bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geographical discrepancy in oral food challenge utilization based on Canadian billing data
Authors: El Baba Ala , Jeimy Samira , Soller Lianne , Kim Harold , Begin Philippe , Chan Edmond S.
Published: January 2023

Background

Oral food challenges (OFC) confer the highest sensitivity and specificity in diagnosis; however, uptake has been variable across clinical settings. Numerous barriers were identified in literature from inadequate training to resource access. OFC utilization patterns using billing data have not been previously studied.

Objective

The objective of this study is to explore the geographic differences in utilization of OFCs across Ontario and Québec using anonymized billing data from 2013 to 2017.

Methods

Anonymized OFC billing data were obtained between 2013 and 2017 from Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) and Régie de l'Assurance Maladie du Québec (RAMQ). The number of OFCs was extracted by location, billings, and physician demographics for clinic and hospital-based challenges.

Results

Over the period studied, the number of OFCs increased by 92% and 85% in Ontario clinics and Québec hospitals, respectively. For Ontario hospitals, the number of OFCs increased by 194%. While Québec performed exclusively hospital-based OFCs, after controlling for the population, the number of OFCs per 100,000 residents annually were similar to Ontario at 50 and 49 OFCs, respectively. The number of OFCs varied across the regions studied with an annual rate reaching up to 156 OFCs per 100,000 residents in urban regions and as low as 0.1 in regions furthest from city centers.

Conclusion

OFC utilization has steadily increased over the last decade. There has been marked geographical discrepancies in OFC utilization which could be driven by the location of allergists and heterogeneity in their practices. More research is needed to identify barriers and propose solutions to them.
Treatment with pollen allergen immunotherapy improves health-related quality of life in children and adolescents: a three-year follow-up-study
Authors: Agenäs Helena , Brorsson Anna Lena , Kull Inger , Lindholm-Olinder Anna
Published: January 2023

Background

The immunological effect of allergen-specific immunotherapy is well documented, but few studies have examined the long-term effects of pollen subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children and adolescents. Therefore, the aims of this study were to evaluate the effect of pollen SCIT on HRQoL and to assess the association between HRQoL and symptoms among children and adolescents with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in a 3-year follow-up.

Methods

A prospective cohort study was conducted at a paediatric clinic in Sweden, including 158 children (5–16 years) on SCIT (birch and/or grass). Health-related quality of life, measured with DISABKIDS, symptom scores and allergen-specific IgE and IgG4 antibodies (blood test), were assessed at start, and after 1, 2 and 3 years of treatment. ANOVA and t-test were used to analyse differences over time, between groups and linear mixed model for the association between HRQoL and influencing factors.

Results

After 1 year of pollen SCIT, HRQoL improved from 79.5 to 85.1 (p < 0.001), and the improvements were maintained (mean 1 years, 84.8, 3 years 87.2). Symptom scores decreased after 1 year, mean 19.9 to 11.5 (p < 0.001) and were maintained for year two (11.9) and year three (10.3). The proportion of children with severe or very severe symptoms decreased from 35.6% to 4.5% after 1 year of SCIT. Health-related quality of life was associated with symptoms at all measured timepoints (p = 0.001–0.031); higher symptom scores were associated with lower perceived HRQoL. Allergen-specific IgE antibodies decreased, birch from 151.0 to 76.8 kU/L (p < 0.001), and IgG4 antibodies increased, birch from 2.2 to 17.6 g/L (p < 0.001), grass from 0.5 to 14.3 g/L (p < 0.001), during the study period.

Conclusion

After 1 year of pollen SCIT, HRQoL improved, and symptoms decreased; these changes were maintained during the study period. The proportion of severe and very severe symptoms significantly decreased.
Cost optimization in cloud environment based on task deadline
Authors: Ahmad Saima Gulzar , Iqbal Tassawar , Munir Ehsan Ullah , Ramzan Naeem
Published: January 2023

The popularity of cloud and fog services has raised the number of users exponentially. Main advantage of Cloud/fog infrastructure and services are crucial specially for commercial users from diverse areas. The variety of service requests with different deadlines makes the task of a service broker challenging. The fog and cloud users always lookfor a suitable compromise between cost and quality of service in terms of response time therefore, the cost optimization is vital for the cloud/fog service providers to capture the market. In this paper an algorithm, Cost Optimization in the cloud/fog environment based on Task Deadline (COTD) is proposed that optimizes cost without compromising the response time. In this algorithm the task deadline is considered as a constraint and an appropriate data center for task processing is selected. The proposed algorithm is suitable for runtime decision making due to its low complexity. The proposed algorithm is evluated using a well-known simulation tool Cloud Analyst. Our comprehensive testbed simulations show that COTD outperforms the existing schemes, Service Proximity Based Routing and Performance-Optimized Routing. The proposed algorithm successfully minimizes the cost by 35% on average while maintaining the response time.
An enhanced ordinal optimization with lower scheduling overhead based novel approach for task scheduling in cloud computing environment
Authors: Yadav Monika , Mishra Atul
Published: January 2023

