bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On Construction of a Campus Outdoor Air and Water Quality Monitoring System Using LoRaWAN
Authors: Miao Hsin-Yuan , Yang Chao-Tung , Kristiani Endah , Fathoni Halim , Lin Yu-Sheng , Chen Chien-Yi
Published: May 2022

This paper proposed implementing a water and air monitoring system using sensor development and a LoRa Network. To transmit data, a self-made PCB board integrates the terminal sensors with Renesas RX64M MCU and LoRa. There are 16 monitoring point stations for the media experiment. The sensors were used to measure the water and air parameters such as PM2.5, CO2, DO concentration, pH level, temperature, and humidity. In addition, the Grafana system was implemented to present the status and variation in the monitoring parameters in the environmental area. To evaluate the monitoring system, we also collected public information provided by the environmental protection department of the Taiwan government at the same monitoring point for comparison.
Special Issue “Antimicrobial Substances in Plants: Discovery of New Compounds, Properties, Food and Agriculture Applications, and Sustainable Recovery”
Authors: Gwiazdowska Daniela , Marchwińska Katarzyna , Juś Krzysztof
Published: May 2022

Microbial contamination of agriculture and food commodities may cause significant losses, with economic, social and environmental consequences [...]
Identification of Anemia and Its Severity Level in a Peripheral Blood Smear Using 3-Tier Deep Neural Network
Authors: Shahzad Muhammad , Umar Arif Iqbal , Shirazi Syed Hamad , Khan Zakir , Khan Asfandyar , Assam Muhammad , Mohamed Abdullah , Attia El-Awady
Published: May 2022

The automatic detection of blood cell elements for identifying morphological deformities is still a challenging research domain. It has a pivotal role in cognition and detecting the severity level of disease. Using a simple microscope, manual disease detection, and morphological disorders in blood cells is mostly time-consuming and erroneous. Due to the overlapped structure of RBCs, pathologists face challenges in differentiating between normal and abnormal cell shape and size precisely. Currently, convolutional neural network-based algorithms are effective tools for addressing this issue. Existing techniques fail to provide effective anemia detection, and severity level prediction due to RBCs’ dense and overlapped structure, non-availability of standard datasets related to blood diseases, and severity level detection techniques. This work proposed a three tier deep convolutional fused network (3-TierDCFNet) to extract optimum morphological features and identify anemic images to predict the severity of anemia. The proposed model comprises two modules: Module-I classifies the input image into two classes, i.e., Healthy and Anemic, while Module-II detects the anemia severity level and categorizes it into Mild or Chronic. After each tier’s training, a validation function is employed to reduce the inappropriate feature selection. To authenticate the proposed model for healthy, anemic RBC classification and anemia severity level detection, a state-of-the-art anemic and healthy RBC dataset was developed in collaboration with Shaukat Khanum Hospital and Research Center (SKMCH&RC), Pakistan. To evaluate the proposed model, the training, validation, and test accuracies were computed along with recall, F1-Score, and specificity. The global results reveal that the proposed model achieved 91.37%, 88.85%, and 86.06% training, validation, and test accuracies with 98.95%, 98.12%, and 98.12% recall F1-Score and specificity, respectively.
Body Height Trajectories in Pediatric Competitive Athletes from 46 Different Sport Types
Authors: Efrati Ran , Leib Shiran , Rimon Amir , Gelbart Miri , Yarom Yoni , Ziv-Baran Tomer , Dubnov-Raz Gal
Published: May 2022

There is some concern that competitive sports in children and adolescents might hinder their growth. This study’s purpose was to examine height changes in pediatric competitive athletes from 46 different sports. Clinical data from athletes aged <18 years that underwent annual preparticipation examinations at a single sports medicine center were extracted from computerized medical records. Height was transformed into standard deviation scores (SDS). Generalized estimating equations were used to analyze height SDS changes over time in the total cohort and in subgroups of age, sex and several sport types. Data on 2276 athletes were available (71.3% males, age: 12.3 ± 2.6 years), of which 688 had repeated measurements. The median duration between examinations was 1.9 years (interquartile range: 1.0–2.9, maximum: 9.3 years). Height SDS neither significantly changed throughout follow up in the total cohort (−0.01 per year, 95%CI = −0.48–0.03, p = 0.62) nor in subgroups of age and sex. However, height SDS was significantly reduced by −0.12 to −0.23 per year in athletes engaged in endurance sports (i.e., swimming, cycling and triathlon) but not in gymnastics, tennis, basketball or football. We conclude that competitive sports in youth are generally not associated with significant changes in body height relative to age. However, this might occur in endurance sports, possibly due to low energy availability.
A Hybrid Particle/Finite Element Model with Surface Roughness for Stone Masonry Analysis
Authors: Azevedo Nuno Monteiro , Lemos José V.
Published: May 2022

