bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Idempotent Fourier multipliers acting contractively on $$H^p$$ spaces
Authors: Brevig Ole Fredrik , Ortega-Cerdà Joaquim , Seip Kristian
Published: December 2021

We describe the idempotent Fourier multipliers that act contractively on $$H^p$$

H
p

spaces of the d-dimensional torus $$\mathbb {T}^d$$

T

d

for $$d\ge 1$$

d
≥
1

and $$1\le p \le \infty $$

1
≤
p
≤
∞

. When p is not an even integer, such multipliers are just restrictions of contractive idempotent multipliers on $$L^p$$

L
p

spaces, which in turn can be described by suitably combining results of Rudin and Andô. When $$p=2(n+1)$$

p
=
2
(
n
+
1
)

, with n a positive integer, contractivity depends in an interesting geometric way on n, d, and the dimension of the set of frequencies associated with the multiplier. Our results allow us to construct a linear operator that is densely defined on $$H^p(\mathbb {T}^\infty )$$

H
p

(

T

∞

)

for every $$1 \le p \le \infty $$

1
≤
p
≤
∞

and that extends to a bounded operator if and only if $$p=2,4,\ldots ,2(n+1)$$

p
=
2
,
4
,
…
,
2
(
n
+
1
)

.
Markovchart: an R package for cost-optimal patient monitoring and treatment using control charts
Authors: Dobi Balázs , Zempléni András
Published: December 2021

Control charts originate from industrial statistics, but are constantly seeing new areas of application, for example in health care (Thor et al. in BMJ Qual Saf 16(5):387–399, 2007.https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2006.022194; Suman and Prajapati in Int J Metrol Qual Eng, 2018.https://doi.org/10.1051/ijmqe/2018003). This paper is about the package, an implementation of generalised Markov chain-based control charts with health care applications in mind and with a focus on cost-effectiveness. The methods are based on Zempléni et al. (Appl Stoch Model Bus Ind 20(3):185–200, 2004.https://doi.org/10.1002/asmb.521), Dobi and Zempléni (Qual Reliab Eng Int 35(5):1379–1395, 2019a.https://doi.org/10.1002/qre.2518, Ann Univ Sci Budapestinensis Rolando Eötvös Nomin Sect Comput 49:129–146, 2019b). The implemented ideas in the package were motivated by problems encountered by health care professionals and biostatisticians when assessing the effects and costs of different monitoring schemes and therapeutic regimens. However, the implemented generalisations may be useful in other (e.g., engineering) applications too, as they mainly revolve around the loosening of assumptions seen in traditional control chart theory. The package is able to model processes with random shift sizes (i.e., the degradation of the patient’s health), random repair (i.e., treatment) and random time between samplings (i.e., visits) as well. The article highlights the flexibility of the methods through the modelling of different disease progression and treatment scenarios and also through an application on real-world data of diabetic patients.
Man vs. machine: comparison of pharmacogenetic expert counselling with a clinical medication support system in a study with 200 genotyped patients
Authors: Preissner Sally H. , Marchetti Paolo , Simmaco Maurizio , Gohlke Björn O. , Eckert Andreas , Preissner Saskia , Preissner Robert
Published: December 2021

Background

Medication problems such as strong side effects or inefficacy occur frequently. At our university hospital, a consultation group of specialists takes care of patients suffering from medication problems. Nevertheless, the counselling of poly-treated patients is complex, as it requires the consideration of a large network of interactions between drugs and their targets, their metabolizing enzymes, and their transporters, etc.

Purpose

This study aims to check whether a score-based decision-support system (1) reduces the time and effort and (2) suggests solutions at the same quality level.

Patients and methods

A total of 200 multimorbid, poly-treated patients with medication problems were included. All patients were considered twice: manually, as clinically established, and using the Drug-PIN decision-support system. Besides diagnoses, lab data (kidney, liver), phenotype (age, gender, BMI, habits), and genotype (genetic variants with actionable clinical evidence I or IIa) were considered, to eliminate potentially inappropriate medications and to select individually favourable drugs from existing medication classes. The algorithm is connected to automatically updated knowledge resources to provide reproducible up-to-date decision support.

Results

The average turnaround time for manual poly-therapy counselling per patient ranges from 3 to 6 working hours, while it can be reduced to ten minutes using Drug-PIN. At the same time, the results of the novel computerized approach coincide with the manual approach at a level of > 90%. The holistic medication score can be used to find favourable drugs within a class of drugs and also to judge the severity of medication problems, to identify critical cases early and automatically.

