bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sepsis epidemiology in Australian and New Zealand children (SENTINEL): protocol for a multicountry prospective observational study
Authors: Long Elliot , Borland Meredith L , George Shane , Jani Shefali , Tan Eunicia , Neutze Jocelyn , Phillips Natalie , Kochar Amit , Craig Simon , Lithgow Anna , Rao Arjun , Dalziel Stuart , Oakley Ed , Hearps Stephen , Singh Sonia , Gelbart Ben , McNab Sarah , Balamuth Fran , Weiss Scott , Kuppermann Nathan , Williams Amanda , Babl Franz E
Published: January 2024

Introduction

Sepsis affects 25.2 million children per year globally and causes 3.4 million deaths, with an annual cost of hospitalisation in the USA of US$7.3 billion. Despite being common, severe and expensive, therapies and outcomes from sepsis have not substantially changed in decades. Variable case definitions, lack of a reference standard for diagnosis and broad spectrum of disease hamper efforts to evaluate therapies that may improve sepsis outcomes. This landscape analysis of community-acquired childhood sepsis in Australia and New Zealand will characterise the burden of disease, including incidence, severity, outcomes and cost. Sepsis diagnostic criteria and risk stratification tools will be prospectively evaluated. Sepsis therapies, quality of care, parental awareness and understanding of sepsis and parent-reported outcome measures will be described. Understanding these aspects of sepsis care is fundamental for the design and conduct of interventional trials to improve childhood sepsis outcomes.

Methods and analysis

This prospective observational study will include children up to 18 years of age presenting to 12 emergency departments with suspected sepsis within the Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative network in Australia and New Zealand. Presenting characteristics, management and outcomes will be collected. These will include vital signs, serum biomarkers, clinician assessment of severity of disease, intravenous fluid administration for the first 24 hours of hospitalisation, organ support therapies delivered, antimicrobial use, microbiological diagnoses, hospital and intensive care unit length-of-stay, mortality censored at hospital discharge or 30 days from enrolment (whichever comes first) and parent-reported outcomes 90 days from enrolment. We will use these data to determine sepsis epidemiology based on existing and novel diagnostic criteria. We will also validate existing and novel sepsis risk stratification criteria, characterise antimicrobial stewardship, guideline adherence, cost and report parental awareness and understanding of sepsis and parent-reported outcome measures.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethics approval was received from the Royal Children’s Hospital of Melbourne, Australia Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/69948/RCHM-2021). This included incorporated informed consent for follow-up. The findings will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and at academic conferences.

Trial registration number

ACTRN12621000920897; Pre-results.
Evaluation of a new patient safety educational programme to reduce adverse events by encouraging staff to speak up: application of the trigger tool methodology
Authors: Nakatani Kaoru , Nakagami-Yamaguchi Etsuko , Hagawa Naohiro , Tokuwame Atsushi , Ehara Shoichi , Nishimura Tetsuro , Mizobata Yasumitsu
Published: January 2024

Background

Poor communication contributes to adverse events (AEs). In our hospital, following an experience of a fatal incident in 2014, we developed an educational programme aimed at improving communication for better teamwork that led to a reduction in AEs.

Methods

We developed and implemented an intervention bundle comprising external investigation committee reviews, the establishment of a working group (WG), standards and emergency response guidelines, as well as educational programmes and tools. To determine the effectiveness of the educational programmes, we measured communication abilities among doctors and nurses by administering psychological scales focused on their confidence in speaking up. Furthermore, we applied the trigger tool methodology in a retrospective study to determine if our interventions had reduced AEs.

Results

The nurses’ scores for ‘perceived barriers to speaking up’ and ‘negative attitude toward voicing opinions in the healthcare team’ decreased significantly after the training from 3.20 to 3.00 and from 2.47 to 2.29 points, respectively. The junior doctors’ scores for the same items also decreased significantly after the training from 3.34 to 2.51 and from 2.42 to 2.11 points, respectively. The number of AEs was 32.1 (median) before the WG, 39.9 (median) before the general training, 22.2 (median) after the general training and 18.4 (median) after implementing the leadership educational programmes. During the intervention period the hospital’s incident reports per employee kept increasing.

Conclusion

Our new educational programmes improved junior doctors and nurses’ perceptions of speaking up. We speculated that our intervention may have improved staff communication, which in turn may have led to a reduction in AEs and a sustained increase in incident reports per employee.
Longer work experience and age associated with safety attitudes in operating room nurses: an online cross-sectional study
Authors: Nyberg Anette , Olofsson Birgitta , Fagerdahl Ami , Haney Michael , Otten Volker
Published: January 2024

Background

Patient safety is fundamental when providing care in the operating room. Still, adverse events and errors are a challenge for patient safety worldwide. To avoid preventable patient harm, organisations need a positive safety culture, the measurable component of which is known as the safety climate. To best improve the safety climate the current attitudes to safety must first be understood.

Aim

To explore operating room nurses’ safety attitudes and their views on how to improve patient safety in operating rooms.