Circular and spherical particle models are a class of discrete elements (DEM) that have been increasingly applied to fracture studies of quasi-brittle materials, such as rock and concrete, due to their proven ability to simulate fracture processes through random particle assemblies representing quasi-brittle materials at the grain scale. More recently, DEM models have been applied to old stone masonry fracture studies. In order to extend its applicability to structures of larger dimensions, an enhanced hybrid particle model is proposed here that allows finite elements with a given surface roughness, provided by the discretization of the element boundary with particles, to interact with the particulate media in which they are embedded. The performance of the hybrid model is compared with that of a traditional all-particle model under uniaxial testing. It is shown that similar results are obtained, namely, in the elastic phase, figures of rupture and pre-peak and post-peak behavior, while the hybrid model allows for a significant computational run time reduction of 20% to 25% in the coarse particle assemblies. Finally, the proposed hybrid model is applied in the simulation of shear tests of stone masonry walls and dry and mortared joints, providing reasonably good agreement with both the experimental results and predictions. For the rubble masonry tests, the hybrid model allows for a computation run time reduction of around 40% when compared with an all-particle model.
Study on the Influence of Globe Thermometer Method on the Accuracy of Calculating Outdoor Mean Radiant Temperature and Thermal Comfort
Authors: Liu Kuixing , You Weijie , Chen Xiyue , Liu Wenyu
Published: May 2022

With global warming and the rapid development of urbanization, the outdoor thermal environment is deteriorating. More and more research focuses on the outdoor thermal environment and thermal comfort. The globe thermometer method is widely used in more than half of the outdoor thermal environment research studies, but there is a large error compared with the six-direction method. In order to explore the accuracy of the results of the globe thermometer method and its impact on the subsequent thermal comfort indicators, this study carried out a year-round comparative experiment under multiple working conditions outdoors in cold areas to explore the impact of meteorological parameters such as shortwave radiation, wind speed, and wind direction on the results of the globe thermometer method. The results show that the continuous increase of shortwave radiation reduces the accuracy of the black bulb thermometer to less than 60%, and the instantaneous change of wind speed will make the deviation of the mean radiation temperature obtained by the globe thermometer method exceed 5 °C. The influence of the mean radiation temperature obtained by the globe thermometer method on the thermal comfort index is mainly reflected in the working condition of a high temperature and strong radiation in summer. Taking the six-direction method as the standard, this study gives the scope of application of the globe thermometer method; and taking the human body calculation model of PET as an example, a universal optimization method for detailed division of radiation heat transfer calculation is proposed, so that it can get more accurate and rigorous conclusions in the evaluation of outdoor complex radiation environment.
Nicotine Affects Multiple Biological Processes in EpiDermTM Organotypic Tissues and Keratinocyte Monolayers
Authors: Pozuelos Giovanna L. , Rubin Matine , Vargas Samantha , Ramirez Erik , Bandaru Dhiresh , Sha Jihui , Wohlschlegel James , Talbot Prue
Published: May 2022

Dermal exposure to nicotine is common due to the widespread use of tobacco products. Here, we assessed the effects of nicotine at concentrations found in thirdhand smoke (THS) contaminated environments and electronic cigarette (EC) spills or leaks on a 3D human skin model (EpiDermTM) and on submerged keratinocyte cultures. Air liquid interface treatment of EpiDermTM with 10 or 400 μg/mL of nicotine for 24 h followed by proteomics analysis showed altered pathways related to inflammation, protein synthesis, cell–cell adhesion, apoptosis, and mitochondrial function. Submerged cultured keratinocytes were used to validate the proteomics data and further characterize the response of skin cells to nicotine. Mitochondrial phenotype changed from networked to punctate in keratinocytes treated with 10 or 400 μg/mL of nicotine for 48 h and 24 h, respectively. After 72 h, all concentrations of nicotine caused a significant decrease in the networked phenotype. In Western blots, keratinocytes exposed to 400 μg/mL of nicotine had a significant decrease in mitofusin 2, while mitofusin 1 decreased after 72 h. The shift from networked to punctate mitochondria correlated with a decrease in mitofusin 1/2, a protein needed to establish and maintain the networked phenotype. Mitochondrial changes were reversible after a 24 h recovery period. Peroxisomes exposed to 400 μg/mL of nicotine for 24 h became enlarged and were fewer in number. Nicotine concentrations in THS and EC spills altered the proteome profile in EpiDermTM and damaged organelles including mitochondria and peroxisomes, which are involved in ROS homeostasis. These changes may exacerbate skin infections, inhibit wound healing, and cause oxidative damage to cells in the skin.
In Situ Electrochemical Impedance Measurements of α-Fe2O3 Nanofibers: Unravelling the Li-Ion Conduction Mechanism in Li-Ion Batteries
Authors: Hwang Jinhyun , Yadav Dolly , Yang Hang , Jeon Injun , Yang Dingcheng , Seo Jang-Won , Kang Minseung , Jeong Se-Young , Cho Chae-Ryong
Published: May 2022