Conclusion

With the computerized version of this approach, it became possible to score all combinations of all alternative drugs from each class of drugs administered (“personalized medication landscape “) and to identify critical patients even before problems are reported (“medication alert”). Careful comparison of manual and score-based results shows that the incomplete manual consideration of genetic specialties and pharmacokinetic conflicts is responsible for most of the (minor) deviations between the two approaches. The meaning of the reduction of working time for experts by about 2 orders of magnitude should not be underestimated, as it enables practical application of personalized medicine in clinical routine.
Quantitative evaluation of hepatic steatosis using novel ultrasound technology normalized local variance (NLV) and its standard deviation with different ROIs in patients with metabolic-associated fatty liver disease: a pilot study
Authors: Zhao Yanan , Zhang Chao , Xu Shaoyan , Zhang Hui , Wei Shumei , Huang Pengfei , Zhang Lufei , Wong Yik Ning , Xu Wen , Huang Pintong
Published: December 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of novel ultrasound technology normalized local variance (NLV) and the standard deviation of NLV (NLV-SD) using different ROIs for hepatic steatosis in patients with metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and to identify the factors that influence the NLV value and NLV-SD value, using pathology results as the gold standard.

Methods

We prospectively enrolled 34 consecutive patients with suspected MAFLD who underwent percutaneous liver biopsy for evaluation of hepatic steatosis from June 2020 to December 2020. All patients underwent ultrasound and NLV examinations. NLV values and NLV-SD values were measured using different ROIs just before the liver biopsy procedure.

Results

The distribution of hepatic steatosis grade on histopathology was 4/19/6/5 for none (< 5%)/ mild (5–33%)/ moderate (> 33–66%)/ and severe steatosis (> 66%), respectively. The NLV value with 50-mm-diameter ROI and NLV-SD value with 50-mm-diameter ROI showed a significant negative correlation with hepatic steatosis (spearman correlation coefficient: − 0.449, p = 0.008; − 0.471, p = 0.005). The AUROC of NLV (50 mm) for the detection of mild, moderate, and severe hepatic steatosis was 0.875, 0.735, and 0.583, respectively. The AUROC of NLV-SD (50 mm) for the detection of mild, moderate, and severe hepatic steatosis was 0.900, 0.745, and 0.603, respectively. NLV (50 mm) values and NLV-SD (50 mm) values between two readers showed excellent repeatability and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.930 (p < 0.001) and 0.899 (p < 0.001). Hepatic steatosis was the only determinant factor for NLV value and NLV-SD value (p = 0.012, p = 0.038).

Conclusion

The NLV (50 mm) and NLV-SD (50 mm) provided good diagnostic performance in detecting the varying degrees of hepatic steatosis with great reproducibility. This study showed that the degree of steatosis was the only significant factor affecting the NLV value and NLV-SD value.
Pattern-based downscaling of snowpack variability in the western United States
Authors: Gauthier Nicolas , Anchukaitis Kevin J. , Coulthard Bethany
Published: December 2021

The decline in snowpack across the western United States is one of the most pressing threats posed by climate change to regional economies and livelihoods. Earth system models are important tools for exploring past and future snowpack variability, yet their coarse spatial resolutions distort local topography and bias spatial patterns of accumulation and ablation. Here, we explore pattern-based statistical downscaling for spatially-continuous interannual snowpack estimates. We find that a few leading patterns capture the majority of snowpack variability across the western US in observations, reanalyses, and free-running simulations. Pattern-based downscaling methods yield accurate, high resolution maps that correct mean and variance biases in domain-wide simulated snowpack. Methods that use large-scale patterns as both predictors and predictands perform better than those that do not and all are superior to an interpolation-based “delta change” approach. These findings suggest that pattern-based methods are appropriate for downscaling interannual snowpack variability and that using physically meaningful large-scale patterns is more important than the details of any particular downscaling method.
The impact of Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) pathways with regard to perioperative outcome in patients with ovarian cancer
Authors: Reuter Susanne , Woelber Linn , Trepte Constantin C. , Perez Daniel , Zapf Antonia , Cevirme Sinan , Mueller Volkmar , Schmalfeldt Barbara , Jaeger Anna
Published: December 2021

Purpose

Major surgery for ovarian cancer is associated with significant morbidity. Recently, guidelines for perioperative care in gynecologic oncology with a structured “Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS)” program were presented. Our aim was to evaluate if implementation of ERAS reduces postoperative complications in patients undergoing extensive cytoreductive surgery for ovarian cancer.

Methods

134 patients with ovarian cancer (FIGO I-IV) were included. 47 patients were prospectively studied after implementation of a mandatory ERAS protocol (ERAS group) and compared to 87 patients that were treated before implementation (pre-ERAS group). Primary endpoints of this study were the effects of the ERAS protocol on postoperative complications and length of stay in hospital.