Method

A cross-sectional study using the Swedish-translated version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire, Operating Room version. Data were collected using an online survey platform.

Results

358 operating room nurses completed the questionnaire. The results show that the older age group rated their working conditions and management support as better than the younger age groups. The older age group also rated their stress recognition as lower compared with the younger age groups. The same pattern was seen in terms of work experience, with more-experienced respondents showing a higher mean score for the factor working conditions and a lower mean score for the factor stress recognition as compared with their less-experienced colleagues. When comparing hospital types, county hospital employees had higher factor scores for safety climate, job satisfaction and working conditions than university hospital employees. The respondents’ most recurring recommendations for improving patient safety were ‘Having better and clearer communication’ followed by ‘Having enough time to do things the way they should be done’.

Conclusion

More focus on safety with increasing age and experience was observed in this cohort. Need for improvements is reported for patient safety in operating rooms, mainly when it comes to communication and workload. To improve and develop patient safety in the operating room, the organisational safety climate needs to be actively managed and developed. One step in actively managing the safety climate may be efforts to retain experienced operating room nurses.
Evaluation of implementation facilitation integrated into a national mentoring programme to improve access to evidence-based psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder within the veterans health administration: a quality improvement report
Authors: Sayer Nina A , Maieritsch Kelly P , Yamokoski Cynthia A , Orazem Robert J , Clothier Barbara A , Noorbaloochi Siamak
Published: January 2024

Despite the resources dedicated to specialised mental healthcare for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within the US Veterans Health Administration, evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) for PTSD have been underutilised, as evidenced by low EBP reach to patients. A research-operation collaboration evaluated whether implementation facilitation delivered by regional PTSD mentors as part of a national mentoring programme improved EBP reach compared with less-intensive quality improvement interventions. We used a non-equivalent comparison-group design that included all PTSD clinics with low EBP reach at baseline (n=51). Clinics were grouped into one of four quality improvement conditions according to self-selection by regional PTSD mentors: facilitation (n=6), learning collaborative (n=15), mentoring as usual in the regions that had facilitation-target clinics (n=15) and mentoring as usual in other regions (n=15). The primary outcome was EBP reach among therapy patients with PTSD at preintervention baseline and postintervention sustainment periods. We used the ratio of odds ratios (ROR) between the two time periods to evaluate the effectiveness of facilitation compared with the other conditions, adjusting for patient-level and clinic-level confounders. 26 126 veterans with PTSD received psychotherapy in one of 51 low-reach PTSD clinics during preintervention baseline and postintervention sustainment periods. The odds of a patient receiving an EBP increased over time across conditions. The adjusted ORs of a patient receiving an EBP from baseline to sustainment were 1.35–1.69 times larger in clinics that received facilitation compared with the three comparison conditions (adjustedRORs of comparison condition versus facilitation ranged from 0.59 (95% CI 0.47 to 0.75) to 0.74 (95% CI 0.58 to 0.94)). Implementation facilitation can be integrated into a national programme for quality improvement for PTSD specialty care and may be particularly useful when less-intensive approaches are not sufficiently effective.
Vitamin D insufficiency in infants with increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes: a secondary analysis of the POInT Study
Authors: Jacobs An , Warnants Maarten , Vollmuth Veronika , Winkler Christiane , Weiss Andreas , Ziegler Anette-Gabriele , Lundgren Markus , Elding Larsson Helena , Kordonouri Olga , von dem Berge Thekla , Zielmann Marie-Luise , Bonifacio Ezio , Hommel Angela , Ołtarzewski Mariusz , Szypowska Agnieszka , Besser Rachel , Todd John A. , Casteels Kristina
Published: January 2024

Background

Vitamin D insufficiency (VDI) may be a factor in the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D). The aim of this study is to investigate the presence and persistence of VDI in a large cohort of infants with increased risk of developing T1D, in light of the differences in local supplementation guidelines.

Methods

In the POInT Study, a multicentre primary prevention study between February 2018 and March 2021 in Germany, Poland, Belgium, England and Sweden, including infants aged 4–7 months at high genetic risk of developing β-cell autoantibodies, vitamin D levels were analysed at each study visit from inclusion (4–7 months) until 3 years, with an interval of 2 months (first three visits) or 4–6 months (visits 4–8). The protocol actively promotes vitamin D sufficiency to optimise immune tolerance. VDI was defined as a concentration below 30 ng/mL and was treated according to local guidelines of participating centres. Recovery from VDI was defined as a concentration above or equal to 30 ng/mL on the subsequent visit after VDI.

Results

1050 infants were included, of which 5937 vitamin D levels were available for analyses. VDI was observed in 1464 (24.7%) visits and 507 (46.1%) of these were not resolved at the next visit. The risk of having VDI was independently associated with season (higher in winter), weight (higher with increased weight), age (higher with increased age) and country (higher in England). The risk of not recovering from VDI was independently associated with the season of the previously determined VDI, which was higher if VDI was identified in winter.

