bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quality of Life and Psychological Distress in Advanced Cancer Patients: Associations with Sociodemographic and Clinical Factors
Authors: Mihic-Góngora Luka , Jiménez-Fonseca Paula , Gil Raquel Hernández San , Cruz-Castellanos Patricia , Fernández-Montes Ana , Caramés-Sánchez Cristina , Lee Eun Mi , Muñoz María Mar , Galan-Moral Rocío , Raga Mireia Gil , Calderon Caterina
Published: July 2023

Background
The study assessed quality of life, psychological distress, and their associations with socio-demographic and clinical factors in patients with advanced cancer before systemic treatment initiation.
Methods
The NEOetic-SEOM study, a cross-sectional, prospective, observational, and multicenter research, involved patients with advanced cancer confirmed through histology. We collected socio-demographic details, psychological distress (BSI-18), and quality of life (EORTC-QLQ-C30) data through questionnaires. Multivariate analysis was used to construct models, and forest plots were generated to represent the proportions of patients undergoing psychological and functional difficulties.
Results
The analysis included 507 patients (mean age 64.8 years, 54% male) with prevalent cancers being lung (29%), colorectal (16%), and pancreatic (11%). The majority underwent chemotherapy (79%) and targeted or immunotherapy (38%). 71% reported moderate/severe psychological distress correlating with functional (55%) and symptom problems (87%) (p = 0.001). Depression and anxiety rates were 71% and 63%. Males and good performance status patients showed higher functional scales, while older individuals, adenocarcinoma histology, and poor ECOG had increased symptoms. Lower education correlated with higher anxiety, depression, and psychological distress, mostly in younger patients. No associations were found between clinical variables (cancer stage or site) and quality of life or distress.
Conclusion
In summary, our investigation elucidates the distinct experiences of advanced cancer patients concerning sex, age, performance status, histological subtype, and education in relation to quality of life and psychological distress. These insights underscore the necessity for personalized therapeutic approaches to cater to the multifaceted requirements of patients with advanced malignancies.
123 Classification System： Establishment and Preliminary Evaluation of CT-based Classification for Distal Radius Fracture
Authors: Zhang Jun , Yao Xiaoke , Song Yanan , Yin Peng
Published: July 2023

Objective
Establish a new classification system of distal radius fracture based on computed tomographic (CT), and evaluate its reliability and reproducibility preliminarily, and provide a new theoretical reference for clinicians to use the clinical classification system.
Methods
The imaging data and clinical data of 204 inpatients with distal radius fractures during 6 years from January 1, 2014 to January 1, 2019 in orthopaedic department were analyzed retrospectively and classified based on CT. Three observers evaluated the image data of 48 randomly selected cases based on CT at different time nodes of T1 and T2. Cohen's kappa was used to calculate the consistency. At the last follow-up, patients' Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH), Patient Rated Risk Evaluation (PRWE), and VAS scores were collected.
Results
Among 204 cases, there were 12 cases of type 1, including 6 cases of type 1-D, 4 cases of type 1-V and 2 cases of type 1-R. There were 6 cases of type 2, including 2 cases of type 2-DV, 2 cases of type 2-DR and 2 cases of type 2-VR. There were 186 cases of type 3, including 32 cases of type 3 − 0, 127 cases of type 3 − 1 and 27 cases of type 3 − 2. There was no significant difference in DASH, PRWE and VAS scores among all types (P > 0.05). The results of interobserver reproducibility were kappa = 0.985, ICC = 0.984 in the first evaluation, kappa = 0.986, ICC = 0.986 in the second evaluation. The results of intraobserver reproducibility were O1 = 0.991, O2 = 0.991, O3 = 0.989 respectively.
Conclusions
The new classification system of distal radius fracture based on CT has theoretical and practical significance for incision selection, fracture reduction and internal fixation. 123 classification system is clear, comprehensive, easy to understand and remember. Moreover, it has higher interobserver reliability and intraobserver reproducibility than other systems reported at present.
Association between frailty and albuminuria in the community-dwelling geriatric population: Taichung Community Health Study for Elders
Authors: Lin Chih-Hsueh , Chou Che-Yi , Li Tsai-Chung , Liu Chiu-Shong , Lin Wen-Yuan , Li Chia-Ing , Yang Chuan-Wei , Lin Cheng-Chieh
Published: July 2023

Aim
Elderly with frailty are more at risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality than the general population. Albuminuria is a risk factor for atherosclerosis, a major cause of frailty. We investigated the association between frailty and albuminuria in community-dwelling elderly.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study for analying 1347 participants aged at least 65 years in the north district of Taichung, Taiwan. We defined the frailty phenotype as at least three characteristics: weight loss, exhaustion, weakness, slow walking speed, and decreased physical activity. We collected random urine and measured all participants' albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR). We analyzed the association between frailty and ACR using logistic regression with adjustments for confoundings.
Results
The average age of 1347 participants was 76 ± 7 years, and 649 (48.2%) were male. 242 (18.7) participants were robust, 853 (63.3%) participants were pre-frail, and 242 (18%) were frail. 1064 (79%) participants had an ACR < 30 mg/g; the highest ACR was 2825 mg/g. The odds ratio of ACR was 1.12 (95% confidence interval 1.05–1.25, p = 0.001) with adjustments for age, body mass index, estimated glomerular filtration rate, diabetes, liver function, and cholesterol.
Conclusions
Frailty is associated with urinary albuminuria in community-dwelling elderly, and this association is independent of traditional and non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
SPOCK1, as a potential prognostic and therapeutic biomarker for lung adenocarcinoma, is associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition and immune evasion
Authors: liu yafeng , Wu Jing , Han Tao , Zhou Jiawei , Guo Jianqiang , Miao Rui , Xu Zhi , Xing Yingru , Bai Ying , Hu Dong
Published: July 2023

