the action, and the reward. Most medical studies using reinforcement learning methods were trained on a fixed observational dataset. This paper also reviews the literature of existing practical applications using reinforcement learning methods, which can be further categorized as a statistical RL study and a computational RL study. The review proposes several potential aspects where reinforcement learning can be applied in neurocritical and neurosurgical care. These include sequential treatment strategies of intracranial tumors and traumatic brain injury and intraoperative endoscope motion control. Several limitations of reinforcement learning are representations of basic components, the positivity violation, and validation methods.
Parallel Processing Method of Inertial Aerobics Multisensor Data Fusion
Authors: Zhang Hongda , Zhang Ting
Published: February 2021

Aerobics is one of the main contents of physical education, which has a positive role in promoting the health of young people. This paper mainly studies the parallel processing method of inertial aerobics multisensor data fusion. In this paper, an aerobics exercise system is designed, which uses digital filter to remove the noise generated in the process of exercise. In this paper, Kalman filter is used to filter the pulse error of accelerometer, and the data structure of unidirectional link is used to achieve the effect of sliding window, which can reduce the memory cost to the greatest extent. In this paper, the region of moving object is determined by horizontal and vertical projection of binary symmetric difference image. At the same time, the optimal feature combination is selected from the reduced features by feature subset selection, and the classification algorithm is used as the evaluation function in the optimization process. Finally, the collected data are tested, analyzed, and sorted out. The experimental data show that, after calibrating the sensor data, the static x-axis and y-axis data are about 0 g, and the z-axis data are about 1 g, which is closer to the real value. The results show that the attitude data collected by the inertial sensor can be stably transmitted to the software of the computer wirelessly for attitude reconstruction, and the recognition of each attitude and parameter has reached a high accuracy.
Exuberant Intratracheal Granuloma
Authors: Stuart Emelia , Armaneous Michael , Bracken David , Crawford Kayva , Vahabzadeh-Hagh Andrew M.
Published: February 2021

Background. Upper airway granulomas are commonly encountered benign masses and are a result of pronounced tissue reactivity to localized respiratory mucosal trauma. The mechanism of injury to respiratory epithelium is most commonly iatrogenic and associated with intubation or indwelling tracheostomy. Case Report. A 40-year-old obese female with a history of multiple intubations, poorly controlled diabetes mellitus type II, and history of tracheal stenosis presented with sudden onset respiratory distress requiring intubation at an outside hospital. Direct laryngoscopy revealed a rapidly forming transglottic tissue mass, measuring 5.0 × 2.2 × 0.8 cm. The following case represents an unusual exception to our experience with granulomas given its rapidity of onset and migration of tissue around the endotracheal tube. Discussion. Laryngeal erythema and granulation formation are expected postintubation findings in most patients; however, the large size of granuloma tissue and rapid onset of symptoms in this case make it remarkable. Our patient had multiple risk factors for postintubation stenosis: female sex, poorly controlled diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and multiple prior intubations for periods lasting longer than forty-eight hours. Conclusion. Our case highlights a rare laryngeal finding of a large granulation tissue mass causing sudden onset airway obstruction.
Acute Myocardial Infarction due to External Compression of the Left Main Coronary Artery by a Large Pulmonary Artery Aneurysm
Authors: Sharma H. , Doshi S. N. , Nadir M. A.
Published: February 2021

Background. Although rare, external compression of the left main coronary artery (LMCA) by a pulmonary arterial aneurysm (PAA) as a consequence of pulmonary arterial hypertension causing stable angina pectoris is well described. However, acute myocardial infarction is extremely rare, particularly with a full array of electrocardiographic, biochemical, and echocardiographic features, as in this scenario. Case. In this case, a 62-year-old man with a past history of severe fibrotic lung disease was hospitalised with chest pain. The patient had dynamic anterolateral ischaemic changes on electrocardiography and serially elevated high-sensitivity troponin I. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed impaired left ventricular ejection fraction with anterolateral hypokinesis. Coronary angiography with intracoronary imaging revealed external compression of the LMCA. Computer tomography (CT) scans confirmed new PAA, compared to previous scans. The patient was successfully treated by percutaneous coronary stent implantation. Conclusion. Progressive dilatation of the pulmonary artery due to pulmonary arterial hypertension can result in acute MI secondary to external compression of the LMCA. Clinicians should be mindful of acute coronary syndromes in patients with long-standing pulmonary hypertension presenting with chest pain.
Effectiveness of Clinical Decision Tools in Predicting Pulmonary Embolism
Authors: Simon Michael A. , Tan Christopher , Hilden Patrick , Gesner Lyle , Julius Barry
Published: February 2021