Results

Preoperative and surgical data were comparable in both groups. Only the POSSUM score was higher in the ERAS group (11.8% vs. 9.3%, p < 0.001), indicating a higher surgical risk in the ERAS group. Total number of postoperative complications (ERAS: 29.8% vs. pre-ERAS: 52.8%, p = 0.011), and length of hospital stay (ERAS: 11 (6–23) vs pre-ERAS: 13 (6–50) days; p < 0.001) differed significantly. A lower fraction of patients of the ERAS group (87.2%) needed postoperative admission to the ICU compared to the pre-ERAS group (97.7%), p = 0.022). Mortality within the ERAS group was 0% vs. 3.4% (p = 0.552) in the pre-ERAS group.

Conclusion

The implementation of a mandatory ERAS protocol was associated with a lower rate of postoperative complications and a reduced length of stay in hospital. If ERAS has influence on long-term outcome needs to be further evaluated.
Collocation polynomial neural forms and domain fragmentation for solving initial value problems
Authors: Schneidereit Toni , Breuß Michael
Published: December 2021

Several neural network approaches for solving differential equations employ trial solutions with a feedforward neural network. There are different means to incorporate the trial solution in the construction, for instance, one may include them directly in the cost function. Used within the corresponding neural network, the trial solutions define the so-called neural form. Such neural forms represent general, flexible tools by which one may solve various differential equations. In this article, we consider time-dependent initial value problems, which require to set up the neural form framework adequately. The neural forms presented up to now in the literature for such a setting can be considered as first-order polynomials. In this work, we propose to extend the polynomial order of the neural forms. The novel collocation-type construction includes several feedforward neural networks, one for each order. Additionally, we propose the fragmentation of the computational domain into subdomains. The neural forms are solved on each subdomain, whereas the interfacing grid points overlap in order to provide initial values over the whole fragmentation. We illustrate in experiments that the combination of collocation neural forms of higher order and the domain fragmentation allows to solve initial value problems over large domains with high accuracy and reliability.
Personalizing image enhancement for critical visual tasks: improved legibility of papyri using color processing and visual illusions
Authors: Atanasiu Vlad , Marthot-Santaniello Isabelle
Published: December 2021

This article develops theoretical, algorithmic, perceptual, and interaction aspects of script legibility enhancement in the visible light spectrum for the purpose of scholarly editing of papyri texts. Novel legibility enhancement algorithms based on color processing and visual illusions are compared to classic methods in a user experience experiment. (1) The proposed methods outperformed the comparison methods. (2) Users exhibited a broad behavioral spectrum, under the influence of factors such as personality and social conditioning, tasks and application domains, expertise level and image quality, and affordances of software, hardware, and interfaces. No single enhancement method satisfied all factor configurations. Therefore, it is suggested to offer users a broad choice of methods to facilitate personalization, contextualization, and complementarity. (3) A distinction is made between casual and critical vision on the basis of signal ambiguity and error consequences. The criteria of a paradigm for enhancing images for critical applications comprise: interpreting images skeptically; approaching enhancement as a system problem; considering all image structures as potential information; and making uncertainty and alternative interpretations explicit, both visually and numerically.
An efficient and scalable search engine for models
Authors: López José Antonio Hernández , Cuadrado Jesús Sánchez
Published: December 2021

Search engines extract data from relevant sources and make them available to users via queries. A search engine typically crawls the web to gather data, analyses and indexes it and provides some query mechanism to obtain ranked results. There exist search engines for websites, images, code, etc., but the specific properties required to build a search engine for models have not been explored much. In the previous work, we presented MAR, a search engine for models which has been designed to support a query-by-example mechanism with fast response times and improved precision over simple text search engines. The goal of MAR is to assist developers in the task of finding relevant models. In this paper, we report new developments of MAR which are aimed at making it a useful and stable resource for the community. We present the crawling and analysis architecture with which we have processed about 600,000 models. The indexing process is now incremental and a new index for keyword-based search has been added. We have also added a web user interface intended to facilitate writing queries and exploring the results. Finally, we have evaluated the indexing times, the response time and search precision using different configurations. MAR has currently indexed over 500,000 valid models of different kinds, including Ecore meta-models, BPMN diagrams, UML models and Petri nets. MAR is available at http://mar-search.org.
Psychophysiological and Psychosocial Profile of Patients Attending Drug Addiction Centers
Authors: Clemente-Suárez Vicente Javier , Ruisoto Pablo , Isorna-Folgar Manuel , Cancelo-Martínez Jesús , Beltrán-Velasco Ana Isabel , Tornero-Aguilera José Francisco
Published: December 2021