Background
The occurrence of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and immune evasion is considered to contribute to poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Therefore, this study aims to explore the key oncogenes that promote EMT and immune evasion and revealed the expression patterns, prognostic value, and potential biological functions.
Methods
Firstly, we identified gene modules associated with EMT and Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion (TIDE) through weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Next, we utilized differential analysis and machine learning to identify the key genes and validate them. Moreover, we analyzed the correlation between key genes and tumor microenvironment remodeling, as well as mutation frequency. Furthermore, we explored and validated their malignant biological characteristics through in vitro experiments and clinical samples. Finally, potential drugs for LUAD were screened based on our findings and validated through animal experiments.
Results
Firstly, WGCNA analysis revealed that red and green modules were highly correlated with EMT and TIDE. Among them, upregulated expression of SPOCK1 was observed in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and was associated with poor prognosis. Additionally, patients in the high SPOCK1 group showed more activation of malignant oncogenic pathways, higher infiltration of immunosuppressive components, and a higher frequency of mutations. In vitro, experiments demonstrated that knockdown of SPOCK1 suppressed invasion and metastasis capabilities of lung adenocarcinoma cells, and the high expression of SPOCK1 was associated with low infiltration of CD8+ T cells. Finally, animal experiments show that VER-155008 can inhibit tumor growth.
Conclusion
SPOCK1 can promote EMT and immune escape in LUAD, and it may serve as a promising candidate prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for LUAD.
Extraterrestrial mining – A novel method for extracting minerals and metals from asteroids
Authors: Rivera Rodolfo Marin , Bird Philip , Jenkin Gawen , Abbott Andrew P.
Published: July 2023

Extra-terrestrial mining is vital for access to strategic metals for space exploration and to feed an increasing terrestrial need for metals in sustainable energy generation and storage. This study demonstrates for the first time the catalytic dissolution of metals from meteorite proxies of metal-rich asteroids using a deep eutectic solvent (DES). DESs are of particular interest for extra-terrestrial mining as they can be designed to have relatively low vapour pressures and could potentially be made from waste products created in extra-terrestrial settlements. Three types of meteorites were investigated: 2 chondrites (H3, H5) and one iron (IAB-MG) meteorite. Chondrites samples were composed of silicates (olivine, pyroxene) with metallic phases occurring as native metal alloys and sulphides. Metallic Fe-Ni and troilite (FeS) are the most abundant metal-bearing phases in all three samples, particularly in the iron-rich meteorite. The samples were subjected to chemical micro-etching experiments with iodine and iron(III) chloride as oxidising agents in a DES formed from the mixture of choline chloride (ChCl) and ethylene glycol (EG). Micro-etching experiments demonstrated that Fe-Ni phases are effectively leached out in this system, while other mineral phases remain unreactive.
PAMless SpRY recognizes a non-PAM region for efficient targeting
Authors: Xue Chaoyou , Yang Chen , Zhou Zhiwei , Sun Xuanlong , Ju Haiyan , Yue Xinmin , Rao Shuquan
Published: July 2023

Protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM) recognition licenses Cas nucleases for genome engineering applications, thereby restricting gene targets to regions containing PAMs. To overcome the PAM constraint, studies have applied protein engineering and successfully acquired PAM-relaxed SpCas9 variants, such as SpG (NGN PAMs) and SpRY (NRN>NYN PAMs). Given the evolved role of PAMs in facilitating target searching kinetics, it remains unclear how SpG and SpRY are able to quickly find their targets for cleavage after PAM relaxation. Here we combined experiments, simulations and theoretical analyses to investigate how SpG and SpRY search for their targets. Our results show that SpG and SpRY are spacer-dependent PAM-relaxed variants. To compensate for the relaxed PAM recognition, SpG and SpRY have been engineered to recognize position 1 or 1 to 3 of the target sequence through R61 and R1322, respectively. Moreover, our results demonstrate a significant decrease in target search kinetics for SpCas9 PAMless variants when PAM recognition is absent, with a slowdown of 3-4 orders of magnitude compared to wild-type SpCas9. This highlights the importance of considering Cas9 target searching kinetics in the successful engineering of PAMless SpCas9 variants. Overall, our results provide valuable insights for further PAMless Cas9 protein engineering efforts.
Nutritional counselling and risk factors for obesity: an observational study in toddlers.
Authors: Limauro Raffaele , Cioffi Luigi , Bianco Vincenzo , Caruso Vincenzo , Casani Antonella , Gaizo Donatella Del , Esposito Aldo , Farris Evelina , Gallo Patrizia , Giuliano Maria , Iannone Agnese , Izzo Annamaria , Vecchia Maria Teresa La , Raineri Luca , Sabetti Patrizia , Sassi Roberto , Servodidio Carmela , Sorice Nunziatina , Cioffi Valentina , Antignani Angelo , Valerio Giuliana
Published: July 2023