Conclusions

VDI is frequent in infants with increased risk of developing T1D. Treatment guidelines for VDI do not seem effective. Increasing supplementation dosages in this patient population seems warranted, especially during winter, and increasing dosages more aggressively after VDI should be considered.
Gastroenterology trainee experience, confidence and satisfaction in nutrition training: a cross-sectional survey in the UK
Authors: Sartain Stephanie , Wong Charlotte , Murray Emma , Raju Suneil A , Woods Amy , Ashmore Daniel , Dyall Lovesh , Kokwaro Flora , McGowan Eilidh , Leiberman David , Routledge Emma , Clarke Emily , Smith Trevor R
Published: January 2024

Introduction

Nutrition is an essential part of gastroenterology specialist training. There is limited evidence of trainee experience in this area. The shorter training programme introduced in 2022 may lead to reduced exposure to this subspecialty. We aimed to explore and describe current nutrition training experiences, confidence and satisfaction to inform future improvements.

Methods

Gastroenterology trainees were invited to participate in an online survey from 20 May 2022 to 18 July 2022. The questionnaire consisted of 27 questions with a range of free-text and Likert scale responses.

Results

86 responses were received. 39.5% had undertaken an advanced training programme or core placement in nutrition. 52.9% of these felt ‘fairly confident’ or ‘very confident’ in managing intestinal failure vs 5.8% of those who had not completed a nutrition placement. Obesity and eating disorders management received the lowest ratings. Nutrition training was described as ‘fairly important’ or ‘very important’ by 98.8% and 47.0% included nutrition as part of their preferred future practice. 53.1% of ST6/7 trainees were ‘fairly confident’ or ‘very confident’ their training offered adequate experience in nutrition. Participants reported barriers including a lack of education and training opportunities, and limited early rotations offering nutrition training.

Conclusion

Gastroenterology trainees believe nutrition training to be important. Nutrition placements increase trainee confidence, knowledge and experiences overall, but there is variability in this. Improved structuring of placements, increased educational opportunities and exposure to this subspecialty at an earlier stage are required to ensure competency in nutrition is reliably achieved during gastroenterology training.
COVID-19 patient experiences in prehospital pathways: a processual approach using life-events calendar method and state sequence analysis shows detrimental delays
Authors: Lutaud Romain , Cortaredona Sebastien , Delorme Lea , Peretti-watel Patrick , Mirouse Juliette , Borg Manon , Cattaneo Lucie , Thery Didier , Gentile Gaetan , Pradier Christian , Irit Touitou , Brouqui Philippe , Tardieu Sophie , Carles Michel , Gentile Stéphanie
Published: January 2024

Objectives

To our best knowledge, no study in France has comprehensively investigated the prehospital history of patients admitted for severe cases of COVID-19. ‘Patients’ voice is an excellent means to capture data on primary care pathways.

We aimed to identify clusters of COVID-19 hospitalised patients with similar prehospital symptom sequences, and to test whether these clusters were associated with a higher risk of poor clinical outcomes.

Design

Cross-sectional online survey using life-event calendars.

Setting

All patients hospitalised for COVID-19 between September 2020 and May 2021 in the Infectious Disease Departments in Nice and in Marseilles in France.

Participants

312 patients responded to the survey.

Main outcome measures

From the day of symptom onset to the day of hospitalisation, we defined a symptom sequence as the time-ordered vector of the successive symptom grades (grade 1, grade 2, grade 3). State sequence analysis with optimal matching was used to identify clusters of patients with similar symptom sequences. Multivariate logistic regressions were performed to test whether these clusters were associated with admission to intensive care unit (ICU) and COVID-19 sequelae after hospitalisation.

Results

Three clusters of symptom sequences were identified among 312 complete prehospital pathways. A specific group of patients (29%) experienced extended symptoms of severe COVID-19, persisting for an average duration of 7.5 days before hospitalisation. This group had a significantly higher probability of being admitted to ICU (adjusted OR 2.01). They were less likely to know a loved one who was a healthcare worker, and more likely to have a lower level of education. Similarly, this group of patients, who were more likely to have previously visited the emergency room without exhibiting severe symptoms at that time, may have been inclined to postpone reassessment when their health worsened.

Their relatives played a decisive role in their hospitalisation.

Conclusion and relevance

This study highlights the negative impact of delayed hospitalisation on the health outcomes of French patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms during the first wave and underscores the influence of socioeconomic factors, such as lower education levels and limited connections to the medical field, on patients’ experiences.
Plasma cell-free DNA hydroxymethylation profiling reveals anti-PD-1 treatment response and resistance biology in non-small cell lung cancer
Authors: Guler Gulfem D , Ning Yuhong , Coruh Ceyda , Mognol Giuliana P , Phillips Tierney , Nabiyouni Maryam , Hazen Kyle , Scott Aaron , Volkmuth Wayne , Levy Samuel
Published: January 2024

Background

Treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting programmed death-1 (PD-1) can yield durable antitumor responses, yet not all patients respond to ICIs. Current approaches to select patients who may benefit from anti-PD-1 treatment are insufficient. 5-hydroxymethylation (5hmC) analysis of plasma-derived cell-free DNA (cfDNA) presents a novel non-invasive approach for identification of therapy response biomarkers which can tackle challenges associated with tumor biopsies such as tumor heterogeneity and serial sample collection.

