bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is It Worth It? Comparing Six Deep and Classical Methods for Unsupervised Anomaly Detection in Time Series
Authors: Rewicki Ferdinand , Denzler Joachim , Niebling Julia
Published: January 2023

Detecting anomalies in time series data is important in a variety of fields, including system monitoring, healthcare and cybersecurity. While the abundance of available methods makes it difficult to choose the most appropriate method for a given application, each method has its strengths in detecting certain types of anomalies. In this study, we compare six unsupervised anomaly detection methods of varying complexity to determine whether more complex methods generally perform better and if certain methods are better suited to certain types of anomalies. We evaluated the methods using the UCR anomaly archive, a recent benchmark dataset for anomaly detection. We analyzed the results on a dataset and anomaly-type level after adjusting the necessary hyperparameters for each method. Additionally, we assessed the ability of each method to incorporate prior knowledge about anomalies and examined the differences between point-wise and sequence-wise features. Our experiments show that classical machine learning methods generally outperform deep learning methods across a range of anomaly types.
Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) Hosts Microbiome Associated with Oral Malodor
Authors: Rosner Ofir , Melamed Guy , Friedenberg Naama , Dagan Neta , Jeffet Uziel , Sterer Nir
Published: January 2023

Previous study suggested that fixed dental prostheses (crowns) increase oral malodor production. There might be a role to temporary acrylic crowns contributing to oral malodor. In the current study, we analyzed the microbiome associated with malodorous temporary dental crowns. The study population comprised nineteen patients (mean age 45.8 ± 10.9, 8 females) who visited the Tel Aviv University dental clinic. Temporary crowns were scored by an odor judge using a 6-point malodor organoleptic scale (0–5) and temporary crowns that were scored 2 and above were assigned as malodor positive. Microbial DNA was extracted from the temporary dental crowns and analyzed using next generation 16S rDNA sequencing. Taxa identified could be classified into 11 phyla, 50 genera and 119 core species. Malodor positive samples demonstrated higher abundance of the phyla Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria and the genera Tannerella, Alloprevotella, Treponema, Olsenella and Bifidobacterium. Malodorous samples showed higher bacterial diversity and significant differences in microbial population. Taken together these results suggest a difference between the microbial populations of malodorous and non-malodorous temporary dental crowns both in composition and diversity.
Interacting Multiple Model Filter with a Maximum Correntropy Criterion for GPS Navigation Processing
Authors: Jwo Dah-Jing , Lai Jen-Hsien , Chang Yi
Published: January 2023

In order to deal with the uncertainty of measurement noise, particularly for outlier types of multipath interference and non-line of sight (NLOS) reception, this paper proposes a novel method for processing the navigation states of the Global Positioning System (GPS) that combines the maximum correntropy criterion (MCC) and the interacting multiple model (IMM), with an extended Kalman Filter (EKF). Multipath mitigation is essential for increased positioning accuracy since multipath interference is one of the primary sources of errors. Nonlinear filtering with IMM configuration uses filter structural adaptation. In processing time-varying satellite signal standards for GPS navigation, it offers an alternative for creating the adaptive filter. A collection of switching models built on a method of multiple model estimation can be used to characterize the uncertainty of the noise. Even though most noise in real life is non-Gaussian, time-varying, and of fluctuating strength, the standard EKF operates effectively when the noise is Gaussian. The performance of EKF will drastically decline if the signals appear non-Gaussian. The underlying system disrupted by heavy-tailed, non-Gaussian impulsive sounds could be better since the EKF employs second-order statistical information. The MCC is a method for comparing two random variables based on higher-order signal statistics. The maximum correntropy-extended Kalman filter (MCEKF), which uses the MCC rather than the minimal mean square error (MMSE) as the optimization criterion, is used to enhance performance in non-Gaussian situations. Finally, a performance evaluation will be conducted to compare the effectiveness of the suggested strategy in improving positioning to alternative system designs.
Designing a Chatbot for Helping Parenting Practice
Authors: Yu Chi-Shun , Hsu Mei-Hua , Wang Yung-Chung , You Yi-Jie
Published: January 2023