Background
Nutrition exerts a fundamental role in the prevention of pediatric obesity (OB). The effect of a strict nutritional counselling on the prevalence of overweight (OW) or OB according to the association with potential risk factors has never been explored in toddlers.
Methods
The eligible population was represented by 676 toddlers aged 24–36 months, assigned to 18 primary care pediatricians specifically trained on nutritional issues in the Campania region. Six-hundred-twenty-nine children (333 boys, 296 girls), mean age 27.8 ± 4.2 months were effectively included in this observational study. Specifically, children received nutritional advice with particular emphasis to proteins and sugar composition supported by leaflets and reinforced at each visit. Weight, height and body mass index were assessed at the last control visit, at the age of 24–36 months. The following individual and family risk factors were considered: gestational age, birth weight, eutocic/caesarean delivery, milk feeding history, household smoking or antibiotics exposure, parents’ weight, height and educational level.
Results
Twenty-two% children were classified as OW and 6% as OB. High birth weight, parental OW/OB, and caesarean delivery were significant risk factors for OW/OB. In adjusted models, cesarean versus vaginal delivery was independently associated with a more than 70% risk of OW/OB, while paternal OW/OB vs normal-weight was associated with a nearly twofold increase of OW/OB in toddlers.
Conclusions
The high prevalence of OW/OB in toddlers underlines that a strict nutritional counseling should be implemented in a primary care setting. Toddlers with high parental BMI or born by cesarean delivery represent a category at particular risk for OW/OB, and may require a more intensive surveillance.
The Impact of the Agency Model on E-book Prices: Evidence from the UK
Authors: Gail Maximilian Maurice , Klotz Phil-Adrian
Published: July 2023

This paper empirically analyzes the effect of the widely used agency model on retail prices of e-books sold in the United Kingdom. Using an unique cross-sectional dataset of e-book prices for a large number of book titles across all major publishing houses, we exploit cross-genre and cross-publisher variation to identify the effect of the agency model on e-book prices. Since the genre information is ambiguous and even missing for some titles in our original dataset, we also apply a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) approach to determine detailed book genres based on the book's descriptions. Using a matching procedure, we find that retail prices for e-books sold under the agency model are approximately 18% cheaper than book titles sold under the wholesale model. Our results are robust to different regression specifications and double machine learning techniques.
JEL: D12, D22, L42, L81, L82, Z11
Rab11a in the Spinal Cord: An Essential Contributor to Complete Freund's Adjuvant-Induced Inflammatory Pain in Mice
Authors: Gu Jun-Xiang , Wang Jian , Ma Fu-Juan , Liu Miao-Miao , Chen Si-Hai , Wei Yi , Xiao Yi-Fan , Lv Pei-Yuan , Liu Xin , Qu Jian-Qiang , Yan Xian-Xia , Chen Tao
Published: July 2023

Inflammatory pain is a commonly observed clinical symptom in a range of acute and chronic diseases. However, the mechanism of inflammatory pain is far from clear yet. Rab11a, a small molecule guanosine triphosphate enzyme, is reported to regulate orofacial inflammatory pain in our previous works. However, the mechanism of Rab11a’s involvement in the regulation of inflammatory pain remains obscure. Here, we aim to elucidate the potential mechanisms through which Rab11a contributes to the development of inflammatory pain in the spinal level. It’s shown that neurons, rather than glial cells, were the primary cell type expressing Rab11a in the spinal dorsal horn (SDH). After intra-plantar injection of CFA, both the number of Fos/Rab11a-immunopositive neurons and the expression of Rab11a were increased. Administration of Rab11a-shRNA into the SDH resulted in significantly analgesic effect in mice with CFA injection. Application of Rab11a-shRNA also reduced the NMDA receptor-mediated excitatory post-synaptic current (EPSC) and the spike number of neurons in lamina II of the SDH in mice with CFA injection, without affecting the presynaptic glutamate release and the postsynaptic AMPA receptor-mediated EPSC. Our results thus suggest that the enhanced expression of neuronal Rab11a may be important for the process of inflammatory pain in mice with CFA injection, which is likely mediated by Rab11a’s potentiation of the competence of post-synaptic NMDAR and spiking of SDH neurons.
Gradient Porous Structures of Mycelium: A Quantitative Structure-Mechanical Property Analysis
Authors: Olivero Eric , Gawronska Elzbieta , Manimuda Praveena , Jivani Devyani , Chaggan Faemia Zullfikar , Corey Zachary , Almeida Thaicia Stona , Kaplan-Bie Jessica , McIntyre Gavin , Wodo Olga , Nalam Prathima C.
Published: July 2023