Methods

151 blood samples were collected from 31 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) before therapy started and at multiple time points while on therapy. Blood samples were processed to obtain plasma-derived cfDNA, followed by enrichment of 5hmC-containing cfDNA fragments through biotinylation via a two-step chemistry and binding to streptavidin coated beads. 5hmC-enriched cfDNA and whole genome libraries were prepared in parallel and sequenced to obtain whole hydroxymethylome and whole genome plasma profiles, respectively.

Results

Comparison of on-treatment time point to matched pretreatment samples from same patients revealed that anti-PD-1 treatment induced distinct changes in plasma cfDNA 5hmC profiles of responding patients, as judged by Response evaluation criteria in solid tumors, relative to non-responders. In responders, 5hmC accumulated over genes involved in immune activation such as inteferon (IFN)-γ and IFN-α response, inflammatory response and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α signaling, whereas in non-responders 5hmC increased over epithelial to mesenchymal transition genes. Molecular response to anti-PD-1 treatment, as measured by 5hmC changes in plasma cfDNA profiles were observed early on, starting with the first cycle of treatment. Comparison of pretreatment plasma samples revealed that anti-PD-1 treatment response and resistance associated genes can be captured by 5hmC profiling of plasma-derived cfDNA. Furthermore, 5hmC profiling of pretreatment plasma samples was able to distinguish responders from non-responders using T cell-inflamed gene expression profile, which was previously identified by tissue RNA analysis.

Conclusions

These results demonstrate that 5hmC profiling can identify response and resistance associated biological pathways in plasma-derived cfDNA, offering a novel approach for non-invasive prediction and monitoring of immunotherapy response in NSCLC.
National burden of rheumatoid arthritis in Canada, 1990–2019: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 – a GBD collaborator-led study
Authors: Hassen Nejat , Lacaille Diane , Xu Alice , Alandejani Amani , Sidi Sophia , Mansourian Marjan , Butt Zahid A , Cahill Leah E , Iyamu Ihoghosa Osamuyi , Lang Justin J , Rana Juwel , Somayaji Ranjani , Sarrafzadegan Nizal , Kopec Jacek A
Published: January 2024

Objective

The objectives of this study were: (1) to describe burden of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and trends from 1990 to 2019 using the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study (GBD) data, (2) to describe age and sex differences in RA and (3) to compare Canada’s RA burden to that of other countries.

Methods

Disease burden indicators included prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs) and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). GBD estimated fatal and non-fatal outcomes using published literature, survey data and health insurance claims. Data were analysed by Bayesian meta-regression, cause of death ensemble model and other statistical methods. DALYs for Canada were compared with DALYs of countries with similarly high Socio-Demographic Index values.

Results

In Canada, the RA prevalence rate increased by 27% between 1990 and 2019, mortality rate decreased by 27%, YLL rate decreased by 30%, YLD increased by 27% and DALY rate increased by 13%, all age standardised. The decline in RA mortality and YLL rates was especially pronounced after 2002. The disease burden was higher in females for all indicators, and DALY rates were higher among older age groups, peaking at age 75–79 years. Prevalence and DALYs were higher in Canada compared with global rates.

Conclusion

Trends in RA burden indicators over time and differences by age and sex have important implications for Canadian policy-makers, researchers and care providers. Early identification and management of RA in women may help reduce the overall burden of RA in Canada.
Tobacco product litter as a form of postconsumption marketing: an observational study in India
Authors: Grilo Graziele , Kaplan Bekir , Cohen Joanna E , Bhattacharya Paramita , Mukherjee Nirmalya , Welding Kevin , Kennedy Ryan David
Published: January 2024

Background

Tobacco product litter may be a form of postconsumption marketing if the littered items are branded. We conducted an observational study in India to assess the presence of tobacco product litter and determine the proportion that included branding.

Methods

During November–December 2022, we identified tobacco product litter (cigarette/bidi butts and packaging; smokeless tobacco packaging) in nine Indian cities: Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mumbai and Patna. In each city, we conducted observations along 15 different routes, each approximately 250 m in distance, for a total of 135 observational routes. Data collectors classified each piece of tobacco litter (product/packaging) and recorded if the litter had visible branding, such as brand names and/or logos.

Results

The study identified 17 261 pieces of tobacco product litter; SLT packaging comprised the largest proportion of the sample (62%), followed by cigarette butts (26%), bidi butts (8%), cigarette packaging (3%) and bidi packaging (1%). Across the sample, 81% (n=13 924) of the litter was branded. A brand was visible on most packaging for cigarettes (98%), bidis (97%) and SLT (86%), and present on 82% of cigarette butts and 26% of bidi butts.