In today’s society, many families do not have children due to various reasons. The reasons include the pressure brought by childcare, and that double-income families do not have time to raise children, especially novice parents who will retreat. For this reason, we made a chatbot to solve problems. Through the questionnaires collected by our study, we found that most novice parents use INFANBOT when their children cry, thus, we used a baby’s cry as an example here. When parents face a baby’s cry, they can tap the button “burst into tears!”. The chatbot will immediately tell parents how to solve the problem. The authors designed a chatbot system named INFANBOT that combined the concepts of infancy health education to alleviate parents’ troubles at work and parenting. It also reduced the anxiety of caregivers during the parenting process and gave them correct parenting knowledge. The INFANBOT is a real-time system that can provide real-time services to novice parents. Additionally, when the user is using INFANBOT, the system will record the problems encountered and invite the user to fill in a questionnaire at an appropriate time to improve the system. After a preliminary study, we found that INFANBOT can solve most of the problems encountered by users. Statistically, all respondents gave above 4.5 points in the Likert-type five-point scale. Therefore, most respondents felt that INFANBOT could solve their problems effectively and quickly. The INFANBOT system developed by this study is designed to meet the needs of users. The system design of INFANBOT established in this study met the needs of its users and can help users improve their parenting troubles. This study also has positive effects and contributions to society: 1. After using INFANBOT, users can effectively improve their knowledge of children’s health education. 2. After using INFANBOT, users feel recognition of the professionalism of the health care knowledge provided by the robot, which can effectively improve the user’s parenting problems. 3. Most of the users are satisfied with the positive results after using INFANBOT, so novice parents and parents who feel anxious about parenting can quickly search for common parenting problems on the LINE community software.
High-Performance Microwave Photonic Transmission Enabled by an Adapter for Fundamental Mode in MMFs
Authors: Wang Yilan , Yang Linbo , Yang Zhiqun , Liu Yaping , Huang Zhanhua , Zhang Lin
Published: January 2023

Microwave photonic links (MPLs) have long been considered as an excellent way for radio frequency (RF) transmission due to their advantages such as light weight, high bandwidth, low cost and large spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR). However, the effective mode-field area (Aeff) of the single-mode fiber (SMF) used in the traditional MPL is not large, so the MPL based on SMF have relatively strong nonlinearity, which limits the processing power of SMFs to a level of few milliwatts. Few-mode fibers (FMFs) have been applied in MPL as an alternative due to the larger Aeff, and photonic lanterns are used simultaneously to excite the high-order mode of FMFs for RF signal transmission. However, the photonic lantern could bring additional insertion loss, and the production cost of FMFs is high, so we propose an MPL based on multimode fibers (MMFs) with mode field adapters (MFAs). Since MMFs have larger Aeff, the nonlinearity of the link can be greatly reduced. And matched MFAs realized by reverse tapering, to excite only the fundamental mode in MMFs to reduce the crosstalk, which are very stable. As a result, the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold and SFDR are improved by 5 dB and 14.5 dB, respectively.
Effective Frequency Range and Jump Behavior of Horizontal Quasi-Zero Stiffness Isolator
Authors: Xu Lixin , Dai Kaili , Hao Hongyu , Zeng Huizhou , Chen Jianen
Published: January 2023

The quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) isolator shows excellent characteristics of low-frequency vibration isolation. However, the jump behavior caused by the strong nonlinearity is a primary reason for the failure of QZS isolators. In order to grasp the effective frequency range and failure mechanism of a horizontal QZS isolator comprehensively, the dynamics of the isolator were studied in the following two cases. In the first case, the isolator is subject to a base displacement excitation; in the second case, the isolator is installed on a linear structure that is subject to a harmonic force. The nonlinear algebraic equations describing the steady-state response of the two systems were derived via the complexification-averaging method, and the results obtained using the derived expressions were verified by comparing the results of the complexification-averaging method and the Runge–Kutta method. The effective frequency ranges of the isolator were then obtained, and the jump phenomena in the response amplitude induced by the strong nonlinearity of the isolator were analyzed. The results show that when the excitation amplitude is small, the vibration isolation system does not exhibit jumping behavior and the effective frequency range is relatively wide. With increases in the excitation amplitude, the system can exhibit jumping behavior when an additional impact load is considered, and this phenomenon leads to a narrowing of the effective frequency range. The characteristics of the jump phenomena produced in the two cases were analyzed, and the differences in the jump behaviors were elucidated. Furthermore, the effect of the isolator parameters on the effective frequency range was investigated.
An Intuitive Derivation of Beam Models of Arbitrary Order
Authors: Honickman Hart
Published: January 2023

This article presents a new beam model that employs a recursive derivation procedure that enables the user to set the order of the governing differential equations as an input parameter, without the need for ad hoc assumptions or methodologies. This article employs a novel system of kinematic variables, section constants, and section functions that facilitate the development of higher-order beam models that retain a clear philosophical link to classical beam models such as Euler–Bernoulli beam theory and Timoshenko beam theory. The present beam model is a type of equivalent single layer beam model, wherein section constants are used to model the global stiffness characteristics of the beam, and section functions are used to recover sectional fields of displacements, strains, and stresses. The present beam model is solved for several example beams, and the results are compared to the results of finite element analyses. It is shown that the present beam model can accurately predict the deformed shapes and stress fields of each of the example beams. This article also reveals an interesting peculiarity of the elastic potential energy that pertains to any unidimensional beam model that is governed by differential equations that are of finite order.
Influence of Body Weight and Water Temperature on Growth in Ragworm Hediste diversicolor
Authors: Aguado-Giménez Felipe , García-García Benjamin , Martín Ignacio Eduardo , Rasines Inmaculada
Published: January 2023

