bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Common susceptibility variants ofKDRandIGF-1Rare associated with poststroke depression in the Chinese population
Authors: Yue Yingying , You Linlin , Zhao Fuying , Zhang Kezhong , Shi Yanyan , Tang Hua , Lu Jianxin , Li Shenghua , Cao Jinxia , Geng Deqin , Wu Aiqin , Yuan Yonggui
Published: January 2023

Background

Depression, one of the most frequent complications after stroke, increases the disease’s burden and physical disability. Poststroke depression (PSD) is a multifactorial disease with genetic, environmental and biological factors involved in its occurrence. Genetic studies on PSD to date have mainly focused on the monoamine system and brain-derived neurotrophic factors. However, understanding is still limited about the influence of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of other neurotrophic factors on PSD.

Aims

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between seven vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family gene variants that occur with PSD.

Methods

A multicentre candidate gene study from five hospitals in Jiangsu Province from June 2013 to December 2014 involved 121 patients with PSD and 131 patients with non-PSD. Demographic characteristics and neuropsychological assessments were collected. The χ2test was used to evaluate categorical variables, while the independent t-test was applied to continuous variables. SNPs in seven genes (VEGFA,VEGFB,KDR,FLT-1,IGF-1,IGF-1RandPlGF) were genotyped. Single-marker association for PSD was analysed by χ2tests and logistic regression using SPSS and PLINK software.

Results

Patients with PSD included more women and those with lower education levels, lower body mass indexes, lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores, and higher scores on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale than non-PSD patients. Ninety-two SNPs with seven genes were genotyped and passed quality control. The rs7692791 CC genotypes, the C allele ofKDRand the rs9282715 T allele ofIGF-1Rincreased the risk for PSD (χ2=7.881, p=0.019; χ2=4.259, p=0.039; χ2=4.222, p=0.040, respectively). In addition, the SNP rs7692791 ofKDRwas significantly associated with PSD by the logistic regression of an additive model (p=0.015, OR=9.584, 95% CI: 1.549 to 59.31).

Conclusions

Patients with rs7692791 C allele carriers or the CC genotype ofKDRand the rs9282715 T allele ofIGF-1Rmay have PSD susceptibility. Findings such as these may help clinicians to identify the high-risk population for PSD earlier and, thus, enable them to provide more timely interventions.

Trial registration number

ChiCTR-OCH-13003133.
Replication crisis and placebo studies: rebooting the bioethical debate
Authors: Blease Charlotte , Colagiuri Ben , Locher Cosima
Published: January 2023

A growing body of cross-cultural survey research shows high percentages of clinicians report using placebos in clinical settings. One motivation for clinicians using placebos is to help patients by capitalising on the placebo effect’s reported health benefits. This is not surprising, given that placebo studies are burgeoning, with increasing calls by researchers to ethically harness placebo effects among patients. These calls propose placebos/placebo effects offer clinically significant benefits to patients. In this paper, we argue many findings in this highly cited and ‘hot’ field have not been independently replicated. Evaluating the ethicality of placebo use in clinical practice involves first understanding whether placebos are efficacious clinically. Therefore, it is crucial to consider placebo research in the context of the replication crisis and what can be learnt to advance evidence-based knowledge of placebos/placebo effects and their clinical relevance (or lack thereof). In doing so, our goal in this paper is to motivate both increased awareness of replication issues and to help pave the way for advances in scientific research in the field of placebo studies to better inform ethical evidence-based practice. We argue that, only by developing a rigorous evidence base can we better understand how, if at all, placebos/placebo effects can be harnessed ethically in clinical settings.
UK-wide major trauma center tertiary trauma survey pro forma review and aggregation and consolidation into a redesigned document
Authors: Parson Mark , Pickard Adam , Simpson Dan , Treece Michael , Rampersad Lisa
Published: January 2023

Objectives

The trauma tertiary survey (TTS) is an essential part of the continued care for major trauma patients which is performed to ensure that all injuries have been identified and none have been overlooked during the patient’s stay. Although the Advanced Trauma Life Support Course states a need for a tertiary survey, there is currently no standard for what this survey comprises.

Methods

Using local consultant expert opinion and a literature search we identified a set of 32 TTS potential features that may be included within a TTS pro forma. Major trauma center (MTC) documents were requested from every MTC within the UK. 4 investigators sequentially interrogated each MTC TTS document looking for (1) presence of each feature and (2) how well the feature was represented on the document (0 to 4 Likert Scale). Any previously unidentified potential TTS features were noted and later reviewed for a second round of document analysis.

Results

A total of 21 out of all 26 UK MTCs had a TTS pro forma document. A total of 68 possible features were identified. Respiratory and Abdominal assessment sections were the most frequently identified features (present in 90.4% of the TTS pro formas; n=19. Neck assessment and neurological assessment were included within 85.7% of the TTS pro formas (n=18). Further aspects identified for Round 2 analysis typically included features that were thought to be important but highly specific. For example, pregnancy test and DNACPR discussions were found in 1 MTC TTS each (4%).