Conclusion

This study found that the majority of tobacco product litter in India is branded, which could function as a form of postconsumption marketing. Plain and standardised packaging and banning branding features on filters would reduce tobacco litter branding.
Retrospective analysis of referrals for hypoxic challenge testing in children born preterm
Authors: Howells Anna , Riley Mollie , Samuels Martin , Aurora Paul
Published: January 2024

Introduction

Children with a history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) may be at risk of hypoxaemia at altitude, such as during air travel. We have performed preflight hypoxic challenge testing (HCT) since 2006, incorporating British Thoracic Society (BTS) guidance since 2011, to determine which children may require oxygen during air travel.

Aims

We aimed to compare the outcome of HCTs in children with a history of BPD who met the 2011 BTS criteria and those who did not and, in addition to this, to interrogate the data for factors that may predict the outcome of HCT in this population.

Methods

We performed a retrospective analysis of data from HCTs of children with a history of BPD referred 2006–2020. Cases were excluded if the patient had a respiratory comorbidity, was still on oxygen therapy, if the test was a repeat or if the clinical record was incomplete. Descriptive and univariate analysis of the data was performed, and a binary logistic regression model was fitted.

Results

There were 79 HCTs, of which 24/79 (30%) did not meet BTS 2011 guidelines referral criteria. The analysis showed a greater proportion of desaturation in the group that didnotmeet criteria: 46% vs 27% (no statistical significance). Baseline oxygen saturations were higher in those who did not require oxygen during HCT and this variable was significant when adjusted for confounders.

Conclusions

This study found that the current criteria for referral for preflight testing may incorrectly identify those most at risk and highlights the need for further investigation to ensure those most at risk are being assessed prior to air travel.
Experimental and modeling study of shear strength of unsaturated fine-grained soils with bi-modal water-retention characteristics
Authors: Qian Jiangu , Zhou Gaoyun , Lin Zhiqiang , Shi Zhenhao
Published: January 2024

The mechanical behavior and strength characteristics of unsaturated fine-grained soils with dual-porosity are of crucial importance in geotechnical designs. Nanyang fine-grained soils have been selected as typical dual-porosity structure soils to perform experimental tests under a wide range of suction and different initial densities while studying its stress-strain-strength properties constitute the main scope of this study. Axial translation and vapor equilibrium techniques are jointly employed to apply a wide suction range. Our data suggest that soil behavior transits from strain-hardening with shear-induced contraction to strain-softening with shear-induced dilation as suction and density increase. By exploiting a bi-modal soil–water retention curve (SWRC) explicitly separating capillarity and adsorption mechanisms, the shear strength is allowed to be analyzed in the capillary suction stress-shear stress space. The strength envelop exhibits bi-linear characteristics. Building upon these findings, we propose a bi-linear shear strength criterion specifically for dual-porosity fine-grained soils. We utilize the obtained test data to evaluate existing strength criteria based on effective stress and dual stress variables that consider the bi-modal SWRC characteristics. The comparison indicates that the proposed bi-linear shear strength criterion can more reasonably represent the variation of shear strength under a wide range of suction for unsaturated dual-porosity fine-grained soils.
We do not see evidence for the presence of female gametangia (oospores) in North American Nitellopsis obtusa (Desvaux) J. Groves
Authors: Gottschalk Stephen D. , Boissezon Aurélie , Hamsher Sarah E. , McCourt Richard M. , Perleberg Donna J. , Skawinski Paul M. , Sleith Robin S. , Karol Kenneth G.
Published: January 2024

We contest the recently reported findings that suggest the presence of female gametangia in the North American range of the invasive macroalga Nitellopsis obtusa (Harrow-Lyle, T.J., Ginn, B.K., Kirkwood, A.E., and Melles, S.J. 2023. First report of female gametangia in the invasive macroalga starry stonewort ( Nitellopsis obtusa) in North America. Botany, 101: 61–64. doi:10.1139/cjb-2022-0096). The claims do not clearly show identifying morphology of N. obtusa female gametangia, are inconsistent with known characeaen developmental biology, and do not provide the evidence commensurate with such a claim. More convincing observational data are required. To date, only male thalli of N. obtusa have been confirmed either with herbarium vouchers or clear images. The appearance of female gametangia would have significant implications for the invasion biology of N. obtusa as well as approaches to managing its spread.
Properly outer and strictly outer actions of finite groups on prime C*-algebras
Authors: Peligrad Costel
Published: January 2024

An action of a compact, in particular finite group on a C*-algebra is called properly outer if no automorphism of the group that is distinct from identity is implemented by a unitary element of the algebra of local multipliers of the C*-algebra. In this paper, I define the notion of strictly outer action (similar to the definition for von Neumann factors in [S. Vaes, The unitary implementation of a locally compact group action, J. Funct. Anal. 180 (2001) 426–480]) and prove that for finite groups and prime C*-algebras, it is equivalent to the proper outerness of the action. For finite abelian groups this is equivalent to other relevant properties of the action.
Toroidal metamaterial-assisted terahertz biosensor with high sensitivity
Authors: Wang Fei , Chen Qiang , Yang Qing , Tian Lifei
Published: January 2024