Drug treatment centres provide the highest level of rehab services for patients diagnosed with drug addictions. Most inpatient drug rehab programs focus on medical detox and mental health interventions. However, how to optimize the later remains a challenge. The aim of this study was to examine the psychophysiological and psychosocial profile of patients attending drug addiction centres in comparation with the general population. A total of 105 inpatient drug rehab patients and 50 participants from the general population were compared based on standardized psychophysiological and psychosocial measures. Results of this study suggest that patients attending drug addiction centers differ from general population in several different psychophysiological and psychosocial factors. Patients reported significantly lower levels of physical activity and increased sympathetic responsiveness, and significantly higher levels in loneliness, psychologically inflexibility and neuroticism. The results of this study highlight the importance of address healthy lifestyle behaviors such as sport practice and psychological variables such as loneliness, psychological (in)flexibility and neuroticism to improve current programs aim to prevent or reduce problematic drug consumptions.
Pollutant Concentration Changes During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Barcelona and Surrounding Regions: Modification of Diurnal Cycles and Limited Role of Meteorological Conditions
Authors: García-Dalmau Miguel , Udina Mireia , Bech Joan , Sola Yolanda , Montolio Joan , Jaén Clara
Published: December 2021

One of the consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns has been the modification of the air quality in many cities around the world. This study focuses on the variations in pollutant concentrations and how important meteorological conditions were for those variations in Barcelona and the surrounding area during the 2020 lockdown. Boundary-layer height, wind speed, and precipitation were compared between mid-March and April 2016–2019 (pre-lockdown) and the same period in 2020 (during lockdown). The results show the limited influence of meteorological factors on horizontal and vertical dispersion conditions. Compared with the pre-lockdown period, during lockdown the boundary-layer height slightly increased by between 5% and 9%, mean wind speed was very similar, and the fraction of days with rainfall increased only marginally, from 0.33 to 0.34, even though April 2020 was extremely wet in the study area. Variations in nitrogen dioxide ($$\hbox {NO}_{{2}}$$

NO
2

), particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 $${\mu }$$
μ
m (PM10), and ozone ($$\hbox {O}_{{3}}$$

O
3

) concentrations over a 10-year period showed a 66% reduction in $$\hbox {NO}_{{2}}$$

NO
2

, 37% reduction in PM10, and 27% increase in $$\hbox {O}_{{3}}$$

O
3

at a traffic station in Barcelona. The differences in the daily concentration cycle between weekends and weekdays were heavily smoothed for all pollutants considered. The afternoon $$\hbox {NO}_{{2}}$$

NO
2

peak at the traffic station was suppressed compared with the average daily cycle. The analysis of ozone was extended to the regional scale, revealing lower concentrations at rural sites and higher ones in urban zones, especially in Barcelona and the surrounding area. The results presented not only complement previous air quality COVID-19 lockdown studies but also provide insights into the effects of road-traffic reduction.
The Costs and Labour of Whistleblowing: Bodily Vulnerability and Post-disclosure Survival
Authors: Kenny Kate , Fotaki Marianna
Published: December 2021

Whistleblowers are a vital means of protecting society because they provide information about serious wrongdoing. And yet, people who speak up can suffer. Even so, debates on whistleblowing focus on compelling employees to come forward, often overlooking the risk involved. Theoretical understanding of whistleblowers’ post-disclosure experience is weak because tangible and material impacts are poorly understood due partly to a lack of empirical detail on the financial costs of speaking out. To address this, we present findings from a novel empirical study surveying whistleblowers. We demonstrate how whistleblowers who leave their role as a result of speaking out can lose both the financial and temporal resources necessary to redevelop their livelihoods post-disclosure. We also show how associated costs involving significant legal and health expenditure can rise. Based on these insights, our first contribution is to present a new conceptual framing of post-disclosure experiences, drawing on feminist theory, that emphasizes the bodily vulnerability of whistleblowers and their families. Our second contribution repositions whistleblowing as a form of labour defending against precarity, which involves new expenses, takes significant time, and often must be carried out with depleted income. Bringing forth the intersubjective aspect of the whistleblowing experience, our study shows how both the post-disclosure survival of whistleblowers, and their capacity to speak, depend on institutional supports or, in their absence, on personal networks. By reconceptualizing post-disclosure experiences in this way—as material, embodied and intersubjective—practical implications for whistleblower advocacy and policy emerge, alongside contributions to theoretical debates. Reversing typical formulations in business ethics, we turn extant debates on the ethical duty of employees to speak up against wrongdoing on their heads. We argue instead for a responsibility to protect whistleblowers exposed to vulnerability, a duty owed by those upon whose behalf they speak.
A multidisciplinary perspective on the complex interactions between sleep, circadian, and metabolic disruption in cancer patients
Authors: Jensen Lasse D. , Oliva Delmy , Andersson Bengt-Åke , Lewin Freddi
Published: December 2021