Conclusion

This article presents a review of the existing documents at 21 MTCs in the UK, identification of features used and proposes a gold standard TTS which can be used by any doctor to perform the tertiary survey and reduce the risk of missed injuries in trauma patients.

Level of Evidence

3.
Nunavik anadromous Arctic char life histories, behaviour, and habitat use informed by both Inuit knowledge and western science: a year in Ungava Bay
Authors: Dubos Véronique , May Peter , Gillis Carole-Anne , St-Hilaire André , Bergeron Normand
Published: January 2023

This study is a comprehensive documentation of anadromous Arctic char ( Salvelinus alpinus) life history in Ungava Bay, Nunavik, Canada, through Inuit knowledge. Inuit experts shared their knowledge during semidirected interviews and other occasions such as informal discussions and fieldwork. A contextualized synthesis of published western scientific literature is provided for the various life stages of Arctic char. The close year-round relationship Inuit have with Arctic char allows to set evidence of poorly described life-history strategies in western literature and to reveal behaviours that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, have not been documented so far. The connections and paralleling of Inuit knowledge and published studies about Arctic char informs western science with a more holistic understanding of Arctic char ecology. By bringing Inuit knowledge of Arctic char to the foreground, the present study highlights relevant research avenues for co-developed projects on Arctic char ecology.
Surface-based temperature inversion characteristics and impact on surface air temperatures in northwestern Canada from radiosonde data between 1990 and 2016
Authors: Noad Nick C. , Bonnaventure Philip P. , Gilson Gaëlle F. , Jiskoot Hester , Garibaldi Madeleine C.
Published: January 2023

Assumptions of linear lapse rates in regions prone to surface-based inversions (SBIs) can generate biases in the prediction of surface air temperature. Although studies of Arctic inversions are common, few regional studies of their characteristics exist in high-latitude regions with mountainous topography. To address this gap, vertical atmospheric temperature profiles for five sites in northwestern Canada were analysed using archived radiosonde data from 1990 to 2016. We present monthly, seasonal, and annual SBI characteristics including the occurrence of transient and persistent SBIs. A novel metric, surface-based inversion impact (SBIimp), was developed by combining the traditional inversion characteristics of depth, strength, and frequency, and was used to quantify the impact of SBIs on cooling the surface air temperature. SBIimpvalues of >5 °C yr−1and ∼10 °C winter−1occur locally. A weak linear relationship between sea ice coverage in the Beaufort Sea and SBIimpmanifests across parts of the study area, though this relationship does not persist after detrending the datasets. Topographic analysis of areas surrounding each radiosonde location reveals highly variable SBIimpin complex mountain areas and more consistent SBIimpacross areas of low relief. Our results can help interpret the role of inversions in climatic conditions maintaining cryospheric elements such as permafrost.
First report of female gametangia in the invasive macroalga starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa) in North America
Authors: Harrow-Lyle Tyler J. , Ginn Brian K. , Kirkwood Andrea E. , Melles Stephanie J.
Published: January 2023

Nitellopsis obtusa (Desv.) J. Groves (starry stonewort) is a macroalga in the Characeae family first documented in North America c. 1974. Since initial introduction, N. obtusa clonal populations quickly established in inland lakes as early as 2005. Despite increased N. obtusa monitoring over the last decade, only sterile or male specimens were documented in North America; however, during routine monitoring in Lake Simcoe and Lake Scugog in 2022, we discovered the presence of female gametangia on N. obtusa. In addition, two other Characeae genera had prevalent antheridia and oogonia, co-occurring with oogonia-presenting N. obtusa, which had not been observed previously despite intensive monitoring since 2008. Further studies in North America are required to confirm the proportion of female populations present within invaded regions, as well as to identify plausible causes shifting gametangia development across non-native and native Characeae, especially within the context of climate change. The presence of oogonia on N. obtusa represents a major change to our understanding of this species and its reproductive ecology in North America.
The Optimal Pricing in Blockchain-Enabled Enterprises Operation Considering Privacy Attitude and Privacy Protection
Authors: Yu Shuiting , Wu Chenchen , Xu Chunming
Published: January 2023

The traceability of Blockchain Technology (BT) has been implemented widely in many industries, but coupled with this fact is that more and more consumers focus on personal privacy information security. This paper mainly studies a BT-enabled operation system with customers’ privacy preferences and enterprises’ privacy protection. From the short-term perspective, we first investigate the impacts of different privacy attitudes from consumers on the optimal pricing and privacy protection decisions of enterprises in two scenarios with and without BT. Then, we give the conditions of enterprises adopting BT. Furthermore, from the long-term perspective, when privacy protection insurance is provided for risk-averse consumers, we also investigate the evolutionary stability strategies between enterprises and consumers using the evolutionary game theory. Finally, numerical analysis is adopted to verify the theoretical results and show that privacy protection and BT are important to the operation of enterprises and the purchasing behavior of consumers.
Innovative Energy Management System for Energy Storage Systems of Multiple-Type with Cascade Utilization Battery
Authors: Liu Junhong , Zhang Yongmi , Li Yanhong , Liu Yulei , Wang Xingxing , Zhao Lei , Liang Qiguang , Ye Jun
Published: January 2023