In this paper, a toroidal metamaterial for achieving highly sensitive sensors in the terahertz (THz) frequency range is proposed. Such a subwavelength structure consists of a pair of mirror-symmetric metal split-ring resonators and a single metal wire. By exciting the structure with vertically incident electromagnetic waves, high-Q transmission peaks are generated at 2.40 and 2.44[Formula: see text]THz. Near-field analysis reveals that the reverse-flowing currents in the metal split-ring resonators and the metal wire create a pair of magnetic dipoles connected end to end, resulting in a vortex-like magnetic field known as a toroidal dipole. Calculations of multipole scattering energy further confirm that the rapidly enhanced toroidal dipole is the primary factor responsible for the high-Q transmission peaks. This toroidal metamaterial can be used to design refractive index sensors with a sensitivity of up to 20[Formula: see text]GHz/RIU, enabling the detection of subtle changes in the surrounding environment’s parameters. Our strategy paves an alternative route to the development of highly sensitive sensors for biological and chemical molecules in the THz frequency range.
GREEN BONDS AND CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE GREENWASHING: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA
Authors: LING FANG , ZHEN SHUAI , LIANG CHAO , ZHAO ZHIYONG
Published: January 2024

In this paper, we examine the relationship between green bond issuance and corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) greenwashing using Chinese A-share listed companies between 2011 and 2021. The findings indicate that issuance of green bonds effectively mitigate enterprises’ tendencies toward ESG greenwashing, affirming the stability of China’s green bond market. The analysis of the mechanism demonstrates that the issuance of green bonds can effectively mitigate ESG greenwashing by enhancing information transparency and alleviating financing constraints.

Further analysis reveals that the issuance of green bonds effectively mitigates E information greenwashing and S information greenwashing, while it does not significantly impact G information greenwashing. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the inhibitory impact of green bond issuance on ESG greenwashing is more pronounced within subgroups characterized by high environmental protection subsidies, elevated environmental protection taxes and fees, executives lacking prior experience in environmental protection, and enterprises with limited social responsibility. The findings provide theoretical supplementation of ESG consequences resulting from green bond issuance and elucidate the mechanism for curbing corporate ESG greenwashing. Practically, it will facilitate other countries to enhance their top-level design of green bonds and contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and peak carbon goals.
IS POLITICAL CONNECTION ASSOCIATED WITH CORPORATE RISK-TAKING? MALAYSIAN EVIDENCE
Authors: WONG WAI-YAN , HOOY CHEE-WOOI
Published: January 2024

This study explores how political connection is associated with the corporate risk-taking of non-financial firms in Malaysia using the dataset from the years 2002 to 2017. The findings indicate that government ownership negatively influences corporate risk-taking, and this effect is more evident when the percentage of ownership is high. Meanwhile, other types of politically connected firms do not undertake higher corporate risk-taking, even when the connection is expected to generate more resources for these firms. Further analysis showed that firms connected via the family members of the leading politician to be negatively associated with risk-taking, indicating that a closer tie to the government’s top leadership inhibits risky investment choices. Our results contradict past literature where scholars showed that the establishment of connection increases a firm’s incentive to undertake higher corporate risk-taking. This contradiction suggests that the risk behavior of connected firms in emerging countries in Asia differs from those of developed countries and therefore, demands further investigation to improve our understanding of this underdeveloped topic.
No-Idle Flow Shop Scheduling with Deteriorating Jobs and Common Due Date Under Dominating Machines
Authors: Lv Dan-Yang , Wang Ji-Bo
Published: January 2024

The phenomenon of deterioration effects can reduce production efficiency caused by extended start time or other factors. Based on it, this paper considers the scheduling situations of the common due date assignment in a no-idle flow shop scheduling environment. Under the given four dominating relationships (i.e., increasing, decreasing, increasing-decreasing and decreasing-increasing dominating machines, correspondingly expressed as idm, ddm, idm–ddm and ddm–idm) between machines, the objective functions are, respectively, to minimize (1) the weighted sum of common due date and total earliness; and (2) the weighted sum of common due date, total earliness and total penalty factors of tardy jobs. It is verified that these problems can be solved in polynomial time under four dominating relationships.
Growth and characterization of Peald deposited La2O3 on SiO2/Si
Authors: Borokar Vaibhav Y. , Barhate Viral , Desale Bhushan , Mahajan Ashok
Published: January 2024