Unravelling the lithium-ion transport mechanism in α-Fe2O3 nanofibers through in situ electrochemical impedance studies is crucial for realizing their application in high-performance anodes in lithium-ion batteries. Herein, we report the effect of heat treatment conditions on the structure, composition, morphology, and electrochemical properties of α-Fe2O3 nanofibers as an anode for lithium-ion batteries. The α-Fe2O3 nanofibers were synthesized via electrospinning and post-annealing with differences in their annealing temperature of 300, 500, and 700 °C to produce FO300, FO500, and FO700 nanofibers, respectively. Improved electrochemical performance with a high reversible specific capacity of 599.6 mAh g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 was achieved after 50 cycles for FO700. The in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy studies conducted during the charge/discharge process revealed that the charge transfer and Li-ion diffusion behaviors were related to the crystallinity and structure of the as-synthesized α-Fe2O3 nanofibers. The surfaces of the α-Fe2O3 nanofibers were converted into Fe metal during the charging/discharging process, which resulted in improved electrical conductivity. The electron lifetime, as determined by the time constant of charge transfer, revealed that, when a conversion reaction occurred, the electrons tended to travel through the iron metal in the α-Fe2O3 nanofibers. The role of iron as a pseudo-resistor with negligible capacitance was revealed by charge transfer resistance analysis.
Cardiac Function after Modern Radiation Therapy with Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy or Helical Tomotherapy for Advanced Left-Breast Cancer Receiving Regional Nodal Irradiation
Authors: Hou Pei-Yu , Hsieh Chen-Hsi , Wu Le-Jung , Hsu Chen-Xiong , Kuo Deng-Yu , Lu Yueh-Feng , Wu Yen-Wen , Tien Hui-Ju , Hsu Shih-Ming , Shueng Pei-Wei
Published: May 2022

Background: Protecting cardiac function in patients with advanced left-breast cancer receiving radiation therapy (RT) with regional nodal irradiation (RNI) is an important issue. Modern RT techniques can limit cardiac exposure. The aim of this study was to explore the association be-tween cardiac dose and cardiac function. Methods: Between 2017 and 2020, we retrospectively reviewed left-breast cancer patients who received adjuvant RT, including RNI with either volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) or helical tomotherapy (HT). Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was assessed by echocardiography before RT and 1 year after RT to detect any early deterioration in cardiac systolic function. Results: A total of 30 eligible patients were enrolled. The median follow-up time from the initiation of RT was 3.9 years (range 0.6–5 years). Seventeen patients received VMAT, and the other 13 patients received HT. The median RT dose was 55 Gray (Gy), and the mean heart dose was 3.73 Gy (range 1.95–9.36 Gy). The median LVEF before and after RT was 68% and 68.5%, respectively. No obvious deterioration was found. There was no association between cardiac dose (mean heart dose, V5–V30) and LVEF (change in values or post-RT). Conclusions: For left-breast cancer patients undergoing RT with RNI, VMAT, or HT can be used to limit cardiac exposure. Cardiac function as evaluated by LVEF revealed no obvious deterioration after RT in our patients, and no association was found between cardiac dose and LVEF in those treated with either VMAT or HT in early cardiac surveillance.
Identification of Radiation-Induced miRNA Biomarkers Using the CGL1 Cell Model System
Authors: Peterson Jayden , McTiernan Christopher D. , Thome Christopher , Khaper Neelam , Lees Simon J. , Boreham Douglas R. , Tai Tze Chun , Tharmalingam Sujeenthar
Published: May 2022

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as a potential class of biomolecules for diagnostic biomarker applications. miRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules, produced and released by cells in response to various stimuli, that demonstrate remarkable stability in a wide range of biological fluids, in extreme pH fluctuations, and after multiple freeze–thaw cycles. Given these advantages, identification of miRNA-based biomarkers for radiation exposures can contribute to the development of reliable biological dosimetry methods, especially for low-dose radiation (LDR) exposures. In this study, an miRNAome next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach was utilized to identify novel radiation-induced miRNA gene changes within the CGL1 human cell line. Here, irradiations of 10, 100, and 1000 mGy were performed and the samples were collected 1, 6, and 24 h post-irradiation. Corroboration of the miRNAome results with RT-qPCR verification confirmed the identification of numerous radiation-induced miRNA expression changes at all doses assessed. Further evaluation of select radiation-induced miRNAs, including miR-1228-3p and miR-758-5p, as well as their downstream mRNA targets, Ube2d2, Ppp2r2d, and Id2, demonstrated significantly dysregulated reciprocal expression patterns. Further evaluation is needed to determine whether the candidate miRNA biomarkers identified in this study can serve as suitable targets for radiation biodosimetry applications.
Bead Number Effect in a Magnetic-Beads-Based Digital Microfluidic Immunoassay
Authors: Hsu Wensyang , Shih Yu-Teng , Lee Meng-Shiue , Huang Hong-Yuan , Wu Wan-Ning
Published: May 2022