The proposed system provides an energy management method for various types of an energy storage system including cascade utilization battery. The method is used to receive, store and manage the relevant operating data from the energy storage battery and also randomly determine the energy distribution coefficient of the energy storage battery. According to the adaptive energy distribution method, the power value of the total distributed energy storage power to the cascade utilization energy is calculated and also the energy distribution coefficient of the energy storage battery in real time is adjusted. Finally, the corrected command value of the energy storage battery power is obtained as an output. The system can not only prevent overcharging and over-discharging of the energy storage system, but also maintain the good performance of the energy storage system. To realize the coordinated control and energy management of the battery power plant, we use multiple types, including conventional battery and cascade utilization power battery control purpose. The performance metrics, namely, real-time energy management, computational time and operating cost are employed for the experimental purpose. The simulation results show the superior performance of the proposed energy management system over other state-of-the-art methods.
EFFECT OF CORROSION INHIBITORS ON REINFORCED CONCRETE PROPERTIES—A REVIEW
Authors: GHOREISHIAMIRI SEYEDMOJTABA , RAJA PANDIAN BOTHI , ISMAIL MOHAMMAD , HASHEMI KAROUEI SEYEDEH FAEZEH , BALAJI JAGANATHAN , HWAN OH TAE
Published: January 2023

Over recent decades, considerable effort has been made to discover new and efficient corrosion inhibitors for reinforced concrete in corrosive media. Organic, inorganic, and green corrosion inhibitors have been used to inhibit the corrosion of reinforcing bars in contaminated concrete structures. Despite the efficacy of corrosion inhibitors, an evaluation of the effect of inhibitors on other concrete properties plays a prominent role in assessing the industrial use of these effective materials. A comprehensive study of improvements in concrete properties such as workability, setting time, air content, fresh density, compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, consistency, elasticity, water absorption, and water permeability after the addition of a corrosion inhibitor allows for effective reduction of reinforcement steel corrosion. Hence, this study summarizes all corrosion inhibitors used for concrete reinforcement during the last decade (2010–2020), as well as their effects on the properties of contaminated concrete.
EFFECT OF ALKALI TREATMENT ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND MICROSTRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF LUFFA CYLINDRICA AND SNAKE GRASS FIBER-REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITES
Authors: SURIYAPRAKASH M. , RANGANATHAN R. , SREE BALAJI V. S. , NALLUSAMY M.
Published: January 2023

This study investigates the mechanical properties of Luffa cylindrica and snake grass fiber composites prepared with different combinations of fiber and resin. Fibers are produced from natural sources having good mechanical properties and eco-friendly that can be used in various engineering applications such as automobile, aerospace and automotive industries. The Luffa cylindrica and snake grass fibers will be treated for 3[Formula: see text]h with alkali (NaOH) chemical treatment. The treated fibers are then developed as Laminate composites using compression molding technique. The composites have been made in five different compositions by varying the weight percentage (wt.%) of the chemically treated Luffa cylindrica and snake grass fibers (combination of maximum 30[Formula: see text]wt.%) mixed with epoxy resin and hardener (maximum of constant 70[Formula: see text]wt.%). Bonding between the fiber and matrix plays a vital role in influencing the mechanical characteristics of composites. The five samples have been prepared from the five different compositions and undergone various studies to find its mechanical properties such as ultimate tensile test (UTS), impact test, flexural test and water absorption test. It is found that the UTS and flexural strength have been considerably enhanced by sample 2 and impact strength has been notably increased by sample 3. The microstructure of tensile-tested specimen is observed by using the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It is reported that the better bonding between the fibers and matrix has been observed by SEM microstructural analysis.
NEUROMUSCULAR TAPING APPLICATION TO REDUCE WORK-RELATED TENSION NECK SYNDROME IN “BATIK” MANUAL LABOR WORKERS: A PILOT-CONTROLLED TRIAL
Authors: Rahayu Umi Budi , Putriana D. , Setyaningrum A. , Kusumawati Yuli , Blow D. , Romli M. H.
Published: January 2023

The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of NeuroMuscular Taping (NMT) in pain and neck disability in reducing work-related musculoskeletal stress.

Methods: This study was conducted on 20 workers, with an age mean of about 53.85 years who work in the home industry of “Batik-Village” in Solo Indonesia that were divided into two groups. Intervention groups ([Formula: see text] = 10) received NMT application, while control groups ([Formula: see text] = 10) received sham treatment by the traditional approach. The collected data covered the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) for pain and the Neck Disability Index (NDI) for a neck disability. Evaluations were made at four points of time: before, after 3 times, after 6 times of NMT application, and follow-up 15 days after the last application with mirroring duration on the control group.