Cultivation of the common ragworm—Hediste diversicolor—has attracted a great deal of interest in recent years. Growth optimization is a key aspect for its intensive production. We have assessed the effect of body weight (Bw) and temperature (T) on growth-related parameters in common ragworm using correlation and multiple regression analyses. We used ragworms of 13 different weight classes in 15-day growing assays at 12 different temperature values. These polychaetes were stocked at a density of 1000 individuals m−2, and fed with commercial fish feed. Our results show that growth increases with T; when expressed as an absolute growth rate (AGR), growth increases as Bw increases; and when expressed as a specific growth rate (SGR), growth decreases as Bw increases. A change in the growth pattern was observed from an individual Bw of about 400 mg. Simulations performed with the equations that provided the best fit revealed that optimum T for growth changes with Bw, so that in individuals below 400 mg, optimum T is 24.9 °C, and above this temperature growth decreases. In individuals above 400 mg, growth increases slightly with temperature, but as weight increases, the effect of temperature on growth is less and less, and from a weight of 1050 mg, growth decreases as temperature increases. Mortality increases significantly at temperatures above 22 °C, especially in individuals with a Bw above 400 mg. Simulations of individual growth showed that up to 400 mg growth is quite fast at warmer temperatures, but from 400 mg to 1000 mg, the influence of T on growth rate is not significantly relevant in operational terms. This study demonstrated the huge usefulness of growth modelling for production planning.
Architectural Competitions on Aging in Denmark Spatial Prototypes to Achieve Homelikeness 1899–2012
Authors: Andersson Jonas E.
Published: January 2023

In Denmark, appropriate architecture for aging is an engaging topic, often explored through the use of architectural competitions. Since 2013, national guidelines for homelike architecture for eldercare have been in place, open for use in contemporaneous competitions. This study is focused on architectural competitions prior to 2013 and the development of modern architecture for aging. Based on reports on competitions in professional publications for architects, this study covers the period of 1899–2012. Inspired by the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s view of architecture as a spatial practice that ‘does not invoke what no longer is there but what has become through what is no longer present’, the present study revisits competitions on architecture for aging in search of inspirational input and links to the national socio-political discussion. This study uses case study methodology with a mixed method approach. A total of 76 competitions are identified, mainly organized by Danish municipalities, and are linked to four paradigms in social legislations. It is concluded that early competitions defined spatial prototypes, both for the homelike setting and the institutional environment, which have been continuously revisited. Since 2008, homelikeness has become the main design criterion for architecture for the frail aging population with an increasing dependency on caregiving.
Experimental and Numerical Analysis of an Atmospheric Water Harvester Using a Thermoelectric Cooler
Authors: Alenezi Anwur , Jung Hyung-Ho , Alabaiadly Yousef
Published: January 2023

An atmospheric water harvester with a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) can extract water vapour from air. This study tested a prototype atmospheric water harvester with a TEC and evaluated the condensation flow parameters affecting the amount of water produced using experimental and numerical methods. This experiment was performed under controlled conditions (a temperature of 313 K and relative humidity of 85%) in a climate chamber for 8 h and under actual weather conditions in Kuwait for 8 h. The humid air condensed when the cooling surface temperature was less than the dew point temperature, and the produced water was collected. The experimental findings indicated that the dew point temperature increased with increasing relative humidity and the cooling surface temperature increased with increasing atmospheric air temperature. The numerical analysis involved modelling and simulation (for 8 h, similar to the experiment) under the boundary conditions of inlet air temperature, relative humidity, cooling surface temperature, and inlet air velocity. The temperature decreased from the inlet to the outlet because of condensation. A comparison of the results showed that the calculated amount of produced water was close to the experimental value. The results of this study will help enhance the efficiency of producing clean and safe drinking water.
Analytical and Statistical Modelling of a Fast Ion Source Formed by Injection of a Neutral Beam into Magnetically Confined Plasma
Authors: Goncharov Pavel
Published: January 2023

Mathematical modelling of heating and current drive as well as yields and distributions of fusion products in a magnetically confined plasma subject to neutral beam injection requires, in turn, modelling of distributions of fast ions, which is a complex task including calculations of the source of suprathermal particles, i.e., the number of fast ions occurring in unit volume during unit time owing to the injection of fast atoms. The knowledge of the magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium, beam injection geometry and spatial distribution of the magnetic field are the necessary prerequisites. Explicit general analytical formulae for the source of fast ions have been obtained by two different methods. In addition, a method of statistical modelling is presented. Calculations of spatial and angular distributions of the fast ion source for a tokamak and verifications of the obtained results have been performed by a number of methods.
Some Refinements of Hermite–Hadamard Type Integral Inequalities Involving Refined Convex Function of the Raina Type
Authors: Tariq Muhammad , Sahoo Soubhagya Kumar , Ntouyas Sotiris K.
Published: January 2023