Gradient porous structures (GPS) are characterized by structural variations along a specific direction, leading to enhanced mechanical and functional properties compared to homogeneous structures. This study explores the potential of mycelium, the root part of a fungus, as a biomaterial for generating GPS. During the intentional growth of mycelium, the filamentous network undergoes structural changes as the hyphae grow away from the feed substrate. Through microstructural analysis of sections obtained from the mycelium tissue, systematic variations in fiber characteristics (such as fiber radii distribution, crosslink density, network density, segment length) and pore characteristics (including pore size, number, porosity) are observed. Furthermore, the mesoscale mechanical moduli of the mycelium networks exhibit a gradual variation in local elastic modulus, with a significant change of approximately 50% across a 1.2-inch-thick mycelium tissue. The structure-property analysis reveals a direct correlation between the local mechanical moduli and the network crosslink density of the mycelium. This study presents the potential of controlling growth conditions to generate mycelium-based GPS with desired functional properties. This approach, which is both sustainable and economically viable, expands the applications of mycelium-based GPS to include filtration membranes, bio-scaffolds, tissue regeneration platforms, and more.
Field and management factors can reduce potato early blight severity - An observational study on farms combined with field trials in southern Sweden
Authors: Stridh Linnea Johanna , Malm Gabriella , Lankinen Åsa , Liljeroth Erland
Published: July 2023

Background and aims
The necrotrophic fungal pathogen Alternaria solani is causing early blight and thereby yield reduction in the potato production. The pathogen is today mainly controlled by fungicide applications. The severity of early blight can vary largely among farms and fields. The aim of this study was to improve the understanding of what field and management parameters that are most important for early blight infection to create more farm specific fungicide treatment recommendations.
Methods
Over three seasons, 2019–2021, more than 50 field plots were observed at farms in southern Sweden. In each field a 24 m x 24 m plot was left untreated against early blight. However, late blight fungicides were applied. The disease rate was scored in the untreated plot and information about various soil/plant parameters and farmer’s management was collected from each field. In addition to the observational study, field trials were performed in 2021 and 2022, evaluating the effect of potassium fertilizer levels on severeness of infection.
Results
We found that the soil composition was of significant importance for the rate of infection, in particular the sand, clay, and potassium content. Low levels of leaf potassium increased the severity of early blight infection and this observation was confirmed in field trials where different levels of potassium fertilizer were applied.
Conclusion
With knowledge about field and management factors that influence disease field specific recommendations can be developed supporting an integrated pest management strategy for early blight to reduce and optimize the fungicide usage.
Classifying Workers for Mitigating Adversarial Attacks in Crowdsourcing
Authors: First Ayswarya R Kurup , Second G P Sajeev
Published: July 2023

Crowdsourcing is adopted as a fast and cost-effective system for human computation and acquiring data for training models in machine learning. Although crowdsourcing has broad applicability, it still has the following challenges. Normally, workers have access to crowdsourcing platforms with simple authentication mechanisms. As a result, malicious workers may get into the system and submit unreliable answers rendering the platform fraudulent. Moreover, when workers perform tasks, their lack of expertise and the difficulty of tasks affects the accuracy. Truth inference benefits the data quality and worker reliability. A truth inference algorithm estimates workers' trustworthiness and correctness of the answers from their responses. Besides, it helps in filtering out low-quality answers. However, due to adversarial attacks by malicious workers, ground truth inference algorithms perform poorly. This research considers how to defend against adversarial attacks on crowdsourcing platforms and improve the truth inference process. The proposed method estimates the trust and reliability scores of the workers and classifies them as normal and malicious workers. Based on this classification , tasks are assigned to the workers. Moreover, these predicted scores are used for inferring the correct answers, thereby improving the ground truth inference. Experiments consistently show that the proposed truth inference method is tolerant to adversarial attacks with competent accuracy.
Cord Blood TSH and Free T4 Correlation with Maternal and Neonatal Factors and Heel-Stick TSH For the Early Detection of Congenital Hypothyroidism: A Cross-sectional Study in Iran
Authors: Sadeghi Nahideh , Mousavi Safa , Mirmohammadkhani Majid , Rahmanian Mojgan
Published: July 2023