Efficient utilization of available computing resources in Cloud computing is one of the most challenging problems for cloud providers. This requires the design of an efficient and optimal task-scheduling strategy that can play a vital role in the functioning and overall performance of the cloud computing system. Optimal Schedules are specifically needed for scheduling virtual machines in fluctuating & unpredictable dynamic cloud scenario. Although there exist numerous approaches for enhancing task scheduling in the cloud environment, it is still an open issue. The paper focuses on an improved & enhanced ordinal optimization technique to reduce the large search space for optimal scheduling in the minimum time to achieve the goal of minimum makespan. To meet the current requirement of optimal schedule for minimum makespan, ordinal optimization that uses horse race conditions for selection rules is applied in an enhanced reiterative manner to achieve low overhead by smartly allocating the load to the most promising schedule. This proposed ordinal optimization technique and linear regression generate optimal schedules that help achieve minimum makespan. Furthermore, the proposed mathematical equation, derived using linear regression, predicts any future dynamic workload for a minimum makespan period target.
The function and clinical implication of YTHDF1 in the human system development and cancer
Authors: Ren Wenjun , Yuan Yixiao , Li Yongwu , Mutti Luciano , Peng Jun , Jiang Xiulin
Published: January 2023

YTHDF1 is a well-characterized m6A reader protein that is essential for protein translation, stem cell self-renewal, and embryonic development. YTHDF1 regulates target gene expression by diverse molecular mechanisms, such as promoting protein translation or modulating the stability of mRNA. The cellular levels of YTHDF1 are precisely regulated by a complicated transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and post-translational network. Very solid evidence supports the pivotal role of YTHDF1 in embryonic development and human cancer progression. In this review, we discuss how YTHDF1 influences both the physiological and pathological biology of the central nervous, reproductive and immune systems. Therefore we focus on some relevant aspects of the regulatory role played by YTHDF1 as gene expression, complex cell networking: stem cell self-renewal, embryonic development, and human cancers progression. We propose that YTHDF1 is a promising future cancer biomarker for detection, progression, and prognosis. Targeting YTHDF1 holds therapeutic potential, as the overexpression of YTHDF1 is associated with tumor resistance to chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
The effect of feature extraction and data sampling on credit card fraud detection
Authors: Salekshahrezaee Zahra , Leevy Joffrey L. , Khoshgoftaar Taghi M.
Published: January 2023

Training a machine learning algorithm on a class-imbalanced dataset can be a difficult task, a process that could prove even more challenging under conditions of high dimensionality. Feature extraction and data sampling are among the most popular preprocessing techniques. Feature extraction is used to derive a richer set of reduced dataset features, while data sampling is used to mitigate class imbalance. In this paper, we investigate these two preprocessing techniques, using a credit card fraud dataset and four ensemble classifiers (Random Forest, CatBoost, LightGBM, and XGBoost). Within the context of feature extraction, thePrincipal Component Analysis(PCA) andConvolutional Autoencoder(CAE) methods are evaluated. With regard to data sampling, theRandom Undersampling(RUS),Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique(SMOTE), and SMOTE Tomek methods are evaluated. The F1 score andArea Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve(AUC) metrics serve as measures of classification performance. Our results show that the implementation of the RUS method followed by the CAE method leads to the best performance for credit card fraud detection.
Interferon Alfa-2b Adjuvant Therapy of High-Risk Resected Cutaneous Melanoma: The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Trial EST 1684
Authors: Kirkwood J M , Strawderman M H , Ernstoff M S , Smith T J , Borden E C , Blum R H
Published: January 2023

PURPOSE

Interferon alfa-2b (IFN alpha-2b) exhibits antitumor activity in metastatic melanoma and on this basis has been evaluated as an adjuvant therapy following surgery for deep primary (T4) or regionally metastatic (N1) melanoma.

METHODS

A randomized controlled study of IFN alpha-2b (Schering-Plough, Kenilworth, NJ) administered at maximum-tolerated doses of 20 MU/m2/d intravenously (i.v.) for 1 month and 10 MU/m2 three times per week subcutaneously (SC) for 48 weeks versus observation, was conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) in 287 patients.