In a biomedical diagnosis with a limited sample volume and low concentration, droplet-based microfluidics, also called digital microfluidics, becomes a very attractive approach. Previously, our group developed a magnetic-beads-based digital microfluidic immunoassay with a bead number of around 100, requiring less than 1 μL of sample volume to achieve a pg/mL level limit of detection (LOD). However, the bead number in each measurement was not the same, causing an unstable coefficient of variation (CV) in the calibration curve. Here, we investigated whether a fixed number of beads in this bead-based digital microfluidic immunoassay could provide more stable results. First, the bead screening chips were developed to extract exactly 100, 49, and 25 magnetic beads with diameters of less than 6 μm. Then, four calibration curves were established. One calibration curve was constructed by using varying bead numbers (50–160) in the process. The other three calibration curves used a fixed number of beads, (100, 49, and 25). The results indicated that the CVs for a fixed number of beads were evidently smaller than the CVs for varying bead numbers, especially in the range of 1 pg/mL to 100 pg/mL, where the CVs for 100 beads were less than 10%. Furthermore, the calculated LOD, based on the composite calibration curves, could be reduced by three orders, from 3.0 pg/mL (for the unfixed bead number) to 0.0287 pg/mL (for 100 beads). However, when the bead numbers were too high (more than 500) or too low (25 or fewer), the bead manipulation for aggregation became more difficult in the magnetic-beads-based digital microfluidic immunoassay chip.
The Prevalence and Comorbidity of Tic Disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Chinese School Students Aged 6–16: A National Survey
Authors: Yan Junjuan , Deng Hu , Wang Yongming , Wang Xiaolin , Fan Tengteng , Li Shijie , Wen Fang , Yu Liping , Wang Fang , Liu Jingran , Wu Yuanzhen , Zheng Yi , Cui Yonghua , Li Ying
Published: May 2022

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and tic disorders (TDs) are closely related and considered to etiologically overlap. Both disorders are characterized by repetitive behaviors. TD and OCD often co-occur. The high comorbidity between OCD and TD individuals suggests that we also need to pay more attention to the homogeneity and heterogeneity between TS and OCD. To date, there has been no systematic nationwide epidemiological survey of the mental health (including tic disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder) of children and adolescents in China. Methods: A two-stage epidemiological study of psychiatric point prevalence was conducted. We used the multistage cluster stratified random sampling strategy to assess five provinces of China. The Child Behavior Checklist was used to identify behavioral problems among the enrolled students in the first stage. The results from the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents and evaluations from two psychiatrists based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV were used to make a diagnosis. Point weighted prevalence for TD and OCD was estimated. We adjusted prevalence estimates with the product of sampling weights and poststratification weights. Standard error values and 95% confidential intervals were generated with Taylor series linearization. Rao–Scott adjusted chi-square (χ2) tests were employed to compare the prevalence estimates of different age and sex groups. Results: In the first stage, 73,992 participants aged 6–16 years old were selected. The prevalence rates of OCD and TDs were 1.37% (95% CI: 1.28–1.45) and 2.46% (95% CI: 2.35–2.57), respectively. The prevalence of OCD was found to be higher in girls (p < 0.001) and higher in boys with transient tic disorder (TTD) (p < 0.001) and Tourette’s syndrome (TS) (p < 0.001). The most common comorbidity of TS was OCD (40.73%), and for OCD, it was TS (11.36%). Conclusions: Our study is the first nationwide survey on the prevalence of TD (2.46%) and OCD (1.37%) in school students aged 6–16 years old in China. The high comorbidity between OCD and TD individuals suggested overlap based on the prevalence dimensions, which might be influenced by age and sex. This result suggested that we also need to pay more attention to the homogeneity and heterogeneity between TS and OCD.
Inerter Location-Based Vibration Suppression Study of a Transmission Line Equipped with Tuned-Mass-Damper-Inerter (TMDI) under Harmonic Excitation
Authors: Liu Xinpeng , Yang Yingwen , Sun Yi , Zhong Yongli , Zhou Lei
Published: May 2022

This paper proposes a novel ungrounded TMDI to improve the vibration suppression performance of the transmission line under harmonic excitation. This type of inerter-based damper may transform a translational motion into a rotational motion, greatly increasing the efficiency of vibration suppression. In the present study, the differential equations of motion are first derived based on the transmission line with an ungrounded TMDI structure. Then the closed-form solution of the displacement response spectrum considering the influence of the suspension location of the inerter is developed. The impact of the inerter location on vibration suppression performance is investigated in depth by defining the suspension location factor (υ) and tuning the damping ratio and frequency ratio. The results demonstrate that the suspension location of the inerter has a substantial impact on the damping ratio, frequency ratio, and vibration suppression performance. When the connection location of the inerter is near to the mass of the damper, it degrades the vibration suppression performance of the system. The failure phenomenon of the inerter occurs in the range of 0.2 < υ < 0.3, indicating that the presence of the inerter in this range does not enhance vibration suppression performance. The modal coordinate difference has a considerable impact on the vibration suppression efficacy of the TMDI. With increasing modal coordinate differences, the vibration suppression performance of the TMDI grows dramatically.
Comparative Analysis Chinese Green Buildings’ of Input–Output Effect Based on Data Envelope Analysis
Authors: Liu Wei , He Zhuan , Chen Huapeng , Lin Cheng
Published: May 2022