Objective. The Wells criteria and revised Geneva score are two commonly used clinical decision tools (CDTs) developed to assist physicians in determining when computed tomographic angiograms (CTAs) should be performed to evaluate the high index of suspicion for pulmonary embolism (PE). Studies have shown varied accuracy in these CDTs in identifying PE, and we sought to determine their accuracy within our patient population. Methods. Patients admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) who received a CTA for suspected PE from 2019 Jun 1 to 2019 Aug 31 were identified. Two CDTSs, the Wells criteria and revised Geneva score, were calculated based on data available prior to CTA and using the common D-Dimer cutoff of >500 μg/L. We determined the association between confirmed PE and CDT values and determined the association between the D-Dimer result and PE. Results. 392 CTAs were identified with 48 (12.1%) positive PE cases. The Wells criteria and revised Geneva score were significantly associated with PE but failed to identify 12.5% and 70.4% of positive PE cases, respectively. Within our cohort, a D-Dimer cutoff of >300 μg/L was significantly associated with PE and captured 95.2% of PE cases. Conclusions. Both CDTs were significantly associated with PE but failed to identify PE in a significant number of cases, particularly the revised Geneva score. Alternative D-Dimer cutoffs may provide better accuracy in identifying PE cases.
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Good Self-Care Practice among People Living with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Ethiopia: A National Call to Bolster Lifestyle Changes
Authors: Dagnew Baye , Debalkie Demissie Getu , Abebaw Angaw Dessie
Published: February 2021

Background. Self-care practice is the mainstay of management for good glycemic control. Despite the presence of a few pocket studies, no comprehensive study was conducted in Ethiopia to demonstrate the overall good self-care practice among diabetic patients in Ethiopia. Therefore, we intended to conduct this systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the overall good self-care practice among people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Ethiopia. Methods. We systematically searched PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Cochrane library, Google scholar, and direct Google to retrieve relevant studies. Forest plot was used to present the pooled estimate of good self-care practice using DerSimonian and Laird’s random-effects model. We checked publication bias using Egger’s test and funnel plot. Potential heterogeneity was tested using the I-squared statistic. Moreover, subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed. Results. In this review, 12 primary studies (with a total sample size of 4030) were included. Because of the presence of heterogeneity, we employed a random-effects model. After running the random-effects model, the pooled estimate of overall good self-care practice was 51.12% (95% CI: 41.90–60.34). Furthermore, the pooled estimate of good dietary practice was 50.18% (95% CI: 32.75–67.60), good physical exercise practice was 48.29% (95% CI: 34.14–62.43), the good footcare practice was 63.61% (95% CI: 45.56–81.66), and appropriate self-monitoring of the blood glucose level was 31.89% (95% CI: −4.62–68.41). In this meta-analysis, there was serious interstudy variation, but there was no publication bias. Conclusions. The overall good self-care practice among people living with T2DM was low which necessitates the need for designing strategies to increase the self-care practice. The health sector has to bolster awareness creation to allow better plasma glucose control and preventing diabetes-related complications. This trial is registered with CRD42019147694.
Hydrogen electrified railways based shunt hybrid filter
Authors: Bessadet Ibtissam , Tédjini Hamza , Khalil Bousserhane Ismail
Published: February 2021

This paper presents a proposal to keep the conventional railway system, by creating a secure external independent hydrogen station, with the integration of a parallel hybrid filter to isolate the propagation of harmonics, and the reduction of the current ripple. In modern applicactions hydrogen stations are one of the most important sources of sustainable energy; this has been considered one of the most significant sources of energy, as it has no pollution output. Most current research proposes to integrate the fuel cell into the railway, and this will make it face higher risks such as accidents and vibrations as well as the approach of the storage a system to different people. We research any aspect of the proposed method and we demonstrate the ffect of shunt hybrid filter (SHPF) uses in stopping the propagation of the harmonics to the hydrogen side.
Modeling and validation of lithium-ion battery with initial state of charge estimation
Authors: Alsabari Ali Mohsen , Hassan M.K , CS Azura , Zafira Ribhan
Published: February 2021

