bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mutation-class dependent signatures outweigh disease-associated processes in cystic fibrosis cells
Authors: Santos Lúcia , Nascimento Rui , Duarte Aires , Railean Violeta , Amaral Margarida D. , Harrison Patrick T. , Gama-Carvalho Margarida , Farinha Carlos M.
Published: February 2023

Background

The phenotypic heterogeneity observed in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients suggests the involvement of other genes, besidesCFTR. Here, we combined transcriptome and proteome analysis to understand the global gene expression patterns associated with five prototypicalCFTRmutations.

Results

Evaluation of differentially expressed genes and proteins unveiled common and mutation-specific changes revealing functional signatures that are much more associated with the specific molecular defects associated with each mutation than to the CFTR loss-of-function phenotype. The combination of both datasets revealed that mutation-specific detected translated-transcripts (Dtt) have a high level of consistency.

Conclusions

This is the first combined transcriptomic and proteomic study focusing on prototypicalCFTRmutations. Analysis of Dtt provides novel insight into the pathophysiology of CF, and the mechanisms through which each mutation class causes disease and will likely contribute to the identification of new therapeutic targets and/or biomarkers for CF.
An analysis of net farm income to guide agricultural policies in the Ethiopian highlands
Authors: Okoth P. F. , Stoorvogel J. J. , Heesmans H. I. M. , Besufkad Amha , Tolla Mekonnen , Mamuye Melkamu , Gebremeskel Yemane , Elias Eyasu , van Beek C. L. , Smaling E. M. A.
Published: February 2023

Background

As part of a larger food security project under Ethiopia’s Agricultural Growth Program (CASCAPE), 928 farms in the Ethiopian Highlands were surveyed between 2012 and 2017. The aim was to determine whether the Net Farm Income (NFI) is a relevant indicator that drives food security at the household and the farm level, and to determine its drivers across six study regions of Ethiopia (i.e., Addis Ababa, Hawassa, Haramaya, Bahir Dar, Jimma, and Mekelle). The effect of different socio-economic and environmental drivers on NFI was determined using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, k-means clustering and comparison of high and low NFI quartiles per region.

Results

The average annual NFI in Ethiopia was just below 1000 US$ per farm household, with Addis Ababa region leading. Jimma and Bahir Dar were just above average, and the others were at the lower end. In the correlation analysis, NFI was best explained by farm size, net cash flow and the use of nitrogen fertilizer. Male-headed households earned considerably more than female-headed households. The k-means clustering yielded two major farm types on the basis of significant differences in rainfall, farm size, education level, crop diversity, cash flow and N fertilizer use. An analysis of richest 25% versus poorest 25% per region showed Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Jimma and Mekelle regions all had significant differences between the two quartiles in farm size, crop diversity and N fertilizer use, whereas Hawassa and Haramaya regions seem more homogeneous.

Conclusions

The survey results present new entry points for informed decision making through targeted, area-specific food security policies in the Ethiopian Highlands by virtue of insight in the regional spread of NFI and its driving forces. Important deductions from the results are policy actions that are obtainable from the results. For example, the farm-size variable provides an indicator on the type of policy action that is required to determine the farm sizes that generate sufficient returns on the overall farming investment. Next, cash-flow is a variable that speaks to the idea on the amount of hard-cash needed by a household to enable it get meaningful returns on cash invested on farming, or a guaranteed minimum return on any specific crop(s) or animal production. Nitrogen fertilizer as an analysis variable is predominantly a crop productivity indicator. In order for the farming to be sustainable, there is need for policy articulation on the amount of nitrogen required for specific yields and crops. Finally, location and rainfall parameters require recommendations on location specific crop management policies that correspond to the rainfall amount, soil types, ecological zones and distance from the markets as maybe gleaned from the results.
Road accessibility and agricultural extension services in Malawi
Authors: Lee Han Bum , McNamara Paul E. , Ho Hitomi
Published: February 2023

Background

In recognition of the potential importance of road access in the provision of and request for agricultural extension services, this study investigates whether and to what extent access to paved roads would influence farmers’ access to extension services, using a nationally representative sample of households and communities in Malawi. Our study proposes an extension access measure that reflects the diversity of agricultural topics and extension service providers available in the village where farmers resided, which commonly is captured in a binary fashion of “contact” with extension agents.

Method

The level of extension access is measured in the form of count data, and we employ a hurdle negative binomial regression model to account for unobserved farmer heterogeneity and excessive zeros that represent a group of farmers who received no extension services due to a lack of supply of extension opportunities in the village or a lack of demand.

Results

We find a negative and non-linear relationship between access to paved roads and extension services, showing that, on average, the extent of access to extension services decreased by 14.1 percent as a farmer’s residence was one log of distance away from the nearest paved road. Women farmers had considerably lower extension access scores by 24.3 percent than men, indicating the prevalence of the country’s deeply rooted cultural and gender barriers. Furthermore, serving as lead farmers, human capital and economic characteristics, and extension resources available in the village—such as the number of extension agents and demonstration and farm trials—are identified as factors having a sizable contribution to determining the extent of extension access.