The aim of this work is to elaborate and define the idea of refined convex function of the Raina type. In addition, we have attained some associated properties in the manner of the newly introduced idea. To add some more comprehension into the newly investigated definition, we obtain the estimations of the Hermite-Hadamard inequality. For the reader’s interest, we add some remarks regarding the Mittag-Leffer function. During the last four decades, the term Mitag-Leffler function has acquired popularity on account of its many importance in the fields of engineering and science, i.e statistical distribution theory, rheology, electric networks, fluid flow, and probability. The amazing perception regarding this function provides the solution of certain boundary value problems. The asymptotic status of this function plays a very vital performance in various problems of physics associated with fractional calculus. The methodology and amazing tools of this work may serve as an impetus for further research activities in this direction as well.
From Symmetric Functions to Partition Identities
Authors: Merca Mircea
Published: January 2023

In this paper, we show that some classical results from q-analysis and partition theory are specializations of the fundamental relationships between complete and elementary symmetric functions.
A Generalization of Gegenbauer Polynomials and Bi-Univalent Functions
Authors: Amourah Ala , Alsoboh Abdullah , Ogilat Osama , Gharib Gharib Mousa , Saadeh Rania , Al Soudi Maha
Published: January 2023

Three subclasses of analytic and bi-univalent functions are introduced through the use of q−Gegenbauer polynomials, which are a generalization of Gegenbauer polynomials. For functions falling within these subclasses, coefficient bounds a2 and a3 as well as Fekete–Szegö inequalities are derived. Specializing the parameters used in our main results leads to a number of new results.
Third-Order Differential Subordinations Using Fractional Integral of Gaussian Hypergeometric Function
Authors: Oros Georgia Irina , Oros Gheorghe , Preluca Lavinia Florina
Published: January 2023

Sanford S. Miller and Petru T. Mocanu’s theory of second-order differential subordinations was extended for the case of third-order differential subordinations by José A. Antonino and Sanford S. Miller in 2011. In this paper, new results are proved regarding third-order differential subordinations that extend the ones involving the classical second-order differential subordination theory. A method for finding a dominant of a third-order differential subordination is provided when the behavior of the function is not known on the boundary of the unit disc. Additionally, a new method for obtaining the best dominant of a third-order differential subordination is presented. This newly proposed method essentially consists of finding the univalent solution for the differential equation that corresponds to the differential subordination considered in the investigation; previous results involving third-order differential subordinations have been obtained mainly by investigating specific classes of admissible functions. The fractional integral of the Gaussian hypergeometric function, previously associated with the theory of fuzzy differential subordination, is used in this paper to obtain an interesting third-order differential subordination by involving a specific convex function. The best dominant is also provided, and the example presented proves the importance of the theoretical results involving the fractional integral of the Gaussian hypergeometric function.
Exact Solutions of Maxwell Equations in Homogeneous Spaces with the Group of Motions G3(IX)
Authors: Obukhov Valeriy V.
Published: January 2023

This paper classifies the exact solutions of the Maxwell vacuum equations for the case when the electromagnetic fields and metrics of homogeneous spaces are invariant with respect to the motion group G3(IX). All the appropriate non-equivalent exact solutions of the Maxwell vacuum equations are found.
Numerical Modeling of the Major Temporal Arcade Using BUMDA and Jacobi Polynomials
Authors: Soto-Álvarez José , Cruz-Aceves Iván , Hernández-Aguirre Arturo , Hernández-González Martha , López-Montero Luis , Solorio-Meza Sergio
Published: January 2023

Within eye diseases, diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity are considered one of the main causes of blindness in adults and children. In order to prevent the disease from reaching such an extreme, a timely diagnosis and effective treatment must be applied. Until now, the way to verify the state of the retina has been to make qualitative observations of fundus images, all carried out by an ophthalmological specialist; however, this is totally restricted to their experience, and some changes in the vascular structure of the retina could be omitted, in addition to the fact that very high resolution images would be needed to be able to detect significant changes. Accordingly, with the help of computational tools, this diagnostic/monitoring process can be improved. This paper presents a novel strategy for the modeling of the MTA by using an estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) based on the probability density function in order to determine the coefficients and parameters (α,β) of a Jacobi polynomial series. A model using polynomials is the novel aspect of this work since in the literature there are no models of the MTA of this type, in addition to seeking to better cover the profile of the retinal vein. According to the experimental results, the proposed method presents the advantage to achieve superior performance in terms of the mean distance to the closest point (4.34 pixels), and the Hausdorff distance (14.43 pixels) with respect to different state-of-the-art methods of the numerical modeling of the retina, using the DRIVE database of retinal fundus images with a manual delineation of the MTA performed by an specialist.
MRL-Based Model for Diverse Bidding Decision-Makings of Power Retail Company in the Wholesale Electricity Market of China
Authors: Wang Ying , Liu Chang , Yuan Weihong , Li Lili
Published: January 2023