RESULTS

A significant prolongation of relapse-free survival (P = .0023, one-sided) and prolongation of overall survival (P = .0237, one-sided) was observed with IFN alpha-2b therapy in this trial, which is now mature with a median follow-up time of 6.9 years. The impact of treatment on relapse rate is most pronounced early during the treatment interval. The overall benefit of treatment in this trial was analyzed stratified by tumor burden and the presence or absence of microscopic nonpalpable and palpable regional lymph node metastasis. The benefit of therapy with IFN alpha-2b was greatest among node-positive strata. Toxicity of IFN alpha-2b required dose modification in the majority of patients, but treatment at > or = 80% of the scheduled dose was feasible in the majority of patients through the IV phase of treatment, and for more than 3 months of SC maintenance therapy. Discontinuation of treatment due to toxicity was infrequent after the fourth month of therapy.

CONCLUSION

IFN alpha-2b prolongs the relapse-free interval and overall survival of high-risk resected melanoma patients. The increment in median disease-free survival (from 1 to 1.7 years) and overall survival (from 2.8 to 3.8 years) that results from this therapy is associated with a 42% improvement in the fraction of patients who are continuously disease-free after treatment with IFN (from 26% to 37%) in comparison to observation. IFN alpha-2b is the first agent to show a significant benefit in relapse-free and overall survival of high-risk melanoma patients in a randomized controlled trial.
Veterans Health Administration National TeleOncology Service
Authors: Zullig Leah L. , Raska Whitney , McWhirter Gina , Sherman Scott E. , Makarov Danil , Becker Daniel , King Heather A. , Pura John , Jeffreys Amy S. , Danus Susanne , Passero Vida , Goldstein Karen M. , Kelley Michael J.
Published: January 2023

PURPOSE:

As the largest integrated health care system in the United States, the Veterans Health Administration (VA) is a leader in telehealth-delivered care. All 10 million Veterans cared for within the VA are eligible for telehealth. The VA cares for approximately 46,000 Veteran patients with newly diagnosed cancer and an estimated 400,000 prevalent cases annually. With nearly 38% of VA health care system users residing in rural areas and only 44% of rural counties having an oncologist, many Veterans lack local access to specialized cancer services.

METHODS:

We describe the VA's National TeleOncology (NTO) Service. NTO was established to provide Veterans with the opportunity for specialized treatment regardless of geographical location. Designed as a hub-and-spoke model, VA oncologists from across the country can provide care to patients at spoke sites. Spoke sites are smaller and rural VA medical centers that are less able to independently provide the full range of services available at larger facilities. In addition to smaller rural spoke sites, NTO also provides subspecialized oncology care to Veterans located in larger VA medical facilities that do not have subspecialties available or that have limited capacity.

RESULTS:

As of fiscal year 2021, 23 clinics are served by or engaged in planning for delivery of NTO and there are 24 physicians providing care through the NTO virtual hub. Most NTO physicians continue to provide patient care in separate traditional in-person clinics. Approximately 4,300 unique Veterans have used NTO services. Approximately half (52%) of Veterans using NTO lived in rural areas. Most of these Veterans had more than one remote visit through NTO.

CONCLUSION:

NTO is a state-of-the-art model that has the potential to revolutionize the way cancer care is delivered, which should improve the experience of Veterans receiving cancer care.
Foreign-Body Reaction Resulting in Thyroiditis—A Complication of Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsy of the Thyroid
Authors: Adeoti Oluwatomi , Cerda Sandra , Pearce Elizabeth
Published: January 2023

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is a cost-effective and safe office procedure performed to evaluate thyroid nodules. We report a case of a 33-year-old woman who presented with pain and swelling of the thyroid after undergoing an FNAB for a right thyroid nodule at an outside hospital. The patient received a course of antibiotics without complete resolution of her symptoms and ultimately, underwent a right thyroid lobectomy. Pathology of the excised thyroid tissue showed chronic lymphohistiocytic inflammation with giant cell reaction and hemorrhage consistent with a foreign-body reaction. The patient's symptoms completely resolved after the surgery. Though uncertain what foreign body was introduced into the thyroid tissue during the FNAB, we surmise that an accidental introduction of ultrasound gel may have caused this rare and unexpected complication of a procedure with usually few and manageable complications.
Plath Translates Rilke
Authors: Vanwesenbeeck Birger
Published: January 2023

In the fall of 1954, enrolled in an undergraduate intermediate German course, Sylvia Plath undertook a translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s 1908 poem “Ein Prophet.” Though this translation has received only scant attention from scholars, it represents Plath’s first poetic engagement with German, an engagement that extends all the way to the six poems she wrote about the untimely death of her German-born father. Taking that early work seriously, then, this essay explores the relationship between mourning and translation in Plath’s work from the Rilke translation through the muchstudied later poems. Where translation is often figured as a process of loss, with a focus on what is “lost in translation,” this essay argues that in Plath’s work it figures too as a way of responding to loss—as a process of mourning.
Marianne Moore’s Public Solitude
Authors: Mouw Alex
Published: January 2023