Conclusion

Our study findings will provide empirical evidence that answers questions raised by past studies concerning the relationship among roads, agricultural extension, productivity, and other economic outcomes. Also, it will inform future research about the access to agricultural extension and agricultural development nexus.
Emergency room presentations of people with anorexia nervosa
Authors: Mehler Philip S. , Anderson Kristin , Bauschka Maryrose , Cost Jeana , Farooq Asma
Published: February 2023

People with anorexia nervosa (AN) tend to shy away from engaging in typical primary care provider relationships in order to avoid detection. Therefore, they may seek care for their medical concerns through a local emergency department (ED). Inherently, AN is associated with a litany of medical complications, which become more prevalent as the severity of their eating disorder increases. Notwithstanding the typical young age at the onset of AN, no body system is immune to these medical complications. Thus, ED providers may need to pursue a medical diagnosis in order to explain presenting symptoms in people with AN. In addition to the medical issues, AN is also a serious mental illness with high mortality rates, including deaths by suicide. Therefore, ED providers also need to be familiar with relevant mental health issues for these people.
Zinc oxide calcium silicate composite attenuates acute tramadol toxicity in mice
Authors: ElShebiney Shaimaa A. , Elgohary Rania , Kenawy Sayed H. , El-Bassyouni Gehan T. , Hamzawy Esmat M. A.
Published: February 2023

Background

Seizures are considered to be the most common symptom encountered in emergency- rushed tramadol-poisoned patients; accounting for 8% of the drug-induced seizure cases. Although, diazepam clears these seizures, the risk of central respiratory depression cannot be overlooked. Henceforth, three adsorbing composites were examined in a tramadol acute intoxication mouse model.

Methods

Calcium Silicate (Wollastonite) either non-doped or wet doped with iron oxide (3%Fe2O3) or zinc oxide (30% ZnO) were prepared. The composites’ adsorption capacity for tramadol was determined in vitro. Tramadol intoxication was induced in Swiss albino mice by a parenteral dose of 120 mg/kg. Proposed treatments were administered within 1 min at 5 increasing doses, i.p. The next 30 min, seizures were monitored as an intoxication symptom. Plasma tramadol concentration was recorded after two hours of administration.

Results

The 3% Fe2O3-containing composite (CSFe3), was found to be composed of mainly wollastonite with very little alpha–hematite. On the other hand, hardystonite and wellimite were developed in the 30%ZnO-containing composite (CSZn3). Micro-round and irregular nano-sized microstructures were established (The particle size of CS was 56 nm, CSFe3 was 49 nm, and CSZn3 was 42 nm). The CSZn3 adsorption capacity reached 1497 mg of tramadol for each gram. Tramadol concentration was reduced in plasma and seizures were inhibited after its administration to mice at three doses.

Conclusion

The calcium silicate composite doped with ZnO presented a good resolution of tramadol-induced seizures accompanied by detoxification of blood, indicating its potential for application in such cases. Further studies are required.
In orbit calibration of the non-orthogonality of the two fluxgate sensors onboard CSES
Authors: Tong Yuqi , Zhou Bin , Li Lei , Cheng Bingjun , Zhang Yiteng , Magnes Werner , Lammegger Roland , Pollinger Andreas , Yang Yanyan , Zeren Zhima , Shen Xuhui
Published: February 2023

With the accumulation of data, it is possible to study the long-term variation of Fluxgate Magnetometers (FGM) of High Precision Magnetometer (HPM) onboard the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES). The calibration method of HPM depends on an assumption that the linear parameters of FGM, including the gain factors, the offsets, and non-orthogonal angles are stable. However, HPM exhibits some unexpected trends in the scalar residuals when processed according to the assumption. Study on the residual finds out that under changing space thermal conditions, the non-orthogonal angles of FGM change periodically, suggesting that the data calibration method we used before should be modified. A multi-dimensional polynomial model is established for defining the change of non-orthogonal angles of FGM as a function of the sun incidence angles, geographic latitude and sensor temperature. Apply the polynomial model to data from August 2018 to May 2021, the standard deviation of the scalar residuals is reduced to around 0.5 nT and tends to be more random and in line with the normal distribution. Meanwhile, the variation trend in gain factors and offset factors are eliminated. Results show that the model can correctly reflect the period variation of the non-orthogonal angles of FGM with the space thermal conditions.

Graphical Abstract
Predicting prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma based on deep learning: peritumoral region should be valued
Authors: Li Song , Wan Xia , Deng Yu-Qin , Hua Hong-Li , Li Sheng-Lan , Chen Xi-Xiang , Zeng Man-Li , Zha Yunfei , Tao Ze-Zhang
Published: February 2023

Background

The purpose of this study was to explore whether incorporating the peritumoral region to train deep neural networks could improve the performance of the models for predicting the prognosis of NPC.