Power retail companies in the electricity market make profits through buying and selling power energy in the wholesale and retail markets, respectively. Traditionally, they are assumed to bid in the wholesale market with the same objective, i.e., maximize the profit. This paper proposes a multiagent reinforcement learning (MRL)-based model to simulate the diverse bidding decision-making concerning various operation objectives and the profit-sharing modes of power retail companies in China’s wholesale electricity market, which contributes to a more realistic modeling and simulation of the retail companies. Specifically, three types of operation objectives and five types of profit-sharing modes are mathematically formulated. After that, a complete electricity market optimization model is established, and a case study with 30 retail companies is carried out. The simulation results show that the proposed method can effectively model the diverse bidding decision-making of the power retail companies, which can further assist their decision-making and further contribute to the analysis and simulations of the electricity market.
A New Health Analysis Method for Lithium-Ion Batteries Based on the Evidential Reasoning Rule Considering Perturbation
Authors: Zhang Yunyi , Wang Shuchang , He Wei , Zhang Wei , Tang Shuaiwen , Zhou Guohui
Published: January 2023

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in energy storage, small electronic devices and other fields due to their advantages of high energy density and long life cycles, as well as causing less damage to the environment than alternatives. For safety, it is essential to propose reasonable methods to assess batteries’ health statuses. Therefore, a health assessment model based on the evidential reasoning (ER) rule is proposed in this article. Firstly, the voltage rise time and the current fall time are taken as observation indicators, which contain information about the health status of lithium-ion batteries. Secondly, the information of various indicators is integrated into a belief structure, and the indicator reliability and indicator weights are adequately considered in the assessment model. Thirdly, there are some perturbations that will affect the operating status of batteries and cause the batteries’ reliability to fluctuate, so we use perturbation analysis to determine the adaptability of batteries to perturbations. We set two bounded parameters, the perturbation coefficient and the maximum perturbation error, to assess the reliability of lithium-ion batteries when experiencing perturbations. Finally, on the basis of the whole-life open data set of lithium-ion batteries from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Prognostics Center of Excellence, the validity of the health assessment model and perturbation analysis is demonstrated.
Urea-Assisted Sol-Gel Synthesis of LaMnO3 Perovskite with Accelerated Catalytic Activity for Application in Zn-Air Battery
Authors: Luo Kaikai , Zheng Qilong , Yu Yi , Wang Chunchang , Jiang Shanshan , Zhang Haijuan , Liu Yu , Guo Youmin
Published: January 2023

Precious metal-based materials such as commercial Pt/C are available electrocatalysts for redox reactions in Zn-air batteries. However, their commercial use is still limited by slow kinetics and restricted stability. In this work, we highlight a facial urea-assisted sol-gel method to synthesize A-site vacancy in LaMnO3+δ oxide for boosting its catalytic activity and further explore the effect of the amount of urea on the A-site LaMnO3. The A-site vacancy in LMO was confirmed by XRD, TEM, and XPS, which revealed that the urea-assisted sol-gel method mitigated the A-site vacancy in LaMnO3+δ and increased its surface area, thus ultimately accelerating its redox reaction kinetics. The half-wave potential and current density of the resultant 3.0U-LMO electrocatalyst were 0.74 V and 5.74 mA cm−2, respectively. It is worth noting that the assembled Zn-air battery with the 3.0U-LMO catalyst presented a power output of 130.04 mW cm−2 at 0.51 V and a promising energy efficiency of 58.4% after 150 cycles. This protocol might offer an efficient approach for developing new defect-regulated perovskites for electrocatalysis.
Two-Step Solid State Synthesis of Medium Entropy LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 Cathode with Enhanced Electrochemical Performance
Authors: Wu Wentao , Zuo Shuai , Zhang Xu , Feng Xuyong
Published: January 2023

Solid state reaction is widely used in the synthesis of electrode materials, due to its low cost and good scalability. However, the traditional solid-state reaction is not suitable for the synthesis of materials with multiple elements, such as high entropy or medium entropy materials, due to the poor homogeneity of raw material mixing. Here, we prepared multi-element doped LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (medium entropy) cathode material by two step solid state reaction. X-ray diffraction and Raman image show that the homogeneity of multi-element doped LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 cathode has been greatly improved with this two-step method. As a result, the electrochemical performance is greatly improved, comparing to traditional solid-state reaction. First, the specific capacity at 0.1 C is increased from 126 mAh/g to 137 mAh/g. With a high current density of 10 C, the specific capacity is even increased from 64 mAh/g to 89 mAh/g with this two-step method. Second, the cycle stability is enhanced, with capacity retention of 86% after cycling at 1 C for 500 times (vs. 71% for the one-step method).
Experimental Analysis of Drying Kinetics and Quality Aspects of Convection-Dried Cathodes at Laboratory Scale
Authors: Bryntesen Silje Nornes , Kahrom Armin , Lamb Jacob Joseph , Tolstorebrov Ignat , Burheim Odne Stokke
Published: January 2023