Results: Intervention group showed reduction on pain ([Formula: see text] = 0.000) and neck disability ([Formula: see text] = 0.000) during the intervention but only pain has prolonged effect on follow-up ([Formula: see text] = 0.001).

Conclusion: NMT application to painful neck muscles in manual labor workers decreases their subjective sensation of pain during the work, after work, and after the tape removal.
Nonlinear Vibration Behavior of FG Sandwich Beams with Auxetic Porous Copper Core in Thermal Environments
Authors: Li Chong , Shen Hui-Shen , Yang Jian
Published: January 2023

Modeling, analysis, and design are conducted to reveal the nonlinear forced and free vibration behaviors of the functionally graded (FG) sandwich beams with auxetic porous copper core and metal-ceramic facesheets. The copper foams with negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) are designed to be functionally distributed along the structural thickness direction and possess greater relative density in the adjacent sublayers to the facesheets. Meanwhile, the functionally graded material (FGM) facesheets are designed to be metal-rich in the inner surfaces. Through micromechanical modeling and following the Mori–Tanaka model, material properties of FGM facesheets are determined and further taken to be temperature-dependent with the consideration of thermal environments. Nonlinear finite element (FE) simulations are then conducted. From the results of numerical analysis, one can conclude that when compared with the counterpart having a non-auxetic core, the sandwich beam with an auxetic core has lower nonlinear-to-linear frequency ratios of free vibrations and smaller dynamic deflections under a sudden load.
Numerical Investigations of Asymmetric Inerter Nonlinear Energy Sink for Vibration Control
Authors: Liu Zhibin , Wang Jingjing , Tan Ping , Chen Yangyang
Published: January 2023

Nonlinear energy sinks (NESs) and tuned mass damper (TMD) have achieved excellent control performance. However, their energy and frequency robustness, as well as a large desired slide mass, impede their wide application in practice. To address this limitation, this paper proposes an asymmetric NES that combines two types of inerter NES, the AsymI-1 NES and AsymI-2 NES, to improve the damping robustness of traditional control devices and reduce the damper mass. In addition, the distinction is achieved by adding an inerter between the sliding damper and the top or bottom story. Further, the mathematical formulation of the asymmetric inerter NES is deduced. The working principle of the proposed asymmetric inerter NES is presented, and motion equations of the asymmetric inerter NES-attached system are derived. The proposed asymmetric inerter NES is optimized using impulsive excitation to analyze its energy and frequency robustness. The control performance and wavelet spectrum analyses of the asymmetric inerter NES are conducted under the action of earthquakes. The analysis results show that combining the two asymmetric inerter NESs can help to absorb seismic energy rapidly, limit structural reaction, and ensure good energetic and frequency robustness. Furthermore, the proposed asymmetric inerter NES can significantly decrease the stroke requirement and damper mass.
Analytical Model for Progressive Collapse of RC Frame Beam-Column Substructures Using Multi-Gene Genetic Programming
Authors: Lin Kaiqi , Li Daoyuan , Xie Linlin , He Min , Sun Ying
Published: January 2023

Establishing a concise and accurate analytical model is the key to developing a feasible progressive collapse design for engineering practice. However, existing models either focused on an individual force mechanism or required complicated computer programming. Among existing machine learning (ML) techniques, multi-gene genetic programming (MGGP) can be trained to obtain explicit formulas for engineering problems. In this study, a comprehensive database was established by data collection, Latin hypercube sampling and structural design, and was used to train the mathematical model for quantifying progressive collapse resistance of reinforced concrete (RC) beam-column substructures under middle column removal scenarios. Further, an energy-based error index was proposed to validate the accuracy of the MGGP model among others. The research outcomes can provide references for the development of simplified analytical models for calculating the progressive collapse progress of RC frame structures, and promote the development of the practical design method.
Key Points-in-Time Identification of Gold Futures Market: A Complex Network Approach
Authors: Yan Xiangzhen , Zhang Shuguang , Hu Jun , Weng Wuyan , Wang Lubing
Published: January 2023

Important nodes can determine the internal structure of complex networks and reveal the internal relationships of real-world systems, and identifying key nodes in complex networks is one of the important research areas of complex network science. As the king of commodities, changes in the price of gold significantly impact the economic development of various countries. Especially in the early stages of the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, the price of gold futures has been greatly impacted, and the systemic risks are gradually spreading. In this paper, a gold future price series is mapped into a visibility graph (VG), the characteristics of the gold price time series and key points-in-time, have been explored from the perspective of complex network. First, according to the data structure characteristics of gold futures, this paper converts the closing prices of gold futures of the New York Mercantile Exchange into a complex network through the VG model. Then, by using the complex network model to further delve into the price of gold futures, it is found that the degree distribution of the gold futures network follows a power-law distribution, and has obvious scale-free characteristics. Finally, this paper uses the visual network node shrinking algorithm and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) analysis method to identify the key nodes of the gold futures visual map to find the key time nodes in the timeline of gold futures market. Analysis of the key time nodes of this market by four methods reveals that the repetition rate of the key time nodes in the methods’ top 10 ranking is as high as 82.5%, indicating that the results obtained in this paper are robust. This study introduces a new model to describe the characteristics of gold futures price series, one which can find key time nodes in gold futures prices and provide potential help for predicting gold futures prices.
The Paradoxical Impact of Information Privacy on Privacy Preserving Technology: The Case of Self-Sovereign Identities
Authors: Lockl Jannik , Thanner Nico , Utz Manuel , Röglinger Maximilian
Published: January 2023