Methods

A total of 381 NPC patients who were divided into high- and low-risk groups according to progression-free survival were retrospectively included. Deeplab v3 and U-Net were trained to build segmentation models for the automatic segmentation of the tumor and suspicious lymph nodes. Five datasets were constructed by expanding 5, 10, 20, 40, and 60 pixels outward from the edge of the automatically segmented region. Inception-Resnet-V2, ECA-ResNet50t, EfficientNet-B3, and EfficientNet-B0 were trained with the original, segmented, and the five new constructed datasets to establish the classification models. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the performance of each model.

Results

The Dice coefficients of Deeplab v3 and U-Net were 0.741(95%CI:0.722–0.760) and 0.737(95%CI:0.720–0.754), respectively. The average areas under the curve (aAUCs) of deep learning models for classification trained with the original and segmented images and with images expanded by 5, 10, 20, 40, and 60 pixels were 0.717 ± 0.043, 0.739 ± 0.016, 0.760 ± 0.010, 0.768 ± 0.018, 0.802 ± 0.013, 0.782 ± 0.039, and 0.753 ± 0.014, respectively. The models trained with the images expanded by 20 pixels obtained the best performance.

Conclusions

The peritumoral region NPC contains information related to prognosis, and the incorporation of this region could improve the performance of deep learning models for prognosis prediction.
Efficacy of an aid (gastric tube insertion guide) for oral insertion of a gastric tube: a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Saima Shunsuke , Tsurumachi Naoi , Asai Takashi , Okuda Yasuhisa
Published: February 2023

Purpose

Insertion of a gastric tube orally may be more difficult than its insertion nasally, and thus, any aid to facilitate its insertion may be useful. Gastric tube insertion guide (Fuji Medical Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) has recently become commercially available. We felt that this device might be useful in facilitating oral insertion of a gastric tube, but there has been no formal study assessing its efficacy. The main aim of this study was to assess whether or not this “tube guide” would facilitate insertion of an orogastric tube.

Methods

As a randomized controlled clinical study, we planned to study 40 patients, to assess the hypothesis that the success rate of insertion of an orogastric tube would be higher with the use of the “tube guide” than without. Patients were recruited when they were 20 years old, or older, and allocated randomly to one of two groups (20 people each group). In one group, the conventional “blind” insertion method was used and in the other group the “tube guide” insertion method.

Results

The success rate was significantly higher for the “tube guide” method than the “blind” insertion method (P = 0.0012, 95% CI for difference: 23–67%).

Conclusion

We have shown that the use of the gastric tube insertion guide® facilitates insertion of an orogastric tube.
Hulthén potential under the Lorentz symmetry violation effects due to the coupling between the vector field f
μ

γ
5and the derivative of the fermionic field
Authors: Bakke K. , Belich H.
Published: February 2023

We search for Lorentz symmetry violation effects caused by the coupling between a fixed vector field

and the derivative of the fermionic field in the nonrelativistic regime. By working with

dimensions, we study nonrelativistic effects of the Lorentz symmetry violation on the energy eigenvalues of the Hulthén potential and the deformed Hulthén potential.
The New Age of Andeans: Chronological Age, Indigenous Labor, and the Making of Spanish Colonial Rule
Authors: Escudero Alfredo Luis
Published: February 2023

In the Andes from the beginning of the Spanish conquest, colonial administrators sought to develop efficient methods of labor extraction. The study of chronological age, Indigenous tribute, and censuses reveals an uncharted chapter of this process. This article explores how chronological age mediated the relationship between the colonial state and Andeans by creating the administrative status of tributary. Andeans adjusted their precolonial notions of aging to the concept of chronological age, which they associated with the tribute regime. During the government of Francisco de Toledo, ordinances and law relied on chronological age to standardize the time frame for tribute obligations among male Andeans as between 18 and 50 years old, and this standardization shaped Andeans' life experiences. By the late sixteenth century, previous censuses and baptism records helped to make the administrative registration of age increasingly precise. Chronological age thus emerges as a key category to study the rise of Spanish colonial rule. In doing so, this study also challenges the association between the bureaucratic use of chronological age for population control and contemporary forms of state making.
“Maria Simoa, Who Birthed Twenty-Four Children”: Slavery, Motherhood, and Freedom on the Benedictine Estates, Pernambuco, Brazil, 1866–1871
Authors: Roth Cassia , Costa Robson Pedrosa
Published: February 2023