Critics have long attended to Marianne Moore’s paradoxical drawing together of such opposites as freedom and discipline, commonality and quiddity, and celebrity and celibacy. This article explores another paradoxical vein in her poetic career: public solitude. For her, public life and solitude were not only compatible but, in fact, depended on one another. Moore had a high view of public (and especially civic) virtue and responsibility, which she brought to bear on her late-life celebrity, but for her it was solitude that made both literary productivity and public life possible in the first place. As her own social life suggests, solitude need not be synonymous with isolation. But if, as in her view, public life is defined by service to a community, such service is rooted in a reserve of solitude. In Moore’s poetry, then, a public is constituted of solitary persons, and living a useful life is made possible by nourishing one’s own solitude and valuing the solitude of others. Ultimately, this essay argues that the idea of public solitude can help us understand Moore’s poetics, the strategies and structures that defined her engagement with poetry. Although consistently important, public solitude took on new urgency for her in the World War II years and beyond, when Moore developed from an obscure champion of modernism to a widely read national figure.
Home ranges, directionality and the influence of moon phases on the movement ecology of Indian flying fox males in southern India
Authors: Murugavel Baheerathan , Kandula Sripathi , Somanathan Hema , Kelber Almut
Published: January 2023

Flying foxes of the genus Pteropus are amongst the largest fruit bats and potential long-range pollinators and seed dispersers in the paleotropics. Pteropus giganteus (currently P. medius) is the only flying fox that is distributed throughout the Indian mainland, including in urban and rural areas. Using GPS telemetry, we mapped the home ranges and examined flight patterns in P. giganteus males across moon phases in a semi-urban landscape in southern India. Home range differed between the tracked males (n=4), likely due to differences in their experience in the landscape. We found that nightly time spent outside the roost, distance commuted and the number of sites visited by tracked individuals did not differ significantly between moon phases. In 61% of total tracked nights across bats, the first foraging site was within 45˚ of the emergence direction. At the colony-level, scan-based observations showed emergence flights were mostly in the northeast (27%), west (22%) and southwest (19%) directions that could potentially be related to the distribution of foraging resources. The movement ecology of fruit bats in relation to the pollination and seed dispersal services they provide requires to be investigated in future studies.

This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.
Exploring generic principles of compartmentalization in a developmental in vitro model
Authors: Gires Pierre-Yves , Thampi Mithun , Krauss Sebastian W. , Weiss Matthias
Published: January 2023

Self-organization of cells into higher-order structures is key for multicellular organisms, for example via repetitive replication of template-like founder cells or syncytial energids. Yet, very similar spatial arrangements of cell-like compartments (‘protocells’) are also seen in a minimal model system of Xenopus egg extracts in the absence of template structures and chromatin, with dynamic microtubule assemblies driving the self-organization process. Quantifying geometrical features over time, we show here that protocell patterns are highly organized with a spatial arrangement and coarsening dynamics similar to that of two-dimensional foams but without the long-range ordering expected for hexagonal patterns. These features remain invariant when enforcing smaller protocells by adding taxol, i.e. patterns are dominated by a single, microtubule-derived length scale. Comparing our data to generic models, we conclude that protocell patterns emerge by simultaneous formation of randomly assembling protocells that grow at a uniform rate towards a frustrated arrangement before fusion of adjacent protocells eventually drives coarsening. The similarity of protocell patterns to arrays of energids and cells in developing organisms, but also to epithelial monolayers, suggests generic mechanical cues to drive self-organized space compartmentalization.
Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells with Light Management of Surface Antireflection
Authors: Liang Ying , Jiao Chuanjia , Zhou Peng , Li Wangnan , Zang Yue , Liu Yiming , Yang Gaoyuan , Liu Liu , Cheng Jiahao , Liang Guijie , Wang Jingyang , Zhong Zhicheng , Yan Wensheng
Published: January 2023

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) captivate tremendous interest thanks to high-efficiency and low-cost. Nevertheless, the planar PSCs are negatively affected by serious reflection loss usually because of the refractive index mismatch between the glass substrate and the air, which limits their light harvesting performance. Here, we report an investigation for highly efficient PSCs with light management by applying a structural antireflective film made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) pyramidal texture. Machine learning is firstly used to predict planar (FAPbI3)0.95(MAPbBr2.2Cl0.8)0.05 PSC’ performance for an experimental guide. The experimental results show excellent agreement between the two. When the antireflective film is utilized in the present planar PSCs, an impressive light absorption enhancement is achieved, resulting in a significantly increased power conversion efficiency of up to 23.5%.
Langerhans cell histiocytosis: unusual dorsal spine localization in an adult male
Authors: Foti Giovanni , Longo Chiara , Lombardo Fabio , Piovan Enrico , Colpani Francesco , Beltramello Alberto
Published: January 2023