In this study, we have deposited lanthanum oxide (La2O[Formula: see text] ultrathin films onto Si substrate with pre-deposited SiO2 (SiO2/Si substrate) by indigenously developed plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) system at a low RF power of 30[Formula: see text]W. An in-situ nitrogen plasma (N[Formula: see text] treatment was performed to minimize the defects at interface. Thickness of deposited La2O3 film is estimated to be of 2.1[Formula: see text]nm for 50 cycles as per the growth rate of 0.42A/cycle. The deposited La2O3/SiO2/Si stack underwent post-deposition annealing (PDA) at temperatures of 400∘C, 500∘C, and 600∘C. These films were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that the La2O3 ultra thin films on SiO2/Si substrates are amorphous in nature. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) micrograph revealed minimal roughness.
Effect of varying fly ash additive ratios on viscosity variation of lubricating oil at different temperatures
Authors: Bui Tuan-Anh , Nguyen Manh-Toan , Le Duc-Do
Published: January 2024

This study primarily aimed to conduct experimental research, focusing on examining the effects of various fly ash additive ratios, spanning from 0% to 1%, on the alterations in lubricating oil viscosity over a temperature range extending from 25°C to 85°C. The study employed viscosity measurements using the Rhotest VR2 viscometer on a commonly used lubricating oil, and carefully analyzed their behavior with varying fly ash additive concentration ratios. The results revealed that the addition of the fly ash additive increased the oil’s viscosity at all tested temperatures. The viscosity showed a proportional increase with the amount of additive up to a 0.5% weight ratio. Beyond this concentration, the viscosity began to decrease but remained higher compared to that without the additive, attributed to the thermal conductive properties of the additive’s high-hardness metal oxide particles. The viscosity of the oil mixture with a 0.5% additive ratio increases compared to the case without the additive at temperatures of 25°C, 40°C, 65°C, 75°C and 85°C, corresponding to 13.88%, 18.32%, 37.73%, 22.91% and 32.97%, respectively. These research findings provide crucial insights for fine-tuning lubricant formulations across a spectrum of applications, especially in scenarios where temperature fluctuations play a pivotal role in lubricant efficacy. By judiciously choosing the right proportion of fly ash additive, engineers and researchers can augment the lubricative attributes of oils and enhance their resilience under diverse thermal conditions. This includes factors such as increasing viscosity, load-carrying capacity and stiffness of the oil film. The result is a machinery operation that is not only more efficient but also more dependable.
An Enhanced Group Abnormity Detection Model in Social Networks Through Multi-Scale Knowledge Graph-Based Deep Learning
Authors: Zhang Yibo , Zhang Jierui
Published: January 2024

In area of group abnormity detection, deep learning-based methods have received more attention in recent years. But existing research works mostly failed to well-integrate complex graph-level characteristics of social network context into feature representation. To deal with this issue, this paper proposes an enhanced group abnormity detection model in social networks through multi-scale knowledge graph-based deep learning. First, multi-scale knowledge graph is formulated to extract and field knowledge as the fundamental support. Then, a recurrent neural network structure is utilized to express graph-level features, so as to aggregate the information of the surrounding nodes. For output of group abnormity detection results, the interaction information among users is further considered, and the correlation analysis of abnormal behaviors is conducted based on the probability expression. On this basis, probabilistic soft logic is used to express the relationship between abnormal association users and their behavior occurrence. Finally, a set of identification rules are developed to discover abnormal association users, and those who have the same association probability value are identified as abnormal user groups. Experiments are conducted on social network dataset to evaluate performance of the proposed model. The results reveal that it can make group abnormity identification with higher accuracy compared with baseline methods.
A Biometric Key-Enhanced Multimedia Encryption Algorithm for Social Media Blockchain
Authors: Liu Tao , Yu Zhongyang
Published: January 2024

Social media blockchain is emerging as a promising solution to deal with privacy issues, by putting user privacy in edge nodes rather than centralized nodes. Under the protection of information encryption, only those who have cryptographic keys can get access to key information. This work aims at multimedia information in social media blockchain and utilizes the RSA encryption mechanism to construct the information encryption system. Due to the resilience of biometric features, the biometric cryptographic keys are not easy to be fabricated. Thus, this paper proposes a biometric keys-enhanced multimedia encryption algorithm for social media blockchain. First of all, the wiener filter is adopted to make some preprocessing operations to images, such as noise reduction. On this basis, the discrete wavelet transform is adopted to extract feature representation from images, and nonlinear approximation of contourlet transform is adopted to make feature fusion. Next, cryptographic keys can be generated from the fused biometric feature vectors to encrypt biometric data. Finally, some simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate performance of the proposal from three aspects: key generation time, security level and encryption-decryption time complexity. For key generation time, processing speed of the proposal is approximately 1–2[Formula: see text]ms per sample. For security level, the proposal can reach an index value beyond 95% which is higher than comparison methods. For encryption-decryption time complexity, the proposal is about 30% lower than comparison methods.
PAIRS TRADING WITH TOPOLOGICAL DATA ANALYSIS
Authors: MAJUMDAR SOURAV , LAHA ARNAB KUMAR
Published: January 2024