Background- Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is the most frequent cause of mental retardation in children. Despite the success of the screening programs in detecting CH cases, high recalling rate and false positive results impose a burden to the health system worldwide. Although cord blood thyroid stimulating hormone (CBTSH) is an accepted screening tool for CH, data about it are sparse in Iran. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the umbilical cord blood TSH and Free T4 and its relationship with maternal and neonatal factors, as well as heel-stick TSH.
Methods- This study included 120 mother-newborn pairs in Amir-Al-Momenin Hospital, Semnan, Iran from October 2021 to May 2022. The mean values of Free T4 and CBTSH were measured with respect to various maternal and neonatal factors. The heel-stick TSH on day 2-3 after birth were determined in all participants.
Results- The mean CBTSH concentration was significantly higher in preterm newborns and male sex than term newborns and females (P=0.039 and P<0.001, respectively). Newborns born via cesarean section had lower CBTSH levels than those born by vaginal deliveries (P=0.040). The CBTSH was also positively correlated with heel-stick TSH (P<0.001). The mean umbilical cord blood Free T4 was significantly higher in multigravida newborns than primigravida cases (P=0.023). There was no statistically significant relation between umbilical cord blood Free T4 and TSH and maternal age, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, twin or singleton delivery, 1- and 5- minutes Apgar scores, birthweight, and cord gases (P>0.05). The optimal cut-off point of CBTSH for discrimination of suspicious cases to hypothyroidism was 14.75 mIU/L.
Conclusions- Method of delivery, gestational age, and male sex were influential variables on the umbilical cord TSH that must be considered when interpreting the results of the CBTSH. This study augments findings that CBTSH may be considered a predictive factor in CH screening programs.
Cough and sputum in long COVID are associated with severe acute COVID-19: a Japanese nation-wide cohort study
Authors: Watase Mayuko , Miyata Jun , Terai Hideki , Sunata Keeya , Matsuyama Emiko , Asakura Takanori , Namkoong Ho , Masaki Katsunori , Yagi Kazuma , Ohgino Keiko , Chubachi Shotaro , Kawada Ichiro , Mochimaru Takao , Satomi Ryosuke , Oyamada Yoshitaka , Kobayashi Keigo , Hirano Toshiyuki , Inoue Takashi , Lee Ho , Sugihara Kai , Omori Nao , Sayama Koichi , Mashimo Shuko , Makino Yasushi , Kaido Tatsuya , Ishii Makoto , Fukunaga Koichi
Published: July 2023

Background: Multiple prolonged symptoms are observed in patients who recover from acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), defined as long COVID. Cough and sputum are presented by patients with long COVID during the acute and post-acute phases. This study aimed to identify specific risk factors for cough and sputum in patients with long COVID.
Methods: Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 aged 18 years were enrolled in a multicenter cohort study at 26 medical institutions. Clinical data during hospitalization and patient-reported outcomes after discharge were collected from medical records, paper-based questionnaires, and smartphone apps.
Results: At the 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups, there were no differences in the incidence rates of wet and dry coughs. In contrast, the proportion of patients presenting sputum without coughing increased over time compared to those with sputum and coughing. Univariate analyses of cough and sputum at all follow-up visits identified intermittent mandatory ventilation (IMV), smoking, and older age as risk factors for prolonged symptoms. At the 12-month follow-up, persistent cough and sputum were associated with the characteristics of severe COVID-19 based on imaging findings, renal and liver dysfunction, pulmonary thromboembolism, and higher serum levels of LDH, KL-6, and HbA1C. The Kaplan–Meier curves showed that the severity of acute COVID-19 infection was correlated with prolonged cough and sputum production. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that IMV ventilator management were independent risk factors for prolonged cough and sputum at 12 months.
Conclusions: In a Japanese population with long COVID, prolonged cough and sputum production were closely associated with severe COVID-19. These findings emphasize that a preventive approach for COVID-19 is highly recommended for patients with risk factors for severe infection to avoid persistent respiratory symptoms.
CMLCNet: Medical image segmentation network based on convolution capsule encoder and multi-scale local co-occurrence
Authors: Qin Chendong , Wang Yongxiong , Zhang Jiapeng
Published: July 2023

Medical images have low contrast and blurred boundaries between different tissues or between tissues and lesions. Because labeling medical images is laborious and requires expert knowledge, the labeled data are expensive or simply unavailable. UNet has achieved great success in the field of medical image segmentation. However, the pooling layer in downsampling tends to discard important information such as location information. It is difficult to learn global and long-range semantic interactive information well due to the locality of convolution operation. The usual solution is increasing the number of datasets or enhancing the training data though augmentation methods. However, to obtain a large number of medical datasets is tough, and the augmentation methods may increase the training burden. In this work, we propose a 2D medical image segmentation network with a convolutional capsule encoder and a multiscale local co-occurrence module. To extract more local detail and contextual information, the capsule encoder is introduced to learn the information about the target location and the relationship between the part and the whole. Multi-scale features can be fused by a new attention mechanism, which can then selectively emphasize salient features useful for a specific task by capturing global information and suppress background noise. The proposed attention mechanism is used to preserve the information that is discarded by pooling layers of the network. In addition, a multi-scale local co-occurrence algorithm is proposed, where the context and dependencies between different regions in an image can be better learned. Experimental results on the dataset of Liver and ISIC show that our network is superior to the UNet and other previous medical image segmentation networks under the same experimental conditions.
Stellar Rotation and Evolution in Young Clusters
Authors: Bateson Richard Douglas
Published: July 2023