This case report describes the clinical, imaging, and pathological features of a case of Langerhans cell histiocytosis affecting a patient suffering from chronic thoracic spine pain. Spinal localizations of Langerhans cell histiocytosis have been rarely described and they are usually characterized by involvement of vertebral bodies with osteolytic lesions. Our case presented with several unusual features that delayed the diagnosis, including the age of patient and the involvement of left T10 costovertebral junction with relative sparing of vertebral body and costal bone. The clues for diagnosis were represented by increased signal intensity both on T2W fat-saturated and T1W images after administration of gadolinium. The diagnosis was finally confirmed by means of percutaneous biopsy with subsequent histological/immunohistochemical study.
Effect on the nursing students' academic achievements, motivation, and learning strategies of role-playing intervention used in school health nursing course
Authors: Emlek Sert Zuhal , Topçu Sevcan , Bayık Temel Ayla
Published: January 2023

Background: Clinical practice areas are more limited, especially in sub-specialties such as school and occupational health. Different training techniques such as role-playing and simulation enable an opportunity to solve these problems.
Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of role-playing related to school-health screenings on nursing students’ academic achievement, motivation, and learning strategies.
Method and Material: A quasi-experimental study was performed with experimental and control groups. Data were collected from 56 nursing students as data collection tools were used Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and Grade Point Average.
Results: After the role-playing, the grade point average scores of the students in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Nursing students in the experimental group had a significantly higher mean score in intrinsic goal orientation, control of learning beliefs, organization, critical thinking, peer learning, and metacognitive self-regulation at the post-test compared to the control group.
Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that the role-playing intervention changed the learning strategies used by nursing students. Also, it increased the use of metacognitive strategies, organizing, explaining, and critical thinking while boosting collaborative learning strategies such as peer collaboration and help-seeking.
Semiotics and dialectics: Notes on the paper “Literary criticism must be scientific” by Juri Lotman
Authors: Restaneo Pietro
Published: January 2023

The present paper is an introduction to and analysis of the article “Literary criticism must be scientific”, presented here for the first time in English translation. The original was published by Lotman in 1967 in the journal Voprosy Literatury. The article by Lotman is a part of a wider debate, started in 1963, that saw structuralists and their opponents dispute the validity and heuristic value of structuralist methodology in literary criticism. The aim of the introduction is to explore Lotman’s engagements with his intellectual context as they emerge in his 1967 article. The first part of the paper discusses the wider context of the debate, and explores the positions of the opponents of structuralism and the ways in which Lotman relates to them. The second part of the paper analyses how Lotman and his structuralist colleagues related to the official Soviet ideology, the diamat. In both cases, it will be seen how Lotman engaged certain aspects of his opponents’ ideas, as well as the official ideology, in order to further his goal of reconciling structuralism and historicism.
Prospect of using schema therapy in working with sex offenders
Authors: Oettingen Justyna , Rajtar-Zembaty Anna
Published: January 2023

Poszukiwanie skutecznych metod leczenia sprawców jest niezbędne w kontekście obniżenia ryzyka popełnienia przez nich kolejnych przestępstw o charakterze seksualnym.
W prezentowanym artykule została przedstawiona stworzona przez Jeffrey'a Young'a koncepcja Terapii schematów z omówieniem zasadności jej stosowania w leczeniu osób podejmujących problematyczne zachowania seksualne skierowane przeciwko wolności seksualnej. Zachowania takie są prawnie zabronione i wiążą się z popełnieniem przestępstw skodyfikowanych w rozdziale XXV kodeksu karnego (m.in. zgwałcenie, wykorzystanie bezradności, nadużycie stosunku zależności, czynność seksualna z małoletnim poniżej 15 lat).
W artykule przedstawiono główne założenia terapii schematów. W odniesieniu do głównych założeń tego podejścia terapeutycznego został zaproponowany i omówiony teoretyczny model terapii schematów w kontekście przemocowych zachowań seksualnych. Następnie analizowano mechanizm powstawania i utrwalania się dewiacyjnych zachowań przestępczych w kontekście kluczowych konstruktów tego podejścia: wczesnych schematów dezadaptacyjnych oraz trybów schematów. Jako, że Terapia schematu ma udowodnioną skuteczność w leczeniu chronicznych osobowościowych aspektów zaburzeń, w ocenie autorek wydaje się być obiecującym nurtem dla tak trudnej populacji osób.
The Impact of Bundled Payment on Hospital Operations
Authors: Fan Yiming , Wang Jingqi , Xie Jingui , Yu Yugang , Cao Liqing
Published: January 2023

This paper studies the impact of bundled payment policy on healthcare cost, efficiency, quality, and shift of care. Using insurance claim data, we empirically offer a more nuanced understanding of the impact of bundled payment policy on hospital operations and provide new evidence from China. Our evidence suggests that transitioning from fee-for-service to bundled payment reimbursement resulted in declines in treatment costs and length of stay. Along with that decline, there was an increase in planned revisits to outpatient clinics, which indicates a shift of care from the inpatient to the outpatient setting, as well as a rise in unplanned revisits, indicating a decline in service quality. The increase in readmission rate to inpatient wards is very small and not statistically significant. In addition, we discuss the design and implementation of bundled payment. Our results imply that careful bundle design is vital to encouraging providers to implement the new program without sacrificing quality.