The evaporation of N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP) solvent during the large-scale production of LiNixMn1−x−yCoyO2 (NMC) cathodes usually occurs in convection ovens. This paper aims to close the gap between the industrial convection drying method and the conventional vacuum oven typically used at the laboratory scale. Multiple studies focus on modeling convection dryers to reduce energy consumption, but few have studied their impact on the cathode quality experimentally and compared them to vacuum-dried cathodes. A convection oven designed for LIB electrode drying was developed to investigate the influence of drying kinetics on the formation of small electrode surface cracks (<1400 μm2) and binder migration. The drying kinetics were revealed through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) at drying temperatures of 50 and 100 °C and hot air velocities of 0.5 and 1 m/s. Even at these relatively low drying rates, structural differences were detected when comparing the two drying methods, illustrating the importance of implementing drying conditions that represent the industry process in laboratories. Surface cracking increased with drying rates, and cathodes with multiple cracks after calendering obtained a higher discharge capacity at discharge currents >C/2. An alternative surface analysis with less sample preparation was sufficient for determining the relative change in binder migration.
GTDOnto: An Ontology for Organizing and Modeling Knowledge about Global Terrorism
Authors: Al-Fayez Reem Qadan , Al-Tawil Marwan , Abu-Salih Bilal , Eyadat Zaid
Published: January 2023

In recent years and with the advancement of semantic technologies, shared and published online data have become necessary to improve research and development in all fields. While many datasets are publicly available in social and economic domains, most lack standardization. Unlike the medical field, where terms and concepts are well defined using controlled vocabulary and ontologies, social datasets are not. Experts such as the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) collect data on global incidents and publish them in the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). Thus, the data are deficient in the technical modeling of its metadata. In this paper, we proposed GTD ontology (GTDOnto) to organize and model knowledge about global incidents, targets, perpetrators, weapons, and other related information. Based on the NeOn methodology, the goal is to build on the effort of START and present controlled vocabularies in a machine-readable format that is interoperable and can be reused to describe potential incidents in the future. The GTDOnto was implemented with the Web Ontology Language (OWL) using the Protégé editor and evaluated by answering competency questions, domain experts’ opinions, and running examples of GTDOnto for representing actual incidents. The GTDOnto can further be used to leverage the publishing of GTD as a knowledge graph that visualizes related incidents and build further applications to enrich its content.
A Mirror to Human Question Asking: Analyzing the Akinator Online Question Game
Authors: Sasson Gal , Kenett Yoed N.
Published: January 2023

Question-asking is a critical aspect of human communications. Yet, little is known about the reasons that lead people to ask questions, which questions are considered better than others, or what cognitive mechanisms allow the ability to ask informative questions. Here, we take a first step towards investigating human question-asking. We do so by an exploratory data-driven analysis of the questions asked by Akinator, a popular online game of a genie who asks questions to guess the character that the user is thinking of. We propose that the Akinator’s question-asking process may be viewed as a reflection of how humans ask questions. We conduct an exploratory data analysis to examine different strategies for the Akinator’s question-asking process, ranging from mathematical algorithms to gamification-based considerations, by analyzing complete games and individual questions. Furthermore, we use topic-modelling techniques to explore the topics of the Akinator’s inquiries and map similar questions into clusters. Overall, we find surprising aspects of the specificity and types of questions generated by the Akinator game, that may be driven by the gamification characteristics of the game. In addition, we find coherent topics that the Akinator retrieves from when generating questions. Our results highlight commonalities in the strategies for question-asking used by people and by the Akinator.
Analyzing the Effect of COVID-19 on Education by Processing Users’ Sentiments
Authors: Jamalian Mohadese , Vahdat-Nejad Hamed , Mansoor Wathiq , Copiaco Abigail , Hajiabadi Hamideh
Published: January 2023

COVID-19 infection has been a major topic of discussion on social media platforms since its pandemic outbreak in the year 2020. From daily activities to direct health consequences, COVID-19 has undeniably affected lives significantly. In this paper, we especially analyze the effect of COVID-19 on education by examining social media statements made via Twitter. We first propose a lexicon related to education. Then, based on the proposed dictionary, we automatically extract the education-related tweets and also the educational parameters of learning and assessment. Afterwards, by analyzing the content of the tweets, we determine the location of each tweet. Then the sentiments of the tweets are analyzed and examined to extract the frequency trends of positive and negative tweets for the whole world, and especially for countries with a significant share of COVID-19 cases. According to the analysis of the trends, individuals were globally concerned about education after the COVID-19 outbreak. By comparing between the years 2020 and 2021, we discovered that due to the sudden shift from traditional to electronic education, people were significantly more concerned about education within the first year of the pandemic. However, these concerns decreased in 2021. The proposed methodology was evaluated using quantitative performance metrics, such as the F1-score, precision, and recall.
Myocardial Segmentation of Tagged Magnetic Resonance Images with Transfer Learning Using Generative Cine-To-Tagged Dataset Transformation
Authors: Dhaene Arnaud P. , Loecher Michael , Wilson Alexander J. , Ennis Daniel B.
Published: January 2023