Sleep is a basic need that is frequently set aside in modern societies. This leads to profound but complex physiological maladaptations in the body commonly referred to as circadian disruption, which recently has been characterized as a carcinogenic factor and reason for poor treatment outcomes, shortened survival, and reduced quality of life in cancer patients. As sleep and circadian physiology in cancer patients spans several disciplines including nursing science, neurology, oncology, molecular biology and medical technology, there is a lack of comprehensive and integrated approaches to deal with this serious and growing issue and at best a fractionated understanding of only part of the problem among researchers within each of these segments. Here, we take a multidisciplinary approach to comprehensively review the diagnosis and impact of sleep and circadian disruption in cancer patients. We discuss recent discoveries on molecular regulation of the circadian clock in healthy and malignant cells, the neurological and endocrine pathways controlling sleep and circadian rhythmicity, and their inputs to and outputs from the organism. The benefits and drawbacks of the various technologies, devices, and instruments used to assess sleep and circadian function, as well as the known consequences of sleep disruption and how sleep can be corrected in cancer patients, will be analyzed. We will throughout the review highlight the extensive crosstalk between sleep, circadian rhythms, and metabolic pathways involved in malignancy and identify current knowledge gaps and barriers for addressing the issue of sleep and circadian disruption in cancer patients. By addressing these issues, we hope to provide a foundation for further research as well as better and more effective care for the patients in the future.
Climate data and information needs of indigenous communities on reservation lands: insights from stakeholders in the Southwestern United States
Authors: Fillmore Helen , Singletary Loretta
Published: December 2021

Indigenous communities on reservation lands across the USA continue to demonstrate their leadership in climate resilience through active engagement in co-producing interdisciplinary solutions to adaptation. These initiatives, however, often ask Indigenous peoples to provide knowledge and resources to assist with adaptation efforts beyond their communities, which can limit their capacity to act locally. Trusting their expertise, we utilize a participatory research approach that asks tribal government employees, agriculturalists, researchers, and outreach professionals to prioritize the climate information and data they perceive as necessary to enhance the climate resilience of water resources of Indigenous communities. In doing so, this study provides empirical evidence specific to the climate adaptation needs of Indigenous communities on reservation lands in the arid southwestern USA. Study respondents prioritize climate information and data that serve to assess local climate change impacts, enhance food security, and integrate and protect the traditional knowledge of their communities. In this arid and predominantly rural region, respondents prioritize water quality data as their highest need followed by streamflow and air temperature data. They most frequently access their respective tribal government sources of climate information and data. These results indicate that localized climate data and information are highly prioritized. Future research and action to alleviate information and data gaps should account for the relevance, accessibility, and protection of these resources while prioritizing methods that ensure Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination rather than knowledge extraction.
Investor Characteristics and their Impact on the Decision to use a Robo-advisor
Authors: Oehler Andreas , Horn Matthias , Wendt Stefan
Published: December 2021

We survey 231 undergraduate students to analyze how retail investors’ characteristics influence their decision to use a robo-advisor. Characteristics such as the willingness to take risk, extraversion, and optimism are significant in univariate tests but the willingness to take risk and the internal locus of control are significant in multivariate settings. Participants who use the robo-advisor invest more and are more likely to also invest on their own in both stocks and bonds. We also find statistically significant differences between participants who exclusively use the robo-advisor for investments in stocks and bonds and participants who use the robo-advisor and invest some money in stocks and bonds on their own.
Impact of a Training Programme on the e-rubric Evaluation of Gamification Resources with Pre-Service Secondary School Science Teachers
Authors: Franco-Mariscal Antonio-Joaquín , Cebrián-Robles Daniel , Rodríguez-Losada Noela
Published: December 2021

Social constructivism is a learning approach in which students actively construct their own knowledge by way of experiences and interactions with others. As such, it is important to highlight both individual and group-based reflection practices in pre-service teacher training as a key aspect for improving teaching practice. This paper presents the results of the design and implementation of a training programme of 7 sessions (8.5 h of class participation plus 25 h of personal homework) for pre-service secondary school science teachers, who were asked to design a gamification resource and an e-rubric to evaluate it. Subsequent improvement of this e-rubric was enhanced by performing different reflection activities at key moments. The programme was carried out by 50 Spanish pre-service teachers from Málaga (Spain). Data collection centred on the e-rubrics designed, the emotions experienced and the possible transfer to real-life practice performed six months later. The impact of reflections on the evaluation was studied by analysing the evolution of the categories proposed by the participants for the e-rubric at different times, with marked changes being found during design and preparation of the gamification resource, and only very minor changes post-implementation. In addition, a group-based criteria consensus session favoured a more in-depth reflection. Interest was the main emotion experienced by pre-service teachers, especially during preparation and use of the resource. The programme also had a marked impact on transfer of the e-rubric into practice, as did the designed resource, although to a lesser extent.
Electrochemical and quantum chemical study to assess the role of (2E)-2-(furan-2-ylmethylidene) hydrazine carbothioamide as inhibitor for acid corrosion of mild steel
Authors: Adinarayanan V. R. , Kumari P. Preethi , Rao Suma A.
Published: December 2021