Understanding stellar rotation and the role of magnetic braking remains a major outstandingproblem in astrophysics. In this paper, stellar rotation of the young open cluster Blanco 1 is investigated and compared with other clusters with ages ranging from ∼35 Myr to ∼950 Myr and star masses in the range 0.2 < M⊙ < 1.4. It is proposed that rotation rates of stars in young open clusters are determined by the early angular momentum acquired during formation and not by magnetic braking effects, which operate on longer time scales. On the convective C Sequence, for lighter stars, the early angular velocity is related directly to the moment of inertia. However, for the interface or I Sequence, differential rotation exists and observed rotation rates are essentially the rotation rates of the outer convection zone. It is estimated that the convection zone can rotate at over 10× the rate of the inner radiative zone for heavier stars. This differential rotation process can drive saturated interface dynamos that lead to large rotational mass dependences which can be described by a simple energy transfer model. Comparing with clusters of different ages magnetic braking outlines the evolution of older clusters from young clusters. For old clusters such as Praesepe the majority of stars have experienced spin down, that can be described by a simple model based on an additional momentum loss proportional to the angular momentum of the early cluster, which for the I Sequence is consistent with the well known Skumanich relation.
Prioritizing Barriers to Resilience in Blood Supply Chains: An Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach
Authors: Sibevei Ali , Roozkhosh Pardis
Published: July 2023

Supply chains face numerous disruptions in today's dynamic world, and achieving resilience is vital for healthcare systems, especially in the blood supply chain (BSC). However, there are several barriers hindering resilience, and identifying and prioritizing them is essential for developing effective strategies to improve resilience. This study proposes an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach that combines the Best Worst Method (BWM), Delphi, and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) to recognize and prioritize SC resilience barriers in the BSC of Tehran, the largest BSC in Iran. The proposed approach provides real-time results for future improvements, and sensitivity analysis investigates the effects of criteria weights on decision-making. Additionally, the proposed method is compared with two existing methods, namely BWM- VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and BWM-Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS). The results demonstrated that the most critical barriers are a lack of financial resources and the presence of managerial weaknesses at various levels. By highlighting these barriers, the study provides valuable insights for decision-makers to develop effective strategies and allocate resources to address the identified obstacles and improve the resilience of the blood supply chain.
Double Auction based Incentive Mechanism for Participatory Sensing Systems
Authors: Middya Asif Iqbal , Roy Sarbani
Published: July 2023

The sensors that are available in smartphones are useful to explore a diverse range of city dynamics (e.g. noise pollution, road condition, traffic condition, etc.). The potential of the smartphone sensors coupled with their widespread availability help to emerge a new paradigm of sensing known as participatory sensing. It uses the power of smartphone equipped sensors to collect, store, and analyze data with high spatiotemporal granularity. In a participatory sensing based system, a task provider (also known as a crowdsourcer) may have a set of sensing tasks regarding different dynamics of a city. Here, adequate users’ participation is necessary to acquire a sufficient amount of data which is a key factor for the participatory sensing based systems to provide good service quality. The task providers appoint a set of task executors (smartphone users i.e. participants of crowdsensing tasks) to execute those sensing tasks. But, existing works on sensing task allocation suffer from lack of good incentive mechanisms that are attractive for the task executors. In order to address this issue, in this paper, a double auction based incentive mechanism called TATA (Truthful Double Auction for Task Allocation) is proposed for participatory sensing. TATA performs fair allocation of tasks which is leading to efficient incentive mechanism. In the case of TATA, the fair allocation of sensing tasks of the task providers to the task executers indicates that the proposed double auction mechanism is able to satisfy the truthfulness property in order to resist market manipulation (i.e., untruthful bidding and asking). Specifically, TATA achieves all the desirable properties like individual rationality, truthfulness (i.e. incentive compatibility), budget balance, etc. TATA is also computationally efficient and yields high system efficiency. Additionally, the performance of the proposed incentive mechanism is evaluated and compared with the existing mechanisms through extensive simulations based on the real-world data from Amazon Mechanical Turk. TATA yields high utility and satisfaction for the task providers and executors as compared to the existing mechanisms.
Development and validation of a nomogram to estimate future risk of metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and elderly people
Authors: 谢 思思 , Liu Huangyao , Liu Yanhong , Xu Cong , Zhang Ting , Wang Qi , Li Jian , Huang Zhengchun , Li Sisi , Hao Ming , Dong Minghua , Luo Xiaoting , Wu Qingfeng
Published: July 2023

Aims
This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its influencing factors among middle-aged and elderly Chinese, and to develop a nomogram for predicting MetS.
Methods
This cross-sectional study were the follow-up visits of the Gannan Medical University cohort study. The participants were permanent residents aged 35 years and above living in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China. MetS was defined according to the Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS) criteria. Participants’ demographics, history of illness, blood biochemistry data, and anthropometric variables were enrolled into screen significant variables for prediction model of MetS, Subsequently, the data was divided into a training set and a validation set, and nomogram were performed to develop the predictive model of MetS. The training set was used for nomogram model construction and internal verification, and the validation set was used for external verification. Nomogram performance was assessed based on receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, calibration curves, and decision curve analysis (DCA).
Results
A total of 1581 participants were enrolled in the study, and the prevalence of MetS was 27.39% (95%CI:25.19%-29.59%). The age-standardized prevalence was 12.51%. Nine variables (age, residence, occupation, hyperlipidemia, hyperuricemia, family history of hypertension, hip circumference, glycated hemoglobinA1c (HbA1c), BMI, resting heart rate (RHR)) were identified as influencing factors of MetS. The participants were randomly divided into a development cohort (n = 1107,70%) and a validation cohort (n = 474, 30%). The nomogram was verified by internal validation (Area Under Curve (AUC): 0.844) and external validation (AUC: 0.825). The calibration plots showed good agreement in the training sets.
Conclusion
The prevalence rate of MetS is high in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China. The nomogram based on nine variables has a good predictive efficacy and can be used to predict the risk of MetS in middle-aged and elderly people.
Pathways of effects of adverse childhood experiences on infectious diseases among border drug-use adults: A Structural Equation Modeling
Authors: Zhang Mingmei , He Jianhui , Lu Tian , Luo Ou , You Jing , Li Jing
Published: July 2023