Advance of digital technologies brings great benefits but takes users at risk of the dark sides of the internet. Preventive mechanisms and privacy-preserving solutions could overcome this challenge. As such, self-sovereign identities (SSIs) provide users with increased control over personal information. However, users neglect their privacy in favor of the most convenient solution. In this paper, we empirically examine how information privacy influences adoption of SSIs. Our results contradict the existing theory that privacy is critical to the success of identity management (IdM) systems. Analogous to the privacy paradox, the study does not lend empirical support that perceived privacy has an impact on the adoption of an SSI. On the contrary, these findings contradict the prevailing view of privacy as a key factor for IdM systems and contribute to knowledge on privacy and adoption behavior.
Non-Parametric Seismic Fragility Curves of SDOF Systems Based on a Clustering Process
Authors: Yaghmaei-Sabegh Saman , Neekmanesh Shabnam
Published: January 2023

Most non-parametric methods to extract the fragility curves are based on simulated records which not only can impose additional computational efforts, but also may not represent stochastic nature of real ground motion records. Therefore, a new classification-based procedure is proposed in this study to extract the seismic fragility curves using real ground, motion records. Generally, providing an applicable method for record selection to achieve acceptable non-parametric fragility curves with the aim of minimizing the computational efforts can be the main novelty of this study. The proposed non-parametric method which uses a clustering process on the records based on their intensity measure (IM), can considerably decrease the number of required nonlinear analyses. A large group of real ground motion records concluding 12,580 earthquake records is selected as input dataset for extracting the fragility curves. Subsequently, a classification process based on two effective parameters of source to site distance and magnitude is proposed in the framework of the non-parametric method. Results show that the classification process can lead to more accurate curves rather than the one obtained using the whole input data where mean probability difference between the obtained curve and a benchmark fragility curve can be decreased between 2.05% and 4.38% by using a smaller set of records. As another result, the number of 8–12 clusters can lead to comparatively smooth and acceptable fragility curves for real ground motion records. Generally, a significant reduction (over than half) can be reached in the number of required analyses by selecting an appropriate set of records and a suitable number of clusters.
Fluorescence imaging analysis of the glioma microenvironment
Authors: Peng Xuwen , Chen Yuzhou , Wang Yuke , Qi Shuhong
Published: January 2023

Glioma is the most malignant brain cancer. The neurons, macrophages, T cells and other immune cells constitute the glioma immunosuppressive microenvironment. The accurate spatial distribution of these cells in the glioma microenvironment and its relationship with glioma metastasis is unknown. We constructed a mouse glioma cell line stably expressing the large Stokes-shifted yellow fluorescent protein and applied it to the multicolor immunofluorescence imaging. The imaging data revealed that the neurons were sparsely distributed in the glioma core and the number of neurons decreased by 90% compared with normal brain site. The spatial distribution of monocyte-macrophages and microglia is heterogeneous. The monocyte-macrophages and T cells were heavily recruited into the glioma core and metastasis. There was no significant difference in the distribution of microglia among glioma core, margin, and normal brain site. Our results provided new perspectives for targeting immune regulation cells and developing new immunotherapy strategies for glioma.
Simulation and optimization of hybrid evacuation model for high-rise building under emergency condition
Authors: Mao Huaqing , Zhu Li
Published: January 2023

With the characteristics of high-speed transportation, the elevator has an overwhelmingly crucial meaning footnote in an auxiliary evacuation high-rise building with more than 30 floors causing the time to be the deciding factor under the emergency condition. The study shows that using the stairway or elevator separately cannot achieve the best effect. The elevator’s evacuation time depends on the number of occupants on each floor and the elevator’s carrying capacity. This paper discusses how to use the stair and elevator to optimize the hybrid evacuation in high-rise buildings and proposes two goals for the evacuation model of high-rise buildings under emergency conditions. One is that both the last occupant to use the stairway and the last occupant to use the elevator reach the safe place simultaneously. The other is that we fine-tune the evacuation destinations of the occupants to balance the utilization of each evacuation path as much as possible. We present the optimization method with three steps, and the evacuation time shrunk by up to 57% according to the baseline. Finally, we compare the optimized hybrid evacuation and the single evacuation method to the previous work and give the results of the experiments.
Continuous Scanning and Inching in Ultrasonographic Localisation of Ulnar Neuropathy: A Comparative Study of Sensitivity
Authors: HASHIMOTO Takahiro , IMAJO Yasuaki , FUNABA Masahiro , FUJII Kenzo , YAMAGATA Hiroki , SAKAI Takashi
Published: January 2023

Background: This study compares the sensitivity of continuous ultrasonographic scanning and ultrasonographic inching in the localisation of ulnar neuropathy at the elbow to diagnose the two common entrapment sites: retroepicondylar groove and cubital tunnel.