Synthesis and inhibition effectiveness of (2E)-2-(furan-2-ylmethylidene) hydrazine carbothioamide (FMHC) as an inhibitor for corrosion of mild steel in 0.5 M H2SO4 is reported. Experiments were conducted at various temperatures (303–323 K) by adopting potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Readings obtained demonstrated that percentage inhibition efficiency (% IE) improved with the upsurge in the concentration of FMHC, while it decreased with a rise in temperature. The highest % IE observed was 60% for 2.5 × 10–4 M FMHC at 303 K. FMHC worked moderately as a mixed inhibitor. FMHC obeyed the Langmuir model of adsorption and the mode of adsorption was physisorption on the mild steel surface which was further endorsed by examining the surface using the scanning electron microscope. A clear insight into the mechanistic features of corrosion inhibition by using FMHC was acquired. Calculation of activation parameters helped to suggest an appropriate mechanism for the adsorption of FMHC on mild steel through quantum chemical calculations using density functional theory (DFT).

Graphical abstract
Parallel approach of Schrödinger-based quantum corrections for ultrascaled semiconductor devices
Authors: Espiñeira Gabriel , García-Loureiro Antonio J. , Seoane Natalia
Published: December 2021

In the current technology node, purely classical numerical simulators lack the precision needed to obtain valid results. At the same time, the simulation of fully quantum models can be a cumbersome task in certain studies such as device variability analysis, since a single simulation can take up to weeks to compute and hundreds of device configurations need to be analyzed to obtain statistically significative results. A good compromise between fast and accurate results is to add corrections to the classical simulation that are able to reproduce the quantum nature of matter. In this context, we present a new approach of Schrödinger equation-based quantum corrections. We have implemented it using Message Passing Interface in our in-house built semiconductor simulation framework called VENDES, capable of running in distributed systems that allow for more accurate results in a reasonable time frame. Using a 12-nm-gate-length gate-all-around nanowire FET (GAA NW FET) as a benchmark device, the new implementation shows an almost perfect agreement in the output data with less than a 2% difference between the cases using 1 and 16 processes. Also, a reduction of up to 98% in the computational time has been found comparing the sequential and the 16 process simulation. For a reasonably dense mesh of 150k nodes, a variability study of 300 individual simulations can be now performed with VENDES in approximately 2.5 days instead of an estimated sequential execution of 137 days.
How to foster innovation in SMEs: evidence of the effectiveness of a project-based technology transfer approach
Authors: Hilkenmeier Frederic , Fechtelpeter Christian , Decius Julian
Published: December 2021

One of the main challenges in technology transfer is to actively involve small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—which are most in need of and benefit the most from collaborative Research and Development (R&D) programs. This study presents a large-scale collaboration program which focuses on project-based technology transfer in SMEs with little to no prior experience in collaborative research projects. The core of this collaboration program is the temporary secondment of scientists from a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) into an SME to jointly work on a practical project objective—which is directly tailored to the demands of the SME. To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in overcoming barriers related to finding the right collaboration partner, limited resources, and limited absorptive capabilities, we adopt the R&D Lifecycle Model as a theoretical framework. Our findings, using self-reported and objective data from 106 different projects in a structural equation model, highlight that most SMEs in the considered cluster environment not only successfully mastered a challenging topic in the context of industry 4.0 that immediately benefits the organization, but also engaged in new R&D projects to strengthen their scientific and technical human capital in the long term. Moreover, consistent with previous literature, we found that trust is the main driver within the R&D Lifecycle Model both in building capabilities and economic growth. Based on these insights, we consider a long and close secondment of scientists to SMEs as key for collaboration projects and discuss implications for research and future technology transfer approaches.
Transition Therapy: Tackling the Ecology of Tumor Phenotypic Plasticity
Authors: Aguadé-Gorgorió Guim , Kauffman Stuart , Solé Ricard
Published: December 2021

Phenotypic switching in cancer cells has been found to be present across tumor types. Recent studies on Glioblastoma report a remarkably common architecture of four well-defined phenotypes coexisting within high levels of intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity. Similar dynamics have been shown to occur in breast cancer and melanoma and are likely to be found across cancer types. Given the adaptive potential of phenotypic switching (PHS) strategies, understanding how it drives tumor evolution and therapy resistance is a major priority. Here we present a mathematical framework uncovering the ecological dynamics behind PHS. The model is able to reproduce experimental results, and mathematical conditions for cancer progression reveal PHS-specific features of tumors with direct consequences on therapy resistance. In particular, our model reveals a threshold for the resistant-to-sensitive phenotype transition rate, below which any cytotoxic or switch-inhibition therapy is likely to fail. The model is able to capture therapeutic success thresholds for cancers where nonlinear growth dynamics or larger PHS architectures are in place, such as glioblastoma or melanoma. By doing so, the model presents a novel set of conditions for the success of combination therapies able to target replication and phenotypic transitions at once. Following our results, we discuss transition therapy as a novel scheme to target not only combined cytotoxicity but also the rates of phenotypic switching.
Attention allocation on mobile app interfaces when human interacts with them
Authors: Zhu Li , Cui Gaochao , Li Yan , Zhang Jianhai , Kong Wanzeng , Cichocki Andrzej , Li Junhua
Published: December 2021