This article explores gradual manumission policies on the Order of Saint Benedict's slaveholdings in the Northeastern province of Pernambuco, Brazil, between 1866 and 1871. Relying on private religious records from the Monastery of Saint Benedict of Olinda (in Pernambuco) and parliamentary debates, we contend that the Benedictine order was the first corporate enslaver to implement institutionalized strategies of gradual manumission in Brazil. To do so, they relied both on enslaved women's reproductive capabilities and on their adherence to church-sanctioned gender roles. We further argue that the order's decisions and actions were ahead of national developments in several important ways, and that, to some degree, these projects were a test case for future national abolitionist policies. Although the congregation did not involve itself in political debates, its actions created a working example of gradual abolition based on enslaved women's bodies that abolitionists used to make their case nationally.
“Improve Their Condition While Making Them Useful”: Colonia General Conesa and the Dynamics of Settler Colonialism in Nineteenth-Century Argentina
Authors: Greenwald Hannah
Published: February 2023

In 1879, as the Argentine army prepared a military campaign against Indigenous groups in the Pampas and Patagonia, the national government created an Indigenous colony called Colonia General Conesa. Conesa's inhabitants were expected to build homes and cultivate crops under military watch and become “useful” Argentine citizens in the process. This short-lived assimilationist project, which the government abandoned three years later, illuminates the rapidly shifting dynamics of Argentine settler colonial ideology. Although Argentine officials initially saw Conesa as an expedient resolution to the nation's so-called “Indian question,” the dissolution of the southern frontier line in the early 1880s necessitated a shift toward new strategies that emphasized the complete physical and discursive erasure of the region's Indigenous peoples. Conesa's history, situated within the broader context of interethnic relations in Argentina's southern borderlands, sheds light on the development of Argentine settler colonialism and exemplifies how Indigenous people were written out of the nation's history.
Ski Mountaineering—Scientific Knowledge of This New Olympic Sport: A Narrative Review
Authors: Schöffl Volker R. , Zimmermann Paul , Küpper Thomas , Lutter Christoph
Published: February 2023

Ski mountaineering (skimo) has been accepted as a new sport for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. The equipment used in this competitive ski mountaineering varies from leisure ski mountaineering equipment mainly in one point: the minimal weight. At the elite athlete level, skimo demands both maximal endurance performance and a high-intensity anaerobic capacity for the sprint and vertical races. Race time significantly correlates to V˙O2max, body mass index and racing gear mass. Available literature only rarely comments on competitive skimo injuries. Injuries are not only due to falls in downhill skiing but also can result from external hazards, such as avalanches and cold. The high training load of athletes in combination with a low body weight, low body fat, and exposure to cold cause high rates of respiratory infections in athletes. The inclusion of skimo into the Olympic program is expected to result in certain changes, such as higher training loads for the athletes and increased scientific interest into training methods.
bpRNA-align: improved RNA secondary structure global alignment for comparing and clustering RNA structures
Authors: Lasher Brittany , Hendrix David A.
Published: February 2023

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is fundamental to biological processes, with structure being more highly conserved than primary sequence and often key to its function. Advances in RNA structure characterization have resulted in an increase in the number of accurate secondary structures. The task of uncovering common RNA structural motifs with a collective function through structural comparison, providing a level of similarity, remains challenging and could be used to improve RNA secondary structure databases and discover new RNA families. In this work, we present a novel secondary structure alignment method, bpRNA-align. bpRNA-align is a customized global structural alignment method, utilizing an inverted (gap extend costs more than gap open) and context-specific affine gap penalty along with a structural, feature-specific substitution matrix to provide similarity scores. We evaluate our similarity scores in comparison to other methods, using affinity propagation clustering, applied to a benchmarking data set of known structure types. bpRNA-align shows improvement in clustering performance over a broad range of structure types.
m6A-ELISA, a simple method for quantifyingN6-methyladenosine from mRNA populations
Authors: Ensinck Imke , Sideri Theodora , Modic Miha , Capitanchik Charlotte , Vivori Claudia , Toolan-Kerr Patrick , van Werven Folkert J.
Published: February 2023

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is a widely studied and abundant RNA modification. The m6A mark regulates the fate of RNAs in various ways, which in turn drives changes in cell physiology, development, and disease pathology. Over the last decade, numerous methods have been developed to map and quantify m6A sites genome-wide through deep sequencing. Alternatively, m6A levels can be quantified from a population of RNAs using techniques such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry or thin layer chromatography. However, many methods for quantifying m6A levels involve extensive protocols and specialized data analysis, and often only a few samples can be handled in a single experiment. Here, we developed a simple method for determining relative m6A levels in mRNA populations from various sources based on an enzyme-linked immunosorbent-based assay (m6A-ELISA). We have optimized various steps of m6A-ELISA, such as sample preparation and the background signal resulting from the primary antibody. We validated the method using mRNA populations from budding yeast and mouse embryonic stem cells. The full protocol takes less than a day, requiring only 25 ng of mRNA. The m6A-ELISA protocol is quick, cost-effective, and scalable, making it a valuable tool for determining relative m6A levels in samples from various sources that could be adapted to detect other mRNA modifications.
The Control of Population Mobility since the Early Pandemic Era to the End of 2021: Lessons from Indonesia
Authors: Ikhsan Edy , Zaluchu Fotarisman
Published: February 2023

Background. COVID-19 has challenged every country to issue the policy to control its population mobility. This policy paper discusses policies related to controlling population mobility from 2020 to the end of 2021 issued by the government agencies under the authority of the central government in Indonesia. All of these policies are accessed from the official website, then identified, and made into the appropriate categories.