The modeling of lithium-ion battery is an important element to the management of batteries in industrial applications. Various models have been studied and investigated, ranging from simple to complex. The second-order equivalent circuit model was studied and investigated since the dynamic behavior of the battery is fully characterized. The simulation model was built in Matlab Simulink using the Kirchhoff Laws principle in mathematical equations, while the battery's internal parameters were identified by using the BTS4000 (Battery tester) device. To estimate the full state of charge (SOC), the initial state of charge (SOC0) must be identified or measured. Hence, this paper seeks for the SOC estimation by using experimental terminal voltage data and SOC with Matlab lookup table. Then, the simulated terminal voltage, as well as the SOC of the battery are compared and validated against measured data. The maximum relative error of 0.015 V and 2% for terminal voltage and SOC respectively shows that the proposed model is accurate and relevant based on the error analysis.
Design and characteristics assessment of wireless vibration sensor for buildings and houses
Authors: Suherman Suherman , Fahmi Fahmi , Hasnita Ulfa , Herri Zul
Published: February 2021

This paper reports the wireless vibration detector design and characterization for practical applications. System is built by using the ATmega microcontrollers, working on a free license 433 MHz frequency. Hardware characteristics are defined through experimental assessments. Assessment mainly on sensor output and sensor installation characteristics. As results, hardware is working as expected, where vibration level achieves at most 13% detection for 12 g vibration source. The vertical axis of the MPU6050 vibration detector results 87.5 times higher detection than in horizontal axis. Detected vibration increases from 1.03 g to 2.61 g when source-sensor distance is shortened from 10 cm to 2 cm. The aluminium sheet as sensor pad causes detection of 8.69 times higher than on ceramic pad. The lower the detection period the better the detection amplitude. However, the lower the period, the higher the consumed power. Microcontroller sleep mode is not suitable for short period detection. The node-based data validation to avoid transmitting false detection is not influencial for short period detection.
Combining feature selection and hybrid approach redefinition in handling class imbalance and overlapping for multi-class imbalanced
Authors: Hartono Hartono , Ongko Erianto , Risyani Yeni
Published: February 2021

In the classification process that contains class imbalance problems. In addition to the uneven distribution of instances which causes poor performance, overlapping problems also cause performance degradation. This paper proposes a method that combining feature selection and hybrid approach redefinition (HAR) method in handling class imbalance and overlapping for multi-class imbalanced. HAR was a hybrid ensembles method in handling class imbalance problem. The main contribution of this work is to produce a new method that can overcome the problem of class imbalance and overlapping in the multi-class imbalance problem.  This method must be able to give better results in terms of classifier performance and overlap degrees in multi-class problems. This is achieved by improving an ensemble learning algorithm and a preprocessing technique in HAR using minimizing overlapping selection under SMOTE (MOSS). MOSS was known as a very popular feature selection method in handling overlapping. To validate the accuracy of the proposed method, this research use augmented R-Value, Mean AUC, Mean F-Measure, Mean G-Mean, and Mean Precision. The performance of the model is evaluated against the hybrid method (MBP+CGE) as a popular method in handling class imbalance and overlapping for multi-class imbalanced. It is found that the proposed method is superior when subjected to classifier performance as indicate with better Mean AUC, F-Measure, G-Mean, and precision.
Fixed scattering section length with variable scattering section dispersion based optical fibers for polarization mode dispersion penalties
Authors: A. Eid Mahmoud M. , Zaki Rashed Ahmed Nabih
Published: February 2021

This study has clarified the fixed scattering section length with variable scattering section dispersion based optical fibers for polarization mode dispersion penalties at high data rates. The max. signal power/min. noise power is simulated against time after fiber length of 500 km with various scattering section dispersion. The overall total light power is simulated after fiber length of 500 km with various scattering section dispersion. In addition to the overall total electrical power is clarified through APD receiver at fiber length of 500 km with various scattering section dispersion. Eye diagram analyzer for signal quality is also simulated through APD receiver at fiber length of 500 km with various scattering section dispersion. The max. Q Factor, electrical signal power after APD receiver variations against scattering section dispersion variations for various data rates.