Methods: The charts of 30 patients who were diagnosed with ulnar neuropathy of the elbow and underwent ultrasonographic examinations using the inching and the continuous technique between April 2015 and September 2019 were reviewed. Sensitivities of ultrasonographic inching and continuous scanning were compared.

Results: A total of 34 elbows from 30 patients were examined. The sensitivities of continuous ultrasonographic scanning method and ultrasonographic inching were 85% and 71%, respectively, but this was not significant (p = 0.06). The maximum cross-sectional areas (CSAs) in continuous scanning were mainly found within the area from the medial epicondyle to the 2-cm distal point in the cubital tunnel entrapment, while a majority of the largest CSAs in ultrasonographic inching was observed at the medial epicondyle level in both entrapment sites. The mean of the maximum CSAs in continuous scanning (17.04 ± 6.75 mm2) was higher than that in ultrasonographic inching (14.13 ± 6.63 mm2), although this difference remained non-significant (p = 0.08). However, continuous scanning differed more significantly (p < 0.0001) from the cut-off value than the ultrasonographic inching (p < 0.0066).

Conclusions: Continuous scanning might be more suitable than ultrasonographic inching to localise ulnar neuropathy, which inherently has variations in the cubital tunnel anatomy and its entrapment points, when selecting optimal treatment based on the entrapment site.

Level of Evidence: Level III (Diagnostic)
UID2021: An Underwater Image Dataset for Evaluation of No-Reference Quality Assessment Metrics
Authors: Hou Guojia , Li Yuxuan , Yang Huan , Li Kunqian , Pan Zhenkuan
Published: January 2023

Achieving subjective and objective quality assessment of underwater images is of high significance in underwater visual perception and image/video processing. However, the development of underwater image quality assessment (UIQA) is limited for the lack of publicly available underwater image datasets with human subjective scores and reliable objective UIQA metrics. To address this issue, we establish a large-scale underwater image dataset, dubbed UID2021, for evaluating no-reference (NR) UIQA metrics. The constructed dataset contains 60 multiply degraded underwater images collected from various sources, covering six common underwater scenes (i.e., bluish scene, blue-green scene, greenish scene, hazy scene, low-light scene, and turbid scene), and their corresponding 900 quality improved versions are generated by employing 15 state-of-the-art underwater image enhancement and restoration algorithms. Mean opinion scores with 52 observers for each image of UID2021 are also obtained by using the pairwise comparison sorting method. Both in-air and underwater-specific NR IQA algorithms are tested on our constructed dataset to fairly compare their performance and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Our proposed UID2021 dataset enables ones to evaluate NR UIQA algorithms comprehensively and paves the way for further research on UIQA. The dataset is available at
https://github.com/Hou-Guojia/UID2021
.
Dynamic Straggler Mitigation for Large-Scale Spatial Simulations
Authors: Bin Khunayn Eman , Xie Hairuo , Karunasekera Shanika , Ramamohanarao Kotagiri
Published: January 2023

Spatial simulations have been widely used to study real-world environments, such as transportation systems. Applications like prediction and analysis of transportation require the simulation to handle millions of objects while running faster than real time. Running such large-scale simulation requires high computational power, which can be provided through parallel distributed computing. Implementations of parallel distributed spatial simulations usually follow a bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) model to ensure the correctness of simulation. The processing in BSP is divided into iterations of computation and communication, running on multiple workers, followed by a global barrier synchronisation to ensure that all communications are concluded. Unfortunately, the BSP model is plagued by the straggler problem, where a delay in any worker slows down the entire simulation. Stragglers may occur for many reasons, including imbalanced workload distribution or communication and synchronisation delays. The straggler problem can become more severe with increasing parallelism and continuous change of workload distribution among workers. This article proposes methods to dynamically mitigate stragglers and tackle communication delays. The proposed strategies can rebalance the workload distribution during simulation. These methods employ the spatial properties of the simulated environments to combine a flexible synchronisation model with decentralised dynamic load balancing and on-demand resource allocation. All proposed methods are implemented and evaluated using a microscopic traffic simulator as an example of large-scale spatial simulations. We run traffic simulations for Melbourne, Beijing and New York with different straggler scenarios. Our methods significantly improve simulation performance compared to advanced methods such as global dynamic load balancing.
User-based Hierarchical Network of Sina Weibo Emotion Analysis
Authors: Chen Qian , Sun Xiao , Wang Jiamin , Wang Meng
Published: January 2023