Policy and Implications. Mobility control was applied in two periods, namely PSBB (the Large-Scale Social Restrictions) and PPKM (Community Activity Restriction Implementation). This control was carried out strictly, but along with the vaccination program development, the government started to loosen the control depending on the number of cases and the progress of the vaccination program in the country. In the middle of 2021, the government continued to loosen the control by making presentation of the vaccination card mandatory instead of getting the COVID-19 test done.

Recommendations

Mobility control during PSBB and PPKM in Indonesia has proven successful in controlling the transmission of Covid-19. This initiative may prove to be the best practice to control contagious diseases even in the future.

Conclusions

This pandemic and its control measures in Indonesia show the strong role of the state in controlling the pandemic,  as the health of the population is always the main concern.
Stage 2 Registered Report: Anomalous perception in a Ganzfeld condition - A meta-analysis of more than 40 years investigation
Authors: Tressoldi Patrizio E. , Storm Lance
Published: February 2023

This meta-analysis is an investigation into anomalous perception (i.e., conscious identification of information without any conventional sensorial means). The technique used for eliciting an effect is the ganzfeld condition (a form of sensory homogenization that eliminates distracting peripheral noise). The database consists of studies published between January 1974 and December 2020 inclusive.

The overall effect size estimated both with a frequentist and a Bayesian random-effect model, were in close agreement yielding an effect size of .099 (.05-.14). This result passed four publication bias tests and seems not contaminated by questionable research practices.

Trend analysis carried out with a cumulative meta-analysis and a meta-regression model with Year of publication as covariate did not indicate a sign of the decline of this effect size.

The moderators' analyses show that selected participants' outcomes were almost three times those obtained by non-selected participants and that tasks that simulate telepathic communication show a two-fold effect size with respect to tasks requiring the participants to guess a target.

The Stage 1 Registered Report can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.24868.3
On cofinitely ss-supplemented modules
Authors:   Faculty of Art and Science, Amasya University, Türkmen B. N. , Kılıç B. ,   Institute of Science, Amasya University
Published: February 2023

In this paper, we introduce the concept of (amply) cofinitely ss-supplemented modules as a proper generalization of (amply) ss-supplemented modules, and we provide various properties of these modules. In particular, we prove that arbitrary sum of cofinitely ss-supplemented modules is cofinitely ss-supplemented. Moreover, we show that a ring R is semiperfect and Rad(R)⊆Soc(RR) if and only if every left R-module (amply) cofinitely ss-supplemented.
Double-toroidal and 1-planar non-commuting graph of a group
Authors:   Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Pezzott J. C. M.
Published: February 2023

Let G be a finite non-abelian group and denote by Z(G) its center. The non-commuting graph of G on a transversal of the center is the graph whose vertices are the non-central elements of a transversal of Z(G) in G and two vertices x and y are adjacent whenever xy=yx. In this work, we classify the finite non-abelian groups whose non-commuting graph on a transversal of the centeris double-toroidal or 1-planar.
Generalized norms of groups: retrospective review and current status
Authors:   Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A. S. Makarenko, Lukashova T. , Drushlyak M. ,   Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A. S. Makarenko
Published: February 2023

In this survey paper the authors specify all the known findings related to the norms of a~group and their generalizations (since 2016 in more details). Special attention is paid to the analysis of their own study of different generalized norms, particularly the norm of non-cyclic subgroups, the norm of Abelian non-cyclic subgroups, the norm of decomposable subgroups and relations between them.
Note on cyclic doppelsemigroups
Authors:   Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Gavrylkiv V.
Published: February 2023

A doppelsemigroup (G,⊣,⊢) is calledcyclic if (G,⊣) is a cyclic group. In the paper, we describe up to isomorphism all cyclic (strong) doppelsemigroups. We prove that up to isomorphism there exist τ(n) finite cyclic (strong) doppelsemigroups of order n, where τ is the number of divisors function. Also there exist infinite countably many pairwise non-isomorphic infinite cyclic (strong) doppelsemigroups.
Play and listening to children's narratives
Authors: Colilles Sharon
Published: February 2023

Early childhood is a time when children should be building a positive self-identity, a time when they need to explore who they are, and a time for understanding and making sense of their place in the world. A play-based pedagogical approach is key for supporting exploration of children's many ways of sharing ideas about their ethnic identity.
A Drone Power House
Authors: Hughes David
Published: February 2023

Virginia Tech’s partner Wing is making commercial deliveries near campus as an FAA Part 135 certificated air carrier in a first of its kind operation in the USA
The Greatest Experiment
Authors: Sampson Ben
Published: February 2023