In order to measure implementation management efficiency of Chinese green buildings, the input–output index system of Chinese green buildings was constructed base on provincial-level panel data during 2017–2021.The basic model Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and DEA-Malmquist index method were adopted to measure and analyze the development law and time–region evolution tendency of implementation efficiency of Chinese green buildings from the static and dynamic perspectives, contributing to clarifying critical factors of restricting green building development, respectively. It was found that the comprehensive implementation management efficiency of Chinese green buildings was lower, but the development tendency was good. There was a remarkable regional and provincial difference, showing the development pattern of “east > middle > west” as a whole. Pure technical efficiency did not have a big gap, but most areas kept an invalid scale state, resulting in fluctuations of regional efficiency in varying degrees. The average annual increase of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) was 14.80%, indicating that TFP was developed well. Technical progress was considered as a decisive factor to restrain increase or decrease of TFP. As a result, to improve implementation efficiency of Chinese green buildings, it is necessary to focus on destroying the regional limitations, optimizing the input scale moderately, and paying attention to technical progress and innovation management.
Role of Texture Analysis in Oropharyngeal Carcinoma: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Authors: Bicci Eleonora , Nardi Cosimo , Calamandrei Leonardo , Pietragalla Michele , Cavigli Edoardo , Mungai Francesco , Bonasera Luigi , Miele Vittorio
Published: May 2022

Human papilloma virus infection (HPV) is associated with the development of lingual and palatine tonsil carcinomas. Diagnosing, differentiating HPV-positive from HPV-negative cancers, and assessing the presence of lymph node metastases or recurrences by the visual interpretation of images is not easy. Texture analysis can provide structural information not perceptible to human eyes. A systematic literature search was performed on 16 February 2022 for studies with a focus on texture analysis in oropharyngeal cancers. We conducted the research on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science platforms. Studies were screened for inclusion according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews. Twenty-six studies were included in our review. Nineteen articles related specifically to the oropharynx and seven articles analysed the head and neck area with sections dedicated to the oropharynx. Six, thirteen, and seven articles used MRI, CT, and PET, respectively, as the imaging techniques by which texture analysis was performed. Regarding oropharyngeal tumours, this review delineates the applications of texture analysis in (1) the diagnosis, prognosis, and assessment of disease recurrence or persistence after therapy, (2) early differentiation of HPV-positive versus HPV-negative cancers, (3) the detection of cancers not visualised by imaging alone, and (4) the assessment of lymph node metastases from unknown primary carcinomas.
Gluconate-Lactobionate-Dextran Perfusion Solutions Attenuate Ischemic Injury and Improve Function in a Murine Cardiac Transplant Model
Authors: Guo Yinan , Messner Franka , Beck Sarah E. , Iglesias Lozano Marcos , Schwelberger Hubert , Zhang Yichuan , Kammers Kai , Oh Byoung Chol , Greene Elizabeth D. , Brandacher Gerald , Brockbank Kelvin G. M.
Published: May 2022

Static cold storage is the cheapest and easiest method and current gold standard to store and preserve donor organs. This study aimed to compare the preservative capacity of gluconate-lactobionate-dextran (Unisol) solutions to histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate (HTK) solution. Murine syngeneic heterotopic heart transplantations (Balb/c-Balb/c) were carried out after 18 h of static cold storage. Cardiac grafts were either flushed and stored with Unisol-based solutions with high-(UHK) and low-potassium (ULK) ± glutathione, or HTK. Cardiac grafts were assessed for rebeating and functionality, histomorphologic alterations, and cytokine expression. Unisol-based solutions demonstrated a faster rebeating time (UHK 56 s, UHK + Glut 44 s, ULK 45 s, ULK + Glut 47 s) compared to HTK (119.5 s) along with a better contractility early after reperfusion and at the endpoint on POD 3. Ischemic injury led to a significantly increased leukocyte recruitment, with similar degrees of tissue damage and inflammatory infiltrate in all groups, yet the number of apoptotic cells tended to be lower in ULK compared to HTK. In UHK- and ULK-treated animals, a trend toward decreased expression of proinflammatory markers was seen when compared to HTK. Unisol-based solutions showed an improved preservative capacity compared with the gold standard HTK early after cardiac transplantation. Supplemented glutathione did not further improve tissue-protective properties.
Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound, a Review for the Pediatric Intensivist
Authors: Lovett Marlina Elizabeth , O’Brien Nicole F.
Published: May 2022

The use of transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) is increasing in frequency in the pediatric intensive care unit. This review highlights some of the pertinent TCD applications for the pediatric intensivist, including evaluation of cerebral hemodynamics, autoregulation, non-invasive cerebral perfusion pressure/intracranial pressure estimation, vasospasm screening, and cerebral emboli detection.
Evaluating the Feasibility and Reliability of Remotely Delivering and Scoring the North Star Ambulatory Assessment in Ambulant Patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Authors: Emery Nicholas , Strachan Kate , Kulshrestha Richa , Kuiper Jan Herman , Willis Tracey
Published: May 2022