Funding: This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72091215/72091210, 71921001], the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [Grant HKU 17500217], and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant 2040000018].
Deployment of ROBOT for HVAC Duct and Disaster
Authors: Bhambri Pankaj , Singh Manpreet , Dhanoa Inderjit Singh , Kumar Mrityunjay
Published: January 2023

The SBM Robot is a manually operated robot focused on the Internet of Things and the robot operating system. The system is focused on washing and maintenance. The robot is controlled by an android app that uses the Google Real Time Firebase database to control the robot. HVAC duct is small in size and cleaning and repairing the duct is a very difficult task for humans, but it's easy to robot, robot goes inside the duct, and inspects and cleans the duct. Like similar, ships use fuel, oils, sludge, sewage, water and other fluids stored in tanks.
Evaluating the Factors that Affect Service Quality Management on Arabic Public Sector
Authors: Alsultanny Yas A.
Published: January 2023

Quality of queuing service management is the aim of any organization providing its services to customers. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the factors affecting the quality of service provided by the public sector depending on waiting lines. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted on a sample of 394 to collect data relating to customer satisfaction. The questionnaire consists of five factors: process, tangible, responsiveness, reliability, and empathy. The results showed that the degree of agreement of the factors; process, tangible, reliability, responsiveness, empathy, and service quality gain a neutral category, and all the factors have statistically significant effects on quality of service except the empathy factor. For the demographic information, the results showed that there are statistically significant differences for most of the demographic information. This paper extends the previous research that investigates factors affecting e-recruitment. The author extends the results of previous research related to the transparency of e-recruitment. The study recommended the service departments should make more effort in the way of providing services to improve the level of service quality management.
Generation of human immortalized chondrocytes from osteoarthritic and healthy cartilage
Authors: Piñeiro-Ramil María , Sanjurjo-Rodríguez Clara , Rodríguez-Fernández Silvia , Hermida-Gómez Tamara , Blanco-García Francisco J. , Fuentes-Boquete Isaac , Vaamonde-García Carlos , Díaz-Prado Silvia
Published: January 2023

Aims

After a few passages of in vitro culture, primary human articular chondrocytes undergo senescence and loss of their phenotype. Most of the available chondrocyte cell lines have been obtained from cartilage tissues different from diarthrodial joints, and their utility for osteoarthritis (OA) research is reduced. Thus, the goal of this research was the development of immortalized chondrocyte cell lines proceeded from the articular cartilage of patients with and without OA.

Methods

Using telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and SV40 large T antigen (SV40LT), we transduced primary OA articular chondrocytes. Proliferative capacity, degree of senescence, and chondrocyte surface antigen expression in transduced chondrocytes were evaluated. In addition, the capacity of transduced chondrocytes to synthesize a tissue similar to cartilage and to respond to interleukin (IL)-1β was assessed.

Results

Coexpression of both transgenes (SV40 and hTERT) were observed in the nuclei of transduced chondrocytes. Generated chondrocyte cell lines showed a high proliferation capacity and less than 2% of senescent cells. These cell lines were able to form 3D aggregates analogous to those generated by primary articular chondrocytes, but were unsuccessful in synthesizing cartilage-like tissue when seeded on type I collagen sponges. However, generated chondrocyte cell lines maintained the potential to respond to IL-1β stimulation.

Conclusion

Through SV40LT and hTERT transduction, we successfully immortalized chondrocytes. These immortalized chondrocytes were able to overcome senescence in vitro, but were incapable of synthesizing cartilage-like tissue under the experimental conditions. Nonetheless, these chondrocyte cell lines could be advantageous for OA investigation since, similarly to primary articular chondrocytes, they showed capacity to upregulate inflammatory mediators in response to the IL-1β cytokine. Cite this article: Bone Joint Res 2023;12(1):46–57.
Coal Tar Distillate (Creosote)—The First and Still Great Choice to Preserve Utility Poles
Authors: Smith Stephen T.
Published: January 2023