The arduous and ambitious development of Concorde has provided inspiration to aeronautical engineers since its maiden flight 50 years ago
Maker Activities and Academic Writing in a Middle School Science Class
Authors: Stewart Ashley , Yuan Jiangmei
Published: February 2023

Academic language is an important focus area in middle school. However, academic writing in science classes is challenging for middle school students. Maker activities can contribute to students’ academic language development through artifact creation with tangible resources (Own, 2018). This makerspace and academic writing project, codesigned by a science teacher and a technology integration specialist, invited middle school science students to work on academic writing through maker activities.
Introduction to Series and Parallel Circuits
Authors: Shepherd Craig E. , Smith Shannon M.
Published: February 2023

This lesson begins with an introduction on electricity and how it is formed at the molecular level. It then lets learners explore and define a circuit. This introduction is followed by an exploration where learners develop series and parallel circuits using LED lights and motors. Learners then consider what constitutes a series and parallel circuit, open and closed circuit, and a short circuit. The lesson concludes by having learners consider advantages, limitations, and instructional uses of various electronics kits (e.g., Snap Circuits, littleBits, LilyPad, paper circuits, conductive dough) based on their ability to display circuit paths.
How Much Should Healthcare CEO’s, Physicians and Nurses Be Paid?
Authors:   Phoenix Pulmonary and Critical Care Research and Education Foundation, Gilbert, AZ USA, Robbins Richard
Published: February 2023

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. In 2019 the Southwest Journal published an editorial that stated one cause for the rising costs in healthcare was chief executive officer (CEO) compensation (1). Based on 2017 salaries, Peter Fine from Banner Health was the highest paid healthcare CEO in the country with compensation of $25.5 million. In comparison, the CEO of Mayo Clinic Arizona was paid a paltry $1.8 million (2). We decided to do a follow-up, and found that after a dip during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayo raises resumed in 2021. Mayo’s CEO, Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, was paid $3.48 million in 2021 up from $2.74 million in 2020 (3). Dr. Richard Gray, CEO of the Mayo Arizona campus, was paid $1.78 million in 2021, up 26% from the previous year. I shared these numbers with a couple of the Mayo Clinic faculty who were surprised by the amount of compensation their executives were …
An International Perspective
Authors: Kilkelly Ursula , Bergin Pat
Published: February 2023

Despite the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and supporting international and regional instruments on the rights of children in detention, children around the world are frequently deprived of their rights. Global concerns include poor conditions of detention, the experience of violence and ill-treatment, poor education, healthcare and family contact and the absence of effective complaints and oversight mechanisms. These have recently been documented in the Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty which illustrates that there are significant gaps between children’s rights standards and children’s lived experiences of their rights in detention. Drawing on the work of international human rights bodies, advocacy groups, and academic literature, a number of global concerns are identified including the use of solitary confinement, the absence of specialist approaches and effective monitoring, and the disproportionate impact of race. National and international campaigns for reform, including drawing on the experiences of children themselves, have supported more progressive approaches to children deprived of liberty. More ambitious and transformative system change is required to ensure genuine alignment with the international children’s rights standards.
Children’s Rights to Protection from Harm
Authors: Kilkelly Ursula , Bergin Pat
Published: February 2023

Children’s rights to protection are integral to advancing children’s rights in detention, both to ensure the child receives treatment with respect to harm experience prior to detention and ensuring the child does not suffer injury or ill-treatment while in detention. This includes supporting the child’s positive behaviour, while ensuring that any challenging behaviour is managed in a respectful and rights-compliant manner. In Oberstown Children Detention Campus, restrictive practices, such as physical intervention, and the separation of a child from their peers has raised concern about the child’s right to protection. A range of strategies have helped to reduce the use of these practices and make them more safe, including safeguarding measures, improved reporting and approval systems and ensuring accountability through external scrutiny and litigation. An analysis of Oberstown data highlights the effectiveness of these measures, indicating improved practice in line with the children’s rights standards.
Array-based high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy system integrated with real-time ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging
Authors: Zhang Yachao , Wang Lidai
Published: February 2023

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a promising non-invasive therapeutic technique in clinical applications. Challenges in stimulation or ablation HIFU therapy are to accurately target the treatment spot, flexibly deliver or fast-move focus points in the treatment region, and monitor therapy progress in real-time. In this paper, we develop an array-based HIFU system integrated with real-time ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging. The array-based HIFU transducer can be dynamically focused in a lateral range of ∼16 mm and an axial range of ∼40 mm via electronically adjusting the excitation phase map. To monitor the HIFU therapy progress in real-time, sequential HIFU transmission, PA imaging, PA thermometry, and US imaging are implemented to display the dual-modal images and record the local temperature changes. Co-registered dual-modal images show structural and functional information and thus can guide the HIFU therapy for precise positioning and dosage control. Besides therapy, the multi-element HIFU transducer can also be used to acquire US images to precisely align the imaging coordinates with the HIFU coordinates. Phantom experiments validate the precise and dynamic steering capability of HIFU ablation. We also show that dual-modal imaging can guide HIFU in the designated region and monitor the temperature in biological tissue in real-time.
Improved performance of InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum well lasers on silicon using InAlAs trapping layers
Authors: Liu Zhuoliang , Liu Hao , Jiang Chen , Ma Bojie , Wang Jun , Ming Rui , Liu Shuaicheng , Ge Qing , Ren Ren , Lin Jiacheng , Zhai Hao , Lin Feng , Wang Qi , Liu Kai , Huang Yongqing , Ren Xiaomin
Published: February 2023

InGaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well lasers grown on silicon (001) by molecular beam epitaxy have been demonstrated. By inserting InAlAs trapping layers into AlGaAs cladding layers, misfit dislocations easily located in the active region can be effectively transferred out of the active region. For comparison, the same laser structure without the InAlAs trapping layers was also grown. All these as-grown materials were fabricated into Fabry-Perot lasers with the same cavity size of 20 × 1000 µm2. The laser with trapping layers achieved a 2.7-fold reduction in threshold current density under pulsed operation (5 µs-pulsed width, 1%-duty cycle) compared to the counterpart, and further realized a room-temperature continuous-wave lasing with a threshold current of 537 mA which corresponds to a threshold current density of 2.7 kA/cm2. When the injection current reached 1000 mA, the single-facet maximum output power and slope efficiency were 45.3 mW and 0.143 W/A, respectively. This work demonstrates significantly improved performances of InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum well lasers monolithically grown on silicon, providing a feasible solution to optimize the InGaAs quantum well structure.
Assessment of lateral resolution of single random phase encoded lensless imaging systems
Authors: Goswami Saurabh , Wani Pranav , Gupta Gaurav , Javidi Bahram
Published: February 2023

In this paper, we have used the angular spectrum propagation method and numerical simulations of a single random phase encoding (SRPE) based lensless imaging system, with the goal of quantifying the spatial resolution of the system and assessing its dependence on the physical parameters of the system. Our compact SRPE imaging system consists of a laser diode that illuminates a sample placed on a microscope glass slide, a diffuser that spatially modulates the optical field transmitting through the input object, and an image sensor that captures the intensity of the modulated field. We have considered two-point source apertures as the input object and analyzed the propagated optical field captured by the image sensor. The captured output intensity patterns acquired at each lateral separation between the input point sources were analyzed using a correlation between the captured output pattern for the overlapping point-sources, and the captured output intensity for the separated point sources. The lateral resolution of the system was calculated by finding the lateral separation values of the point sources for which the correlation falls below a threshold value of 35% which is a value chosen in accordance with the Abbe diffraction limit of an equivalent lens-based system. A direct comparison between the SRPE lensless imaging system and an equivalent lens-based imaging system with similar system parameters shows that despite being lensless, the performance of the SRPE system does not suffer as compared to lens-based imaging systems in terms of lateral resolution. We have also investigated how this resolution is affected as the parameters of the lensless imaging system are varied. The results show that SRPE lensless imaging system shows robustness to object to diffuser-to-sensor distance, pixel size of the image sensor, and the number of pixels of the image sensor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to investigate a lensless imaging system’s lateral resolution, robustness to multiple physical parameters of the system, and comparison to lens-based imaging systems.
Characterizing the dark count rate of a large-format MKID array
Authors: Swimmer Noah , Clay W. Hawkins , Zobrist Nicholas , Mazin Benjamin A.
Published: February 2023

We present an empirical measurement of the dark count rate seen in a large-format MKID array identical to those currently in use at observatories such as Subaru on Maunakea. This work provides compelling evidence for their utility in future experiments that require low-count rate, quiet environments such as dark matter direct detection. Across the bandpass from 0.946-1.534 eV (1310-808 nm) an average count rate of (1.847 ± 0.003) × 10−3 photons/pixel/s is measured. Breaking this bandpass into 5 equal-energy bins based on the resolving power of the detectors we find the average dark count rate seen in an MKID is (6.26 ± 0.04) × 10−4 photons/pixel/s from 0.946-1.063 eV and (2.73 ± 0.02) × 10−4 photons/pixel/s at 1.416-1.534eV. Using lower-noise readout electronics to read out a single MKID pixel we demonstrate that the events measured while the detector is not illuminated largely appear to be a combination of real photons, possible fluorescence caused by cosmic rays, and phonon events in the array substrate. We also find that using lower-noise readout electronics on a single MKID pixel we measure a dark count rate of (9.3 ± 0.9) × 10−4 photons/pixel/s over the same bandpass (0.946-1.534 eV) With the single-pixel readout we also characterize the events when the detectors are not illuminated and show that these responses in the MKID are distinct from photons from known light sources such as a laser, likely coming from cosmic ray excitations.
Copper electrode preparation by a selective laser reduction of copper oxide on lignin fiber membranes and its application as a photodetector
Authors: Huang Fei , Yan Ziyang , Zhou Sikun , Gu Baoshan , Wang Sha , Wang Shutong , Zhou Shouhuan
Published: February 2023