Emotion analysis on Sina Weibo has a great impetus for government agencies to survey public opinion and enterprises to track market demand. Most of the existing emotion analysis work on Sina Weibo focuses on mining the information contained in a single Weibo, ignoring the problem of inaccurate information extraction caused by the lack of contextual information in Weibo texts. Inspired by humans judging user emotional states from Weibo texts, this article creates a Weibo text five-category emotion classification dataset based on active users and proposes a user-based hierarchical network for Weibo emotion analysis. First, use the multi-head attention mechanism and convolutional neural network set in the information extraction module to analyze a single Weibo text to fully extract the emotional information contained in the text; at the same time, through the moving window set in the relevant information capture module, obtain other Weibo texts posted by the same user within a period, and capture the effective correlation information between Weibo texts; then, the dual text representation obtained above is concatenated, and through the information interaction layer, the relevant information is retrieved again, and the text representation is updated; finally, the classifier output the five-category emotion labels corresponding to each Weibo text. We demonstrate the model’s effectiveness through experiments and analysis in the results.
Causal Inference for Social and Engineering Systems
Authors: Agarwal Anish
Published: January 2023

What will happen to Y if we do A? A variety of meaningful social and engineering questions can be formulated this way: What will happen to a patient's health if they are given a new therapy? What will happen to a country's economy if policy-makers legislate a new tax? What will happen to a data center's latency if a new congestion control protocol is used? We explore how to answer such counterfactual questions using observational data-which is increasingly available due to digitization and pervasive sensors-and/or very limited experimental data. The two key challenges are: (i) counterfactual prediction in the presence of latent confounders; (ii) estimation with modern datasets which are high-dimensional, noisy, and sparse.

The key framework we introduce is connecting causal inference with tensor completion. In particular, we represent the various potential outcomes (i.e., counterfactuals) of interest through an order-3 tensor. The key theoretical results presented are: (i) Formal identification results establishing under what missingness patterns, latent confounding, and structure on the tensor is recovery of unobserved potential outcomes possible. (ii) Introducing novel estimators to recover these unobserved potential outcomes and proving they are finite-sample consistent and asymptotically normal.

Finally, we discuss connections between matrix/tensor completion and time series analysis and reinforcement learning; we believe this could serve as a basis to do counterfactual forecasting, and building data-driven simulators for reinforcement learning.
Replicated Evolution in Plants
Authors: James Maddie E. , Brodribb Tim , Wright Ian J. , Rieseberg Loren H. , Ortiz-Barrientos Daniel
Published: January 2023

Similar traits and functions commonly evolve in nature. Here, we explore patterns of replicated evolution across the plant kingdom and discuss the processes responsible for such patterns. We begin this review by defining replicated evolution and the theoretical, genetic, and ecological concepts that help explain it. We then focus our attention on empirical cases of replicated evolution at the phenotypic and genotypic levels. We find that replication at the ecotype level is common, but evidence for repeated ecological speciation is surprisingly sparse. On the other hand, the replicated evolution of ecological strategies and physiological mechanisms across similar biomes appears to be pervasive. We conclude by highlighting where future efforts can help us bridge the understanding of replicated evolution across different levels of biological organization. Earth's landscape is diverse but also repeats itself. Organisms seem to have followed suit.
Fracture Energy and Breakdown Work During Earthquakes
Authors: Cocco Massimo , Aretusini Stefano , Cornelio Chiara , Nielsen Stefan B. , Spagnuolo Elena , Tinti Elisa , Di Toro Giulio
Published: January 2023

Large seismogenic faults consist of approximately meter-thick fault cores surrounded by hundreds-of-meters-thick damage zones. Earthquakes are generated by rupture propagation and slip within fault cores and dissipate the stored elastic strain energy in fracture and frictional processes in the fault zone and in radiated seismic waves. Understanding this energy partitioning is fundamental in earthquake mechanics to explain fault dynamic weakening and causative rupture processes operating over different spatial and temporal scales. The energy dissipated in the earthquake rupture propagation along a fault is called fracture energy or breakdown work. Here we review fracture energy estimates from seismological, modeling, geological, and experimental studies and show that fracture energy scales with fault slip. We conclude that although material-dependent constant fracture energies are important at the microscale for fracturing grains of the fault zone, they are negligible with respect to the macroscale processes governing rupture propagation on natural faults.
▪Earthquake ruptures propagate on geological faults and dissipate energy in fracture and frictional processes from micro- (less than a millimeter) to macroscale (centimeters to kilometers).