Creosote, a coal tar distillate product, has been used to preserve wooden utility poles for well over 100 years. Such use began in the late 1800s and continues to this day. Creosote’s efficacy in protecting wood from decay, termite attach, and general weathering has been demonstrated by actual performance of poles in utility service and in documented field and laboratory testing. The American Wood Protection Association has standardized and long recognized the efficacy of creosote preservation. With production of pentachlorophenol ending after 2022, preservation may easily convert to creosote preservative. Creosote preservative also is an environmentally sound choice in that used poles can be used as fuel and otherwise, creosote degrades biologically. Wood is sustainable as new trees are grown to replace poles while the poles are sequestered carbon. Utility service life of creosote preserved wooden poles typically lasts for 70 to over 100 years with inspection and maintenance. Utilities can expect new creosote preserved poles to last into the next century.
Engaging with uncertainty: studying child and family welfare in precarious times
Authors: Boddy Janet
Published: January 2023

We live in a historic period of heightened and intersecting uncertainties. This article draws on Bauman’s (2012) metaphor of ‘liquid modernity’ to discuss the precariousness of family lives and child and family welfare provision in the context of austerity politics in contemporary England, before going on to consider the implications for research and researchers. Contexts of constant uncertainty have ethical and methodological implications for family research, particularly for studies concerned with services for children and families. When precarisation is an instrument of government, we need approaches to understanding ‘what works’ that are fit for liquid modern times: engaging with the complex contingencies of child and family lives and of the systems and services that they encounter, and actively resisting individualising and deficit-focused narratives in the study of child and family welfare. I focus my reflections on England because it is where I live and work, but the considerations I discuss have relevance for any context where the erosion of welfare provision coincides with growing inequality for children and families.
A new vista on Asian families and intimacies: creating common foundations for knowledge production within and on Asia
Authors: Ochiai Emiko
Published: January 2023

A three-level project has been carried out to fulfil the mission of creating common foundations for international research collaboration within and on Asia. The first level is the collection, translation and sharing of important research findings from Asian insider perspectives that had been published or presented in the various languages in Asia. The second is to create a common basis for empirical research by building a database for international comparison. On the third level, effective international collaborative research projects focusing on various topics are made possible. Diversity in Asia has usually been taken to mean diversity of civilisations, but, at a deeper level is found the diversity rooted in kinship structure. This layer plays particularly important roles in constructing local forms of family, gender and intimacy. On top of these, modernisation created another layer. These layers influence each other at various times and to various degrees, constructing a dynamic diversity.
Pointing-error correction of optical communication terminals on motion platforms using a parameter model and kernel weight function estimation
Authors: Peng Chao , He Dong , Wang Yuankang , Wang Zihao , Huang Yongmei , Zhang Tong , Liu Xiang , Wang Qiang , Ma Haotong
Published: January 2023

Optical communication terminals (OCTs) with high pointing accuracy on motion platforms are highly important for establishing a global communication network. The pointing accuracy of such OCTs is seriously affected by linear and nonlinear errors generated by various sources. A method based on a parameter model and kernel weight function estimation (KWFE) is proposed to correct the pointing errors of an OCT on a motion platform. Initially, a parameter model, which has a physical meaning, is established to reduce the linear pointing errors. Then, the nonlinear pointing errors are corrected using the proposed KWFE method. Tracking star experiments are conducted to verify the efficiency of the proposed method. The parameter model reduces the initial pointing error associated with the stars used for calibration from 1311.5 µrad to 87.0 µrad. After applying parameter model correction, the KWFE method is applied to further reduce the modified pointing error associated with the stars used for calibration from 87.0 µrad to 70.5 µrad. Additionally, based on the parameter model, the KWFE method reduces the actual open-loop pointing error associated with the target stars from 93.7 µrad to 73.3 µrad. The sequential correction using the parameter model and KWFE can gradually and effectively improve the pointing accuracy of an OCT on a motion platform.
Miniaturized double transit magnetic field measurement probe using the Faraday rotation principle
Authors: Kanchi Sunil , Shukla Rohit , Dey Premananda , Dubey A. K. , Sagar K. , Sharma Archana
Published: January 2023

This paper presents the design and experimental results of a double transit magnetic field measurement probe based on the Faraday rotation principle using terbium doped borosilicate glass as a sensor element. When the magnetic field is applied in the direction of propagation of light through the glass, the Faraday effect produces non-reciprocal circular birefringence. This property of the Faraday effect adds rotations when the light beam is reflected using a mirror placed at the other end of the glass and passed through the glass, making double transit of light through the sensor element. Experiments were carried out to verify the characteristics of the designed probe by inserting it inside the solenoid load coil. The Verdet constant of the glass is determined using the slope of the linear least-squares fitted curve between the Faraday rotation angle and the applied magnetic field, obtained as

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) with a relative uncertainty of 2.43%. The magnetic field was measured with 0.28% accuracy. In the optics experiments, alignment of components is the major task. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first of its kind double transit miniaturized magnetic field measurement probe configuration in which components are aligned inside the single probe structure. The probe is easily portable and can be used in inaccessible locations in various applications such as accelerators,