The use of deep learning (DL) segmentation in cardiac MRI has the potential to streamline the radiology workflow, particularly for the measurement of myocardial strain. Recent efforts in DL motion tracking models have drastically reduced the time needed to measure the heart’s displacement field and the subsequent myocardial strain estimation. However, the selection of initial myocardial reference points is not automated and still requires manual input from domain experts. Segmentation of the myocardium is a key step for initializing reference points. While high-performing myocardial segmentation models exist for cine images, this is not the case for tagged images. In this work, we developed and compared two novel DL models (nnU-net and Segmentation ResNet VAE) for the segmentation of myocardium from tagged CMR images. We implemented two methods to transform cardiac cine images into tagged images, allowing us to leverage large public annotated cine datasets. The cine-to-tagged methods included (i) a novel physics-driven transformation model, and (ii) a generative adversarial network (GAN) style transfer model. We show that pretrained models perform better (+2.8 Dice coefficient percentage points) and converge faster (6×) than models trained from scratch. The best-performing method relies on a pretraining with an unpaired, unlabeled, and structure-preserving generative model trained to transform cine images into their tagged-appearing equivalents. Our state-of-the-art myocardium segmentation network reached a Dice coefficient of 0.828 and 95th percentile Hausdorff distance of 4.745 mm on a held-out test set. This performance is comparable to existing state-of-the-art segmentation networks for cine images.
From Dysbiosis to Neurodegenerative Diseases through Different Communication Pathways: An Overview
Authors: Intili Giorgia , Paladino Letizia , Rappa Francesca , Alberti Giusi , Plicato Alice , Calabrò Federica , Fucarino Alberto , Cappello Francesco , Bucchieri Fabio , Tomasello Giovanni , Carini Francesco , Pitruzzella Alessandro
Published: January 2023

The microbiome research field has rapidly evolved over the last few decades, becoming a major topic of scientific and public interest. The gut microbiota (GM) is the microbial population living in the gut. The GM has many functions, such as maintaining gut homeostasis and host health, providing defense against enteric pathogens, and involvement in immune system development. Several studies have shown that GM is implicated in dysbiosis and is presumed to contribute to neurodegeneration. This review focuses mainly on describing the connection between the intestinal microbiome alterations (dysbiosis) and the onset of neurodegenerative diseases to explore the mechanisms that link the GM to nervous system health, such as the gut-brain axis, as well as the mitochondrial, the adaptive humoral immunity, and the microvesicular pathways. The gut-brain communication depends on a continuous bidirectional flow of molecular signals exchanged through the neural and the systemic circulation. These pathways represent a possible new therapeutic target against neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Progress in this context is desperately needed, considering the severity of most neurodegenerative diseases and the current lack of effective treatments.
Exploiting Multi-Omics Profiling and Systems Biology to Investigate Functions of TOMM34
Authors: Poverennaya Ekaterina V. , Pyatnitskiy Mikhail A. , Dolgalev Georgii V. , Arzumanian Viktoria A. , Kiseleva Olga I. , Kurbatov Ilya Yu. , Kurbatov Leonid K. , Vakhrushev Igor V. , Romashin Daniil D. , Kim Yan S. , Ponomarenko Elena A.
Published: January 2023

Although modern biology is now in the post-genomic era with vastly increased access to high-quality data, the set of human genes with a known function remains far from complete. This is especially true for hundreds of mitochondria-associated genes, which are under-characterized and lack clear functional annotation. However, with the advent of multi-omics profiling methods coupled with systems biology algorithms, the cellular role of many such genes can be elucidated. Here, we report genes and pathways associated with TOMM34, Translocase of Outer Mitochondrial Membrane, which plays role in the mitochondrial protein import as a part of cytosolic complex together with Hsp70/Hsp90 and is upregulated in various cancers. We identified genes, proteins, and metabolites altered in TOMM34-/- HepG2 cells. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to study the functional capacity of TOMM34 using a multi-omics strategy. We demonstrate that TOMM34 affects various processes including oxidative phosphorylation, citric acid cycle, metabolism of purine, and several amino acids. Besides the analysis of already known pathways, we utilized de novo network enrichment algorithm to extract novel perturbed subnetworks, thus obtaining evidence that TOMM34 potentially plays role in several other cellular processes, including NOTCH-, MAPK-, and STAT3-signaling. Collectively, our findings provide new insights into TOMM34’s cellular functions.
Evaluation of Candidates for Systemic Analgesia and General Anesthesia in the Emerging Model Cephalopod, Euprymna berryi
Authors: Deutsch Skyler , Parsons Rachel , Shia Jonathan , Detmering Sarah , Seng Christopher , Ng Alyssa , Uribe Jacqueline , Manahan Megan , Friedman Amanda , Winters-Bostwick Gabrielle , Crook Robyn J.
Published: January 2023