Objective: The North Star Ambulatory Assessment (NSAA) is a validated 17-item functional rating scale and widely used to assess motor function in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and subsequent Government ‘lockdown’ resulted in no face-to-face clinic visits hence the motor abilities were not monitored. The aim was to investigate whether the NSAA was feasible and reliable by video assessment. Method: Ten ambulant DMD boys were selected from the electronic hospital records. Two physiotherapists scored the boys’ NSAA independently and the intraclass correlation coefficient was used to assess agreement. The video scores were compared to two previous NSAA in-clinic scores. Results: Mean scores (SD) for clinic visit one were 22.6 (4.19) and clinic visit two 21.8 (5.3). The two physiotherapists video mean scores were 20.6 (5.66) for physiotherapist 1 and 20.6 (6.53) for physiotherapist 2. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.98 (95% CI 0.93–1.00) for the total NSAA and 1.00 (95% CI 1.00 to 1.00) for the rise time. The mean decline in score from clinic visit one (−12 months) to video assessment was 2.0 (2.8SD). Conclusion: The results from the study suggest that video NSAA is partially feasible and reliable.
Correlations of Seismic Velocities and Elastic Moduli with Temperature in Superhot and Enhanced Geothermal Systems
Authors: Mendrinos Dimitrios , Karytsas Constantine , Karytsas Spyridon , Poletto Flavio , Farina Biancamaria , Barison Erika
Published: May 2022

This paper presents correlations derived by linear regression analysis of seismic velocities VP and VS and elastic moduli EP and ES with temperature in Los Humeros superhot (SHGS) and Acoculco enhanced (EGS) geothermal systems at depths down to 3 km below the surface and temperatures up to approximately 400 °C. In Los Humeros, the seismic velocity models were derived from the inversion of legacy active seismic survey data acquired in 1998, as well as from passive seismic monitoring and ambient seismic noise interferometry carried out during 2017–2019 by the GEMex consortium. In the Acoculco EGS, ambient seismic noise data were used. Steady-state formation temperatures were re-evaluated during and after the end of the GEMex project using measurements provided as a courtesy of the Federal Electricity Commission of Mexico (CFE). The density data needed for the calculation of elastic moduli were provided by the GEMex consortium, as derived from the inversion of regional and local gravity surveys. The analysis indicated that statistically significant correlations of seismic parameters to temperature exist in the vertical direction, namely exponential in Los Humeros superhot and logarithmic in Acoculco EGS, but no correlation was evident in the horizontal direction. This result suggests an indirect relationship among the considered variables due to interdependence on other parameters, such as pressure and vapor saturation. As the analysis was performed using only data obtained from sensing-at-surface methods, without direct geophysical calibration at depth, a distributed fiber-optic seismic and temperature sensing system at both surface and downhole is proposed for active-source and passive seismic monitoring, and seismic-while-drilling by the drill-bit source is considered for reverse vertical seismic profile (RVSP) recording whenever possible for future high-temperature geothermal applications.
Physicochemical Characterization and Antibacterial Activity of Titanium/Shellac-Coated Hydroxyapatite Composites
Authors: Harwijayanti Widyanita , Ubaidillah Ubaidillah , Triyono Joko
Published: May 2022

Titanium and hydroxyapatite are widely used as materials for implants. Titanium has good mechanical properties, good corrosion resistance, and a high modulus of elasticity. Hydroxyapatite has good biocompatibility, bioactivity, and significant osteoinductivity. In this study, powder metallurgy was used as a method to combine titanium and hydroxyapatite for use in implants. Shellac was used as a binder between ceramic and metal due to its lower melting point. The surface morphology and chemical properties were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX), whereby the SEM revealed the appearance of micropores in the Ti-HA composites during the sintering process, and the EDX showed that the final product had high amounts of Ti and Ca and low P. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyses were used to achieve the chemical characterization of composites, whereby a weak diffraction peak was observed in the XRD spectrum of Ti-HA composites, and the FTIR analysis confirmed that the composites had carbonate (CO3)2−, phosphate (PO4)3−, and hydroxyl (OH)− groups. Oxygen was sufficient due to the sintering process being conducted in an air environment. The antibacterial activities were characterized using the disc diffusion method with Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, whereby the prepared Ti-HA composites had a greater antibacterial effect on E. coli than on S. aureus. Finally, pH changes were observed during the 24 h incubation. The result showed that the Ti-HA composite did not contain chemical compounds that could cause harmful effects for humans and had good antibacterial activity against E. coli.
Fast, Accurate and Full Extraction of Coupling-of-Modes Parameters by Finite Element Method
Authors: Sun Xueping , Ma Rui , Zhou Shun , Shao Xiuting , Cheng Jin , Lin Dabin , Wang Wen , Liu Weiguo
Published: May 2022

This paper presents a new numerical approach for the full extraction of the coupling-of-modes (COM) parameters by stationary and eigenfrequency analyses in the finite element method (FEM). This is a fast method extracting from the results of static analysis and eigenfrequency analysis. It avoids the long calculation time of admittance frequency response analysis, which is commonly used in extracting COM parameters. In addition to the usual COM parameters (velocity, reflection coefficient, transduction coefficient and capacitance), the phases of reflection and transduction coefficient can be also extracted with this method. The proposed method was applied to different cutting types LiNbO3 with different types of thicknesses in a varying interdigital transducer (IDT). These examples show that our approach has great potential in extracting all the COM parameters of the Rayleigh SAW for all kinds of IDT structures. Therefore, it is a fast, accurate, general and full extraction approach of COM parameters.
The Effectiveness of the Role of Interior Design in Creating Functional and Institutional Happiness for Work Environments: King Faisal University as a Model
Authors: Abouelela Amira
Published: May 2022