Background
Injection of drug abuse could result in infectious disease, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) possibly are associated with infectious disease. However, there is a paucity of literature on a direct or indirect relationship between ACEs, injection of drug use and infectious disease. We thus identified the pathway of influence of ACEs in adulthoods and injection of drug use on infectious disease by structural equation models (SEM).
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted by respondent driving sampling and consecutive sampling among adult drug users in southwest of China in 2021. R software 4.2.1 was used to conduct descriptive, univariate, and SEM analysis.
Results
There were 404 participants in total, with an average age of 34 and most males (98.3%) and minorities (79.6%). 95.5% of respondents experienced ACEs with 46.6% of reporting 4 or more ACEs. Correlations in SEM showed that infectious disease was directly positively affected by injection of drug use (β = 0.184), and directly negatively affected by ACEs (β=-0.188). Age(β = 0.029), Ethnic(β=-0.021), Education(β = 0.019), Gender(β = 0.022), Sex partners (β=-0.017), and ACEs (β=-0.029) had indirect effects on infectious disease.
Conclusions
ACEs could be a direct or indirect predictor for infectious disease in adulthood, injection of drug use could be a risk factor and moderate other factors of infection of infectious disease. Strategies for creating a positive home environment, minimizing traumatic or stressful childhood experiences, and increasing awareness of the risks associated with drug injection use are all ways to lower the chance of contracting infectious diseases.
Investigation of urea and calcium chloride concentration on crystal properties produced using non-growing of Sporosarcina pasteurii
Authors: Mostafa Narjes Gandali , Ghezelbash Gholam Reza , Shafiei Mohammad
Published: July 2023

The authors have requested that this preprint be removed from Research Square.
The economic and technical feasibility analysis for solar power plant
Authors: Sandilya Rajeev Ranjan
Published: July 2023

The solar power plants connected to the grid has emerged as reliable green energy to supplement conventional energy fossil fuel power plants connected to the grid. The efforts of Indian government agencies and private business entities to achieve a greater share in the green energy market segment have led to a substantial increase in installation of solar power projects in India. The generation of power from conventional energy fossil fuel power plants are the sources of greenhouse gases emission, which contribute to global warming. India has the potential to generate green energy through solar power plants connected to the grid. Solar power projects are built up through government entities, private enterprises, and public-private partnerships (PPP) enterprises. The provision of tie-ups with local business enterprises as joint ventures or special purpose vehicles (SPV) for capital investment provides a boost for solar power projects in India. The solar power projects are completed for commercial operations in a much shorter timeframe in comparison to conventional energy fossil fuel power projects. The capital investment for solar power projects has become economical in the present time due to the development of Photovoltaic module technology. The economies of scale associated with an increase in production, lower the cost of Photovoltaic (PV) modules. The decrease in capital cost and decrease in operating cost associated with the increase in efficiency of solar power plants and the financial incentive scheme introduced by the government of India provide attractive business opportunities for the green energy value chain in India. The economic and technical assessment for the solar power projects connected to grid provides guidance for the project development of upcoming grid connected solar power projects in the future foreseen period.
Incidence and Impact of Concomitant Vascular Injury on Biliary Enteric Repair in Post-Cholecystectomy Bile Duct Injury Patients
Authors: Singla Saurabh , Singh Rakesh , Kumar Saket , kumar Sanjay , Mandal Manish , Raj Amarjit
Published: July 2023

Background: Concomitant vascular injury occurs in significant proportion of patients with post cholecystectomy biliary injury. Such vascular injury mostly remains asymptomatic but may manifest with liver abscess, lobar ischemia or anastomotic strictures in long term. Our aim is to determine incidence of associated vascular injury in such patients and its impact on early complications rates and outcomes following biliary repair.
Methods: This prospective study was done between November 2019 and December 2021. All patients with post cholecystectomy bile duct injury were investigated for vascular injury by contrast enhanced computed tomography. The presentation and outcomes of biliary repair were studied in patients with and without associated vascular injury.The outcomes were graded according to Mcdonald classification scheme.
Results: Concomitant vascular injury incidence was 39% (n=19) in total of 48 patients studied. Incidence of vascular injury was proportional to the grade of biliary injury. In Strasberg type 4 injury, 87% had vascular injury while in type 3, 42% had vascular injury, and in type 2, 27% patients had vascular injury. Liver abscess was significantly higher in patients with concomitant vascular injury. Mean duration of hospital stay was 6.6± 3.9 days. After 1 year of biliary repair, irrespective of vascular repair, 60% patients had Mcdonald Grade A outcome.
Conclusion: 39%patients with biliary injury have concomitant vascular injury. Higher grade of biliary injury is associated with vascular injury. Vascular injury is not associated with increased morbidity, length of hospital stay or inferior medium term repair complications if delayed repair is done.
Barrierefreiheit digitaler Bildungsmedien – Entwicklung einer Matrix zur Prüfung der Barrierefreiheit digitaler Bildungsmedien
Authors: Alamanis Aliki Sophia
Published: July 2023