With the popularity of smartphones and the pervasion of mobile apps, people spend more and more time to interact with a diversity of apps on their smartphones, especially for young population. This raises a question: how people allocate attention to interfaces of apps during using them. To address this question, we, in this study, designed an experiment with two sessions (i.e., Session1: browsing original interfaces; Session 2: browsing interfaces after removal of colors and background) integrating with an eyetracking system. Attention fixation durations were recorded by an eye-tracker while participants browsed app interfaces. The whole screen of smartphone was divided into four even regions to explore fixation durations. The results revealed that participants gave significantly longer total fixation duration on the bottom left region compared to other regions in the session (1) Longer total fixation duration on the bottom was preserved, but there is no significant difference between left side and right side in the session2. Similar to the finding of total fixation duration, first fixation duration is also predominantly paid on the bottom area of the interface. Moreover, the skill in the use of mobile phone was quantified by assessing familiarity and accuracy of phone operation and was investigated in the association with the fixation durations. We found that first fixation duration of the bottom left region is significantly negatively correlated with the smartphone operation level in the session 1, but there is no significant correlation between them in the session (2) According to the results of ratio exploration, the ratio of the first fixation duration to the total fixation duration is not significantly different between areas of interest for both sessions. The findings of this study provide insights into the attention allocation during browsing app interfaces and are of implications on the design of app interfaces and advertisements as layout can be optimized according to the attention allocation to maximally deliver information.
Assessing discharge periodicity in mountain catchments using classified environmental conditions (Tatra Mountains, Poland)
Authors: Borowska-Pakuła Joanna , Mięsiak-Wójcik Katarzyna
Published: December 2021

The periodicity of a river expressed in cycles of various lengths (monthly, seasonal, multiannual) is a result of climatic factors and overlapping environmental conditions within its catchment. In uncontrolled or poorly surveyed catchments, it is very difficult to determine the duration of a stream’s hydrological activity. This is especially relevant for catchments with complicated water circulation in karstic rocks. The present study concerns the small catchment of the Strążyski Potok river located in the area of the Tatra National Park, in the Western Tatras. The observation period covered the 2015 hydrological year, which differed hydrologically from average conditions. This study aims to develop a simple method to explain the processes shaping the mountain stream discharge periodicity. The research employed periodic field observations linked with climatic and non-climatic factors. Environmental conditions were assessed as four classes reflecting their influence on appearance or disappearance of mountain stream water. Class boundaries were the values of quartiles. The degree of correspondence between environmental factors and stream field observations was described via the Index DC (Degree Correspondence Index) approach. Complete correspondence (Index DC =0) was found in 23% catchments, a weak relationship between conditions favouring discharge and actual condition (Index DC= -1, +1) was noted within 11 catchments, while in 9 catchments, no such relationship was found (Index DC = -2, +2). The obtained results indicate a correspondence or lack thereof between the environmental potential of the catchment and its discharge periodicity. The discrepancies between the assessment of the influence of climatic and non-climatic factors and the data collected during field observations provide a basis for more detailed studies. Continuation of these studies based on the proposed classifications will allow for a more complete explanation of water disappearance in river channels and the determination of their short- and long-term discharge periodicity.
Impact of rangeland enclosure and seasonal grazing on protected and unprotected rangelands in Chakwal region, Pakistan
Authors: Islam Muhammad , Razzaq Abdul , Zubair Muhammad , Hassan Sawsan , Ahmad Sarfraz , Gul Shamim , Rischkowsky Barbara , Louhaichi Mounir
Published: December 2021

Scrub rangelands support livestock grazing and provide ecosystem services to their inhabitants. The present study was conducted in Chakwal, an important tract of the Pothwar Plateau, which sustains herds of small domestic and nomadic ruminants. Urbanization and uncontrolled grazing practices have reduced rangeland productivity and increased soil erosion and resulted in poor land conditions. This study assessed the influence of two years of rangeland protection on aboveground vegetation biomass and the chemical composition of plants and aimed to determine the influence of seasonal grazing on the live-weight gain of small ewes. Using the line intercept method, vegetation data from protected and unprotected plots in 2015 and 2016 were collected at two sites, Dhulli and Begal. Vegetation cover was assessed from images using VegMeasure. Results showed that protected study sites displayed higher vegetation biomass (834 and 690 kg ha-1) compared to the unprotected study site (477 and 326 kg ha-1) during April and August of both years. In the seasonal grazing trial, the experimental ewes that grazed on protected rangelands showed higher live-weight gain (33–63 g day-1) compared to live weight of ewes (17–21 g day-1) that grazed on unprotected rangelands during the experimental period of 127 days at both sites. The results suggest that the Chakwal rangeland has tremendous potential to improve vegetation productivity but modern livestock management and seasonal grazing practices are needed to improve carrying capacity and livestock productivity.
CFD Modeling of Multiphase Flow in an SKS Furnace with New Tuyere Arrangements
Authors: Song Kezhou , Jokilaakso Ari
Published: December 2021