Happiness is a natural human right that all seek to achieve. The quality of people’s lives may be directly affected by the quality of their working life, which is affected by the quality of their work environment. This has become the focus of attention of work institutions in society due to its great importance and strong impact on success. The purpose of this study was to investigate the institutional work environment at King Faisal University by surveying faculty and staff members regarding their opinions on meeting their environmental and functional needs at work by improving the interior design of workspaces to create happiness in the work environment. The aim of this study was to reveal the relationship between employees’ performance levels and their work environment, in addition to making happiness and quality of life major priorities and creating a stimulating work environment. The researcher used descriptive analysis to analyze the relationship between aspects of work and the levels of job satisfaction and happiness among employees of King Faisal University. The researcher used a five-point Likert scale to measure the responses to the questionnaire items, and reached several conclusions, including that the level of job happiness at King Faisal University is not affected by the variables of gender, social status, or the nature of the job, and that the university provides a work environment that helps achieve job happiness and allows for job innovation and creativity.
Self-Supervised Learning Methods for Label-Efficient Dental Caries Classification
Authors: Taleb Aiham , Rohrer Csaba , Bergner Benjamin , De Leon Guilherme , Rodrigues Jonas Almeida , Schwendicke Falk , Lippert Christoph , Krois Joachim
Published: May 2022

High annotation costs are a substantial bottleneck in applying deep learning architectures to clinically relevant use cases, substantiating the need for algorithms to learn from unlabeled data. In this work, we propose employing self-supervised methods. To that end, we trained with three self-supervised algorithms on a large corpus of unlabeled dental images, which contained 38K bitewing radiographs (BWRs). We then applied the learned neural network representations on tooth-level dental caries classification, for which we utilized labels extracted from electronic health records (EHRs). Finally, a holdout test-set was established, which consisted of 343 BWRs and was annotated by three dental professionals and approved by a senior dentist. This test-set was used to evaluate the fine-tuned caries classification models. Our experimental results demonstrate the obtained gains by pretraining models using self-supervised algorithms. These include improved caries classification performance (6 p.p. increase in sensitivity) and, most importantly, improved label-efficiency. In other words, the resulting models can be fine-tuned using few labels (annotations). Our results show that using as few as 18 annotations can produce ≥45% sensitivity, which is comparable to human-level diagnostic performance. This study shows that self-supervision can provide gains in medical image analysis, particularly when obtaining labels is costly and expensive.
Prevalence of Monosodium Urate (MSU) Deposits in Cadavers Detected by Dual-Energy Computed Tomography (DECT)
Authors: Klauser Andrea S. , Strobl Sylvia , Schwabl Christoph , Klotz Werner , Feuchtner Gudrun , Moriggl Bernhard , Held Julia , Taljanovic Mihra , Weaver Jennifer S. , Reijnierse Monique , Gizewski Elke R. , Stofferin Hannes
Published: May 2022

Background: Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) allows direct visualization of monosodium urate (MSU) deposits in joints and soft tissues. Purpose: To describe the distribution of MSU deposits in cadavers using DECT in the head, body trunk, and feet. Materials and Methods: A total of 49 cadavers (41 embalmed and 8 fresh cadavers; 20 male, 29 female; mean age, 79.5 years; SD ± 11.3; range 52–95) of unknown clinical history underwent DECT to assess MSU deposits in the head, body trunk, and feet. Lens, thoracic aorta, and foot tendon dissections of fresh cadavers were used to verify MSU deposits by polarizing light microscopy. Results: 33/41 embalmed cadavers (80.5%) showed MSU deposits within the thoracic aorta. 11/41 cadavers (26.8%) showed MSU deposits within the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joints and 46.3% of cadavers demonstrated MSU deposits within foot tendons, larger than and equal to 5 mm. No MSU deposits were detected in the cranium/intracerebral vessels, or the coronary arteries. Microscopy used as a gold standard could verify the presence of MSU deposits within the lens, thoracic aorta, or foot tendons in eight fresh cadavers. Conclusions: Microscopy confirmed the presence of MSU deposits in fresh cadavers within the lens, thoracic aorta, and foot tendons, whereas no MSU deposits could be detected in cranium/intracerebral vessels or coronary arteries. DECT may offer great potential as a screening tool to detect MSU deposits and measure the total uric acid burden in the body. The clinical impact of this cadaver study in terms of assessment of MSU burden should be further proven.
Celebrated Econometricians: Katarina Juselius and Søren Johansen
Authors: Mosconi Rocco , Paruolo Paolo
Published: May 2022

This Special Issue collects contributions related to the advances in the theory and practice of Econometrics induced by the research of Katarina Juselius and Søren Johansen, whom this Special Issue aims to celebrate [...]
Human-Computer Interaction in Customer Service: The Experience with AI Chatbots—A Systematic Literature Review
Authors: Nicolescu Luminița , Tudorache Monica Teodora
Published: May 2022