Cephalopods’ remarkable behavior and complex neurobiology make them valuable comparative model organisms, but studies aimed at enhancing welfare of captive cephalopods remain uncommon. Increasing regulation of cephalopods in research laboratories has resulted in growing interest in welfare-oriented refinements, including analgesia and anesthesia. Although general and local anesthesia in cephalopods have received limited prior study, there have been no studies of systemic analgesics in cephalopods to date. Here we show that analgesics from several different drug classes may be effective in E. berryi. Buprenorphine, ketorolac and dexmedetomidine, at doses similar to those used in fish, showed promising effects on baseline nociceptive thresholds, excitability of peripheral sensory nerves, and on behavioral responses to transient noxious stimulation. We found no evidence of positive effects of acetaminophen or ketamine administered at doses that are effective in vertebrates. Bioinformatic analyses suggested conserved candidate receptors for dexmedetomidine and ketorolac, but not buprenorphine. We also show that rapid general immersion anesthesia using a mix of MgCl2 and ethanol was successful in E. berryi at multiple age classes, similar to findings in other cephalopods. These data indicate that systemic analgesia and general anesthesia in Euprymna berryi are achievable welfare enhancing interventions, but further study and refinement is warranted.
The Multifaceted Role of Connexins in Tumor Microenvironment Initiation and Maintenance
Authors: Kutova Olga M. , Pospelov Anton D. , Balalaeva Irina V.
Published: January 2023

Today’s research on the processes of carcinogenesis and the vital activity of tumor tissues implies more attention be paid to constituents of the tumor microenvironment and their interactions. These interactions between cells in the tumor microenvironment can be mediated via different types of protein junctions. Connexins are one of the major contributors to intercellular communication. They form the gap junctions responsible for the transfer of ions, metabolites, peptides, miRNA, etc., between neighboring tumor cells as well as between tumor and stromal cells. Connexin hemichannels mediate purinergic signaling and bidirectional molecular transport with the extracellular environment. Additionally, connexins have been reported to localize in tumor-derived exosomes and facilitate the release of their cargo. A large body of evidence implies that the role of connexins in cancer is multifaceted. The pro- or anti-tumorigenic properties of connexins are determined by their abundance, localization, and functionality as well as their channel assembly and non-channel functions. In this review, we have summarized the data on the contribution of connexins to the formation of the tumor microenvironment and to cancer initiation and progression.
Blows or Falls? Distinction by Random Forest Classification
Authors: Henriques Mélanie , Bonhomme Vincent , Cunha Eugénia , Adalian Pascal
Published: January 2023

In this study, we propose a classification method between falls and blows using random forests. In total, 400 anonymized patients presenting with fractures from falls or blows aged between 20 and 49 years old were used. There were 549 types of fractures for 57 bones and 12 anatomical regions observed. We first tested various models according to the sensibility of random forest parameters and their effects on model accuracies. The best model was based on the binary coding of 12 anatomical regions or 28 bones with or without baseline (age and sex). Our method achieved the highest accuracy rate of 83% in the distinction between falls and blows. Our findings pave the way for applications to help forensic experts and archaeologists.
Comparative Material and Mechanical Properties among Cicada Mouthparts: Cuticle Enhanced with Inorganic Elements Facilitates Piercing through Woody Stems for Feeding
Authors: Reiter Kristen E. , Perkovich Cynthia , Smith Katelynne N. , Feng Jiansheng , Kritsky Gene , Lehnert Matthew S.
Published: January 2023

Adult cicadas pierce woody stems with their mouthparts to feed on xylem, suggesting the presence of cuticular adaptations that could increase hardness and elastic modulus. We tested the following hypotheses: (a) the mouthpart cuticle includes inorganic elements, which augment the mechanical properties; (b) these elements are abundant in specific mouthpart structures and regions responsible for piercing wood; (c) there are correlations among elements, which could provide insights into patterns of element colocalization. We used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to investigate mouthpart morphology and quantify the elemental composition of the cuticle among four cicada species, including periodical cicadas (Magicicada sp.). Nanoindentation was used to quantify hardness and elastic modulus of the mandibles. We found 12 inorganic elements, including colocalized manganese and zinc in the distal regions of the mandible, the structure most responsible for piercing through wood; nanoindentation determined that these regions were also significantly harder and had higher elastic modulus than other regions. Manganese and zinc abundance relates to increased hardness and stiffness as in the cuticle of other invertebrates; however, this is one of the first reports of cuticular metals among insects with piercing-sucking mouthparts (>100,000 described species). The present investigation provides insight into the feeding mechanism of cicadas, an important but understudied component of their life traits.