There has been a great deal of focus on the optimization of tuyere arrangements in SKS bottom blown copper smelting furnaces since the last decade, as the improved furnace operation efficiency of SKS technology has potential that cannot be ignored. New –x + 0 + x deg tuyere arrangements with 14 tuyeres are proposed in this research paper. Using a previously verified numerical model, CFD tests on the velocity distribution and wall shear stress for scaled-down SKS furnace models were conducted, with a constant total volumetric gas flow rate, and different operating parameters and furnace cross-section geometries. The results indicate that, at a relatively low gas injection speed compared with the previously optimized tuyere arrangement, although the –x +0 +x deg tuyere arrangements are unable to supply enhanced agitation in the typical round furnaces, they achieve better performance in elliptical furnaces. At a comparatively higher gas injection speed, the – x + 0 + x deg tuyere arrangements can improve the agitation performance in a round furnace while maintaining an acceptable wall shear stress on the bottom and side wall. The agitation enhancement with the − x +0 +x deg tuyere arrangements can essentially be attributed to stronger interactions between bubble plumes and furnace side walls. To further exploit the advantages of the new tuyere arrangements, an optimized tuyere angle was confirmed by a full-scale furnace model simulation.
Computational Fluid Dynamics Support for Fontan Planning in Minutes, Not Hours: The Next Step in Clinical Pre-Interventional Simulations
Authors: Frieberg Petter , Aristokleous Nicolas , Sjöberg Pia , Töger Johannes , Liuba Petru , Carlsson Marcus
Published: December 2021

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling may aid in planning of invasive interventions in Fontan patients. Clinical application of current CFD techniques is however limited by complexity and long computation times. Therefore, we validated a “lean” CFD method to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and an “established” CFD method, ultimately aiming to reduce complexity to enable predictive CFD during ongoing interventions. Fifteen Fontan patients underwent MRI for CFD modeling. The differences between lean and established approach, in hepatic and total flow percentage to the left pulmonary artery (%LPA), power loss and relative wall shear stress area were 1.5 ± 4.0%, -0.17 ± 1.1%, -0.055 ± 0.092 mW and 1.1 ± 1.4%. Compared with MRI, the lean and established method showed a bias in %LPA of -1.9 ± 3.4% and -1.8 ± 3.1%. Computation time was for the lean and established approach 3.0 ± 2.0 min and 7.0 ± 3.4 h, respectively. We conclude that the proposed lean method provides fast and reliable results for future CFD support during interventions.

Graphical abstract
Monte Carlo construction of cubature on Wiener space
Authors: Hayakawa Satoshi , Tanaka Ken’ichiro
Published: December 2021

In this paper, we investigate application of mathematical optimization to construction of a cubature formula on Wiener space, which is a weak approximation method of stochastic differential equations introduced by Lyons and Victoir (Proc R Soc Lond A 460:169–198, 2004). After giving a brief review on the cubature theory on Wiener space, we show that a cubature formula of general dimension and degree can be obtained through a Monte Carlo sampling and linear programming. This paper also includes an extension of stochastic Tchakaloff’s theorem, which technically yields the proof of our primary result.
Role of additives and surface passivation on the performance of perovskite solar cells
Authors: Abicho Samuel , Hailegnaw Bekele , Workneh Getachew Adam , Yohannes Teketel
Published: December 2021

Outstanding improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE) over 25% in a very short period and promising research developments to reach the theoretical PCE limit of single junction solar cells, 33%, enables organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells (OIPSCs) to gain much attention in the scientific and industrial community. The simplicity of production of OIPSCs from precursor solution either on rigid or flexible substrates makes them even more attractive for low-cost roll-to-roll production processes. Though OIPSCs show as such higher PCE with simple solution processing methods, there are still unresolved issues, while attempts are made to commercialize these solar cells. Among the major problems is the instability of the photoactive layer of OIPSCs at the interface of the charge transport layers and /or electrodes during prolonged exposure to moisture, heat and radiation. To achieve matched PCE and stability, several techniques such as molecular and interfacial engineering of components in OIPSCs have been applied. Moreover, in recent times, engineering on additives, solvents, surface passivation, and structural tuning have been developed to reduce defects and large grain boundaries from the surface and/or interface of organic–inorganic perovskite films. Under this review, we have shown recently developed additives and passivation strategies, which are strongly focused to enhance PCE and long-term stability simultaneously.