Artificial intelligence (AI) conversational agents (CA) or chatbots represent one of the technologies that can provide automated customer service for companies, a trend encountered in recent years. Chatbot use is beneficial for companies when associated with positive customer experience. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the overall customer experience with customer service chatbots in order to identify the main influencing factors for customer experience with customer service chatbots and to identify the resulting dimensions of customer experience (such as perceptions/attitudes and feelings and also responses and behaviors). The analysis uses the systematic literature review (SLR) method and includes a sample of 40 publications that present empirical studies. The results illustrate that the main influencing factors of customer experience with chatbots are grouped in three categories: chatbot-related, customer-related, and context-related factors, where the chatbot-related factors are further categorized in: functional features of chatbots, system features of chatbots and anthropomorphic features of chatbots. The multitude of factors of customer experience result in either positive or negative perceptions/attitudes and feelings of customers. At the same time, customers respond by manifesting their intentions and/or their behaviors towards either the technology itself (chatbot usage continuation and acceptance of chatbot recommendations) or towards the company (buying and recommending products). According to empirical studies, the most influential factors when using chatbots for customer service are response relevance and problem resolution, which usually result in positive customer satisfaction, increased probability for chatbots usage continuation, product purchases, and product recommendations.
A Link Fabrication Attack Mitigation Approach (LiFAMA) for Software Defined Networks
Authors: Joseph Katongole , Eyobu Odongo Steven , Kasyoka Philemon , Oyana Tonny J.
Published: May 2022

In software defined networks (SDNs), the controller is a critical resource, yet it is a potential target for attacks as well. The conventional OpenFlow Discovery Protocol (OFPD) used in building the topological view for the controller has vulnerabilities that easily allow attackers to poison the network topology by creating fabricated links with malicious effects. OFDP makes use of the link layer discovery protocol (LLDP) to discover existing links. However, the LLDP is not efficient at fabricated link detection. Existing approaches to mitigating this problem have mostly been passive approaches that depend on observing unexpected behaviour. Examples of such behaviour include link latency and packet patterns to trigger attack alerts. The problem with the existing solutions is that their implementations cause longer link discovery time. This implies that a dense SDN would suffer from huge delays in the link discovery process. In this study, we propose a link fabrication attack (LFA) mitigation approach (LiFAMA), which is an active mitigation approach and one that minimises the link discovery time. The approach uses LLDP packet authentication together with keyed-hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) and a link verification database (PostgreSQL) that stores records of all known and verified links in the network. This approach was implemented in an emulated SDN environment using Mininet and a Python-based open-source OpenFlow (POX) controller. The results show that the approach detects fabricated links in an SDN in real time and helps mitigate them. Additionally, the link discovery time of LiFAMA out-competes that of an existing LFA mitigation approach.
Error Correction for TLC and QLC NAND Flash Memories Using Cell-Wise Encoding
Authors: Nicolas Bailon Daniel , Thiers Johann-Philipp , Freudenberger Jürgen
Published: May 2022

The growing error rates of triple-level cell (TLC) and quadruple-level cell (QLC) NAND flash memories have led to the application of error correction coding with soft-input decoding techniques in flash-based storage systems. Typically, flash memory is organized in pages where the individual bits per cell are assigned to different pages and different codewords of the error-correcting code. This page-wise encoding minimizes the read latency with hard-input decoding. To increase the decoding capability, soft-input decoding is used eventually due to the aging of the cells. This soft-decoding requires multiple read operations. Hence, the soft-read operations reduce the achievable throughput, and increase the read latency and power consumption. In this work, we investigate a different encoding and decoding approach that improves the error correction performance without increasing the number of reference voltages. We consider TLC and QLC flashes where all bits are jointly encoded using a Gray labeling. This cell-wise encoding improves the achievable channel capacity compared with independent page-wise encoding. Errors with cell-wise read operations typically result in a single erroneous bit per cell. We present a coding approach based on generalized concatenated codes that utilizes this property.
FDTD-Based Electromagnetic Modeling of Dielectric Materials with Fractional Dispersive Response
Authors: Mescia Luciano , Bia Pietro , Caratelli Diego
Published: May 2022

The use of fractional derivatives and integrals has been steadily increasing thanks to their ability to capture effects and describe several natural phenomena in a better and systematic manner. Considering that the study of fractional calculus theory opens the mind to new branches of thought, in this paper, we illustrate that such concepts can be successfully implemented in electromagnetic theory, leading to the generalizations of the Maxwell’s equations. We give a brief review of the fractional vector calculus including the generalization of fractional gradient, divergence, curl, and Laplacian operators, as well as the Green, Stokes, Gauss, and Helmholtz theorems. Then, we review the physical and mathematical aspects of dielectric relaxation processes exhibiting non-exponential decay in time, focusing the attention on the time-harmonic relative permittivity function based on a general fractional polynomial series approximation. The different topics pertaining to the incorporation of the power-law dielectric response in the FDTD algorithm are explained, too. In particular, we discuss in detail a home-made fractional calculus-based FDTD scheme, also considering key issues concerning the bounding of the computational domain and the numerical stability. Finally, some examples involving different dispersive dielectrics are presented with the aim to demonstrate the usefulness and reliability of the developed FDTD scheme.