▪The energy dissipated in earthquake rupture propagation is called fracture energy (G) or breakdown work (Wb) and scales with coseismic slip.▪For earthquake ruptures in natural faults, the estimates of G and Wb are consistent with a macroscale description of causative processes.▪The energy budget of an earthquake remains controversial, and contributions from different disciplines are required to unravel this issue.
Formation of Titania Nanowires and Nanorods on Ti-6Al-4V Alloy Using Electrochemical Anodization
Authors: Channe Shrikant S.
Published: January 2023

The formation of titania (TiO2) nanowires and nanorods by various methods has been reported in the past. The current work, for the first time, describes the formation of TiO2 nanowires and nanorods by using the electrochemical anodization method in 0.5 wt% hydrogen fluoride (HF) based aqueous electrolyte on Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Likewise, the TiO2 nanotubes were grown on a titanium plate. The anodization voltage was varied, while temperature and time, were kept constant. The morphological and crystallographic characterization of the samples was performed.
Design of a 10 kV and 16.5 GW cm−2 NiO/β-Ga2O3 Heterojunction Diode on a Complete Wafer with a Positive Beveled-Mesa
Authors: He Jianfeng , Liao Fei , Zhu Kunfeng , Huang Xuan , Tu Wen , Li Hongyu , Jiang Long
Published: January 2023

In this paper, a p-NiO/n-Ga2O3 heterojunction diode with positive bevel angle termination based on a complete wafer is proposed, verified and optimized by TCAD. The results indicated the optimal angle of 78° for the positive bevel angle terminal, which reduces the peak surface electric field to 6 MV cm−1 and effectively avoids the premature breakdown of the terminal of the Ga2O3 layer. Further, the effect of each dielectric passivation on the terminal electric field was investigated, where SiO2 was determined to be the optimal passivation material to minimize the peak electric field on the side of the terminal. Ultimately, considering the effect of drift layer thickness on breakdown voltage (BV) and specific on-resistance (Ron·sp), the diode achieves BV up to 10 kV and optimal power figure of merit (PFOM) over 16.5 GW cm−2 when the drift layer thickness is 20 μm, which fully demonstrates the great potential of positively beveled terminal-optimized p-NiO/n-Ga2O3 heterojunction diodes for next-generation high-voltage and high-power applications.
The Influence of MWCNTs Amounts and PVP Aqueous Solutions on the Properties of PVA/PVP/MWCNTs Nanocomposite Membranes
Authors: Le Thi Mai Hoa
Published: January 2023

In this article, the surface functionalization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) is performed using a tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (TAA) to generate functional moieties (−NH2) on the surface. The functionalized MWCNTs (f-MWCNTs) are incorporated in the blend polymers of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) to fabricate a nanocomposite membrane via phase inversion process, which are named PVA/PVP/f-MWCNT. The nanocomposite membranes are characterized by a field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), water contact angle. The FE-SEM images show that the PVA/PVP/f-MWCNTs nanocomposite membrane consisting 0.01 g of f-MWCNTs exhibits a uniform morphology and good dispersion of f-MWCNTs. The X-ray results demonstrate that the incorporation of f-MWCNTs has successfully changed the structural properties of the nanocomposite membranes. TGA analysis indicates that the PVA/PVP/f-MWCNTs nanocomposite membranes exhibit higher thermal properties than the pristine PVA/PVP blend membrane. The weight loss within 420 °C–550 °C is increased from 34.62 to 55.66% with increasing the PVP content from 1 wt% to 8 wt%, respectively. The contact angle measurements indicate that addition of f-MWCNTs to the PVA/PVP blend membrane has improved hydrophilic properties.
Empagliflozin attenuates arrhythmogenesis in diabetic cardiomyopathy by normalizing intracellular Ca2+ handling in ventricular cardiomyocytes
Authors: Kadosaka Takahide , Watanabe Masaya , Natsui Hiroyuki , Koizumi Takuya , Nakao Motoki , Koya Taro , Hagiwara Hikaru , Kamada Rui , Temma Taro , Karube Fuyuki , Fujiyama Fumino , Anzai Toshihisa
Published: January 2023

SGLT2is are known to improve cardiovascular outcomes regardless of the presence of diabetes and decrease traditional cardiovascular risk factors. We demonstrated, for the first time, that EMPA inhibited PVCs by normalizing Ca2+ handling in diabetic mice. Our data suggest that the effects of SGLT2is on calcium handling may occur because of suppression of O-GlcNAcylation through inhibition of glucose uptake and not because of NHE inhibition, as previously suggested.
Comprehensive ultrasound imaging of right ventricular remodeling under surgically induced pressure overload in mice
Authors: Zhou Yu-Qing , Bonafiglia Quinn A. , Zhang Hangjun , Heximer Scott P. , Bendeck Michelle P.
Published: January 2023

The established protocol overcomes the challenges in right heart imaging in mice, thoroughly elucidating the changes of RV, the dynamics of IVS, and the impact on LV and provides new insights into the pathophysiological mechanism of RV remodeling.
An in silico approach to understanding the interaction between cardiovascular and pulmonary lymphatic dysfunction
Authors: Ashworth E. T. , Burrowes K. S. , Clark A. R. , Ebrahimi B. S. Shaarbaf , Tawhai M. H.
Published: January 2023

This model presents a novel approach to understanding the interaction between cardiac dysfunction and pulmonary lymphatic function, using anatomically structured models and biophysical equations to estimate regional variation in fluid transport from blood to interstitial and lymphatic flux. This fluid transport model brings together advanced models of ventilation, perfusion, and lung mechanics to produce a detailed model of fluid transport in health and various altered pathological conditions.