The performance of electrodes is a key factor affecting the development of smart fabrics. The preparation of common fabric flexible electrodes has defects such as high cost, complicated preparation, and complex patterning that limit the development of fabric-based metal electrodes. Therefore, this paper presented a simple fabrication method for preparing Cu electrodes using selective laser reduction of CuO nanoparticles. By optimizing laser processing power, scanning speed, and focusing degree), we prepared a Cu circuit with an electrical resistivity of ∼ 5.53 µΩ.m. Based on the photothermoelectric properties of Cu electrodes, a white light photodetector is developed. The detectivity of the photodetector reaches ∼2.14 mA/W at a power density of 10.01 mW/cm2. This method is instructive for preparing metal electrodes or conductive lines on the surface of fabrics, and provides specific techniques for manufacturing wearable photodetectors.
Highly sensitive liquid refractometric sensing based on a square coreless fiber functionalized with few-layer Ti3C2Tx Mxene
Authors: Feng Qianying , Wu Jixuan , Bai Hua , Song Binbin , Zhang Cheng , Lin Wei , Liu Haifeng , Duan Shaoxiang
Published: February 2023

Ti3C2Tx MXene, as a representative two-dimensional nanomaterial, has been recently receiving attention for constructing high-performance sensors. Herein, a square coreless fiber functionalized with Ti3C2Tx MXene layer is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for highly sensitive refractometric measurement. The refractometric sensor is designed by chemically depositing Ti3C2Tx film on the square coreless fiber, in which Ti3C2Tx film is employed for enhancing the hydrophilicity and promoting the adsorption capacity of molecules. Compared with pristine square coreless fiber, the sensitivity of the refractometric sensor is improved by more than 12% for liquids refractive index (RI) around 1.333. Moreover, the Ti3C2Tx modified square coreless fiber exhibits compact dimension, easy integration, low sample consumption, and good flexibility for enabling the accurate discriminating of small-scale RI changes of analytes. Our work provides a promising and effective platform for general ultra-low concentration analytical detection, which could be extended for biochemical sensing, photocatalysts, and photovoltaic applications.
Time-to-space ghost imaging
Authors: Horoshko Dmitri
Published: February 2023

Temporal ghost imaging is based on temporal correlations of two optical beams and aims at forming a temporal image of a temporal object with a resolution, fundamentally limited by the photodetector resolution time and reaching 55 ps in a recent experiment. For further improvement of the temporal resolution, it is suggested to form a spatial ghost image of a temporal object relying on strong temporal-spatial correlations of two optical beams. Such correlations are known to exist between two entangled beams generated in type-I parametric downconversion. It is shown that a sub-picosecond-scale temporal resolution is accessible with a realistic source of entangled photons.
iPRESTO: Automated discovery of biosynthetic sub-clusters linked to specific natural product substructures
Authors: Louwen Joris J. R. , Kautsar Satria A. , van der Burg Sven , Medema Marnix H. , van der Hooft Justin J. J.
Published: February 2023

Microbial specialised metabolism is full of valuable natural products that are applied clinically, agriculturally, and industrially. The genes that encode their biosynthesis are often physically clustered on the genome in biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Many BGCs consist of multiple groups of co-evolving genes called sub-clusters that are responsible for the biosynthesis of a specific chemical moiety in a natural product. Sub-clusters therefore provide an important link between the structures of a natural product and its BGC, which can be leveraged for predicting natural product structures from sequence, as well as for linking chemical structures and metabolomics-derived mass features to BGCs. While some initial computational methodologies have been devised for sub-cluster detection, current approaches are not scalable, have only been run on small and outdated datasets, or produce an impractically large number of possible sub-clusters to mine through. Here, we constructed a scalable method for unsupervised sub-cluster detection, called iPRESTO, based on topic modelling and statistical analysis of co-occurrence patterns of enzyme-coding protein families. iPRESTO was used to mine sub-clusters across 150,000 prokaryotic BGCs from antiSMASH-DB. After annotating a fraction of the resulting sub-cluster families, we could predict a substructure for 16% of the antiSMASH-DB BGCs. Additionally, our method was able to confirm 83% of the experimentally characterised sub-clusters in MIBiG reference BGCs. Based on iPRESTO-detected sub-clusters, we could correctly identify the BGCs for xenorhabdin and salbostatin biosynthesis (which had not yet been annotated in BGC databases), as well as propose a candidate BGC for akashin biosynthesis. Additionally, we show for a collection of 145 actinobacteria how substructures can aid in linking BGCs to molecules by correlating iPRESTO-detected sub-clusters to MS/MS-derived Mass2Motifs substructure patterns. This work paves the way for deeper functional and structural annotation of microbial BGCs by improved linking of orphan molecules to their cognate gene clusters, thus facilitating accelerated natural product discovery.