In this paper, we propose a pairs trading strategy using the theory of topological data analysis (TDA). The proposed strategy is model-free. We propose a TDA-based distance to measure dependence between a pair of stochastic processes. We derive an upper bound of this distance in terms of a function of the canonical correlation of the processes, which allows for interpretability of this distance. We also study Karhunen–Loève expansions of certain processes to qualitatively explore their shape properties. We check the performance of the strategy on simulated data from correlated geometric Brownian motion, correlated Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process and DCC-GARCH. We also examine the profitability of the proposed strategy on high-frequency data from the National Stock Exchange of India in 2018. We compare the method to a Euclidean distance-based method for pairs trading. We propose a pairs trading strategy evaluation framework using a Bayesian model for comparing gains from these two strategies. We find that the proposed approach based on TDA is more profitable and trades more frequently than the Euclidean distance-based strategy.
LOG-NORMAL STOCHASTIC VOLATILITY MODEL WITH QUADRATIC DRIFT
Authors: SEPP ARTUR , RAKHMONOV PARVIZ
Published: January 2024

In this paper, we introduce the log-normal stochastic volatility (SV) model with a quadratic drift to allow arbitrage-free valuation of options on assets under money-market account and inverse martingale measures. We show that the proposed volatility process has a unique strong solution, despite non-Lipschitz quadratic drift, and we establish the corresponding Feynman–Kac partial differential equation (PDE) for computation of conditional expectations under this SV model. We derive conditions for arbitrage-free valuations when return–volatility correlation is positive to preclude the “loss of martingality”, which occurs in many traditional SV models. Importantly, we develop an analytic approach to compute an affine expansion for the moment generating function of the log-price, its quadratic variance (QV) and the instantaneous volatility. Our solution allows for semi-analytic valuation of vanilla options under log-normal SV models closing a gap in existing studies.

We apply our approach for solving the joint valuation problem of vanilla and inverse options, which are popular in the cryptocurrency option markets. We demonstrate the accuracy of our solution for valuation of vanilla and inverse options. a By calibrating the model to time series of options on Bitcoin over the past four years, we show that the log-normal SV model can work efficiently in different market regimes. Our model can be well applied for modeling of implied volatilities of assets with positive return–volatility correlation.
Effect of Ground Motion Time–Frequency Non-Stationarity on Seismic Response of High-Speed Railway Simply Supported Bridge Based on Wavelet Packet Transform
Authors: Wei Biao , Lu Andong , Jiang Lizhong , Yan Lu , Sun Zechuan
Published: January 2024

Time–frequency non-stationarity is a ground motion characteristic which is frequently neglected in current seismic design and research. This paper studies its impact on the seismic response of high-speed railway simply supported bridge (HSRSSB). A method for generating time–frequency stationary earthquakes (TFSEs) and time–frequency non-stationary earthquakes (TFNSEs) using wavelet packet transform is proposed. A finite element model of a three-span HSRSSB is established using OpenSees. The seismic response is obtained through non-linear dynamic time history analysis, and the fragility curves of bridge components and system are calculated through incremental dynamic analysis. Finally, the reasons for the differences are analyzed by comparing the differences in seismic response of bridge, component fragility and system fragility under two groups of ground motion. The results show that the time–frequency non-stationarity of ground motion has an effect on the bridge response and fragility under strong earthquakes. TFNSE will lead to larger ground motion response, and the damage probability of bridge components and systems is higher. The reason is related to the damage and period extension of bridges under ground motion. Structures with prolonged period anti-seismic measures need to pay attention to this effect.
Dynamic Receptance Analysis Combined with Hybrid FE-SEA Method to Predict Structural Noise from Long-Span Cable-Stayed Bridge in Urban Rail Transit
Authors: Jiang Xihao , Li Xiaozhen , Yuan Yao , Li Haoqing , Wu Di , Liang Lin
Published: January 2024

In this study, dynamic receptance analysis (DRA) is proposed and combined with hybrid finite element (FE)-statistical energy analysis (SEA) method to accurately predict structural noise from long-span cable-stayed bridge (LSCB) with steel box composite girder (SBCG) in urban rail transit (URT). To begin with, a vertical vehicle–track coupling model in frequency domain is established based on DRA, in which the rail is represented by an infinite Timoshenko beam supported by a series of fasteners that are regarded as springs with complex stiffness. The floating slab is regarded as the Euler beam with both ends free supported by steel springs. Using this model, the spectrums of the wheel–rail force and the forces transferred to the bridge can be efficiently obtained by taking rail roughness as the excitation. Due to the low modal density of the concrete deck, the hybrid FE-SEA method is introduced to establish the noise prediction model, in which the discontinuity caused by using distinct models for different frequency bands is avoided. Then the on-site noise tests of a LSCB with SBCG in URT are carried out to verify of the proposed method. Finally, based on the prediction method, the acoustic contributions of the bridge components are analyzed in detail. The force transfer characteristics as well as the noise reduction effects of different track structures are thoroughly investigated, so as to provide reference for the future research on bridge-borne noise control.