Das Ziel dieser Forschungsarbeit war es, herauszufinden, welche Kriterien der Barrierefreiheit für digitale Bildungsmedien relevant sind und diese Kriterien in einer Matrix abzubilden. Zur Erreichung dieses Ziels wurden qualitative Interviews mit Lehrkräften und Expert*innen der digitalen Barrierefreiheit durchgeführt. Die qualitativen Interviews haben gezeigt, dass eine individuelle Klassifizierung der Barrierefreiheits-Kriterien für digitale Bildungsmedien notwendig ist. Bereits vorhandenen Konzepten fehlt es vor allem an Praxisnähe und konkreten Anweisungen. Zudem wurde deutlich, dass der Barrierefreiheit und Inklusion nach wie vor zu wenig Aufmerksamkeit in Deutschland zukommen.
Barrierefreie Online-Lehre – Erstellung barrierefreier Lehrmaterialien als Schlüsselkompetenz für Lehrkräfte
Authors: Behrends Sylke
Published: July 2023

Barrierefreiheit wird in der (Online-)Hochschullehre immer wichtiger. In diesem Beitrag wird aufgezeigt, welche barrierefreien Instrumentarien für Lehrkräfte möglich sind (1), wie sie einfach umzusetzen sind (2), welche Handlungsempfehlungen sich daraus ableiten lassen (3) und warum die Anwendung digitaler Barrierefreiheit als Schlüsselkompetenz für Lehrkräfte von großer Bedeutung ist (4). Dabei fließen die Erfahrungen der Autorin aus über 20 Jahren Online-Lehre mit ein.
Herausforderungen bei der Entwicklung und Konzeptionierung eines MOOC zur Vermittlung von Barrierefreiheits-Kompetenzen in der digitalen Verwaltung
Authors: Tannert Benjamin , Wanninger-Bachem Silke , Lund Michael
Published: July 2023

Bund, Länder und Kommunen sind laut Gesetz zur Verbesserung des Onlinezugangs zu Verwaltungsleistungen (OZG) verpflichtet. Sie müssen bis Ende 2022 ihre Dienstleistungen auch digital und barrierefrei anbieten. Im Rahmen des vom IT-Planungsrat geförderten Projektes„eGov-Campus”werden derzeit Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) entwickelt und umgesetzt, damit sich Lernende aus dem Bereich des öffentlichen Sektors weiterbilden können. Das Institut für Digitale Teilhabe (IDT) der Hochschule Bremen beteiligt sich mit einem Lernmodul zum Thema „Digitale Barrierefreiheit – Teilhabe für alle”, in dem Grundlagen zum Themenfeld „Behinderung und Barrierefreiheit“ vermittelt werden, an diesem Projekt. MOOCs bedürfen einer spezifischen Konzeption und Gestaltung, die sich von traditionellen Lehrveranstaltungen im tertiären Bildungssektor unterscheiden. Der MOOC soll die Teilnehmenden für Beeinträchtigungen sensibilisieren, sodass sie befähigt werden, Barrieren zu erkennen, zu vermindern und deren Entstehung im Vorfeld zu verhindern. Im Fokus des Beitrages steht die Entwicklung und didaktische Rahmung eines Lernsettings, das die Übertragung von Umsetzungsstrategien für den eigenen beruflichen Kontext initiiert und die sich daraus ergebenden Implikationen für die didaktische Gestaltung des Lernangebotes.
Inklusiver Unterricht in MINT-Fächern bei Sehbehinderung
Authors: Mahnke Tobias , Möhring Monika Maria
Published: July 2023

Die Fachdidaktik in Informatik sowie den mathematischen, technischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Fächern, den sogenannten MINT-Fächern, arbeitet in großem Umfang mit Bildern und grafischen Beziehungen. Diese Inhalte blinden und sehbehinderten Schüler*innen und Studierenden zu vermitteln, stellt Lehrende vor besondere Herausforderungen. Darüber hinaus erfordern Distanzunterricht, Selbststudium und Gruppenphasen zusätzliche technologische und didaktische Anpassungen im alltäglichen Unterricht. Anhand einer Langzeit-Fallstudie der Deutschen Blindenstudienanstalt e. V. (blista) in Marburg wird aufgezeigt, wie die Vermittlung von Bildern, Formen und Beziehungen in den Fächern Biologie, Geografie, Mathematik und Chemie gelingt. Zum erfolgreichen Einsatz kommen digitale Werkzeuge, taktile Grafiken, haptische Modelle sowie dynamische haptische Modelle und Experimente.