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θ

pinch devices, or fusion reactors such as tokamaks, in which the magnetic field is one of the main parameters.
Self-Q-switched Er:Lu2O3 laser at 2.74  µm
Authors: Zhang Meng , Yin Yanru , Zhang Lu , Zhang Baitao , Yang Kejian , He Jingliang , Li Tao
Published: January 2023

A diode-pumped self-Q-switched 2.74 µm Er:Lu2O3 crystal solid-state laser has been experimentally and theoretically studied. Without any additional modulation elements, stable self-Q-switched pulses with a pulse width of 145.3 ns, a repetition rate of 227.8 kHz, and an average output power of 877 mW were generated. Considering the excited-state absorption on the laser photons of the Er:Lu2O3 crystal, we have simulated the dynamic process of self-pulsed generation by solving the rate equations numerically. The simulation results are consistent with the typical characteristics of a Q-switched laser.
Calibration method of line-structured light sensors based on a hinge-connected target with arbitrary pinch angles
Authors: Zhu Zhenmin , Liu Haoran , Zhang Jing , Zhou Yumeng
Published: January 2023

Line-structured light 3D measurement is often used for 3D contour reconstruction of objects in complex industrial environments, where light plane calibration is a key step. In this paper, we propose a calibration method for a line-structured optical system based on a hinge-connected double-checkerboards stereo target. First, the target is moved randomly in multiple positions at any angle within the camera measurement space. Then, by acquiring any one image of the target with line-structured light, the 3D coordinates of the light stripes feature points are solved with the help of the external parameter matrix of the target plane and the camera coordinate system. Finally, the coordinate point cloud is denoised and used to quadratically fit the light plane. Compared with the traditional line-structured measurement system, the proposed method can acquire two calibration images at once; thus, only one image of line-structured light is needed to complete the light plane calibration. There is no strict requirement for the target pinch angle and placement, which improve system calibration speed with high accuracy. The experimental results show that the maximum RMS error of this method is 0.075 mm, and the operation is simpler and more effective to meet the technical requirements of industrial 3D measurement.
Efficient low-density grating setup for monochromatization of XUV ultrafast light sources
Authors: Guo Qinda , Dendzik Maciej , Berntsen Magnus H. , Grubišić-Čabo Antonija , Li Cong , Chen Wanyu , Wang Yang , Tjernberg Oscar
Published: January 2023

Ultrafast light sources have become an indispensable tool to access and understand transient phenomenon in material science. However, a simple and easy-to-implement method for harmonic selection, with high transmission efficiency and pulse duration conservation, is still a challenge. Here we showcase and compare two approaches for selecting the desired harmonic from a high harmonic generation source while achieving the above goals. The first approach is the combination of extreme ultraviolet spherical mirrors with transmission filters and the second approach uses a normal-incidence spherical grating. Both solutions target time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with photon energies in the 10-20 eV range but are relevant for other experimental techniques as well. The two approaches for harmonic selection are characterized in terms of focusing quality, photon flux, and temporal broadening. It is demonstrated that a focusing grating is able to provide much higher transmission as compared to the mirror+filter approach (3.3 times higher for 10.8 eV and 12.9 times higher for 18.1 eV), with only a slight temporal broadening (6.8% increase) and a somewhat larger spot size (∼30% increase). Overall, our study establishes an experimental perspective on the trade-off between a single grating normal incidence monochromator design and the use of filters. As such, it provides a basis for selecting the most appropriate approach in various fields where an easy-to-implement harmonic selection from high harmonic generation is needed.
Performance improvement of coherent optical chaos communication using probabilistic shaping
Authors: Wang Longsheng , Chen Xuan , Mao Xiaoxin , Jiang Lin , Li Songsui , Sun Yuehui , Wang Yuncai , Yan Lianshan , Wang Anbang
Published: January 2023

We numerically investigate the effects of probabilistic shaping on the performance improvement of coherent optical chaos communication. Results show that the decryption bit-error ratio (BER) of the 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal decreases upon increasing the probabilistic shaping factor. It is predicted that the BER of 10-GBd 16QAM can be decreased by one order of magnitude. On the other hand, for the forward error correction threshold of the BER, the requirement for synchronization quality is no longer strict for successful decryption. This means that probabilistic shaping improves the system’s tolerance to residual synchronization error. Thus, the transmission rate can be increased by approximately 30∼60%. The side effect of probabilistic shaping is that the valid masking coefficient range is narrowed.
Ultra-short pulse burst laser around 1.98 µm obtained through an all-fiber nonlinear wavelength converter and Tm-doped fiber amplifier
Authors: Zhang Yongchang , Chen Liyao , Gao Xilun , Jiang Peipei , Wu Bo , Shen Yonghang
Published: January 2023

We report an all-fiber ultra-short pulse burst laser operating at around 1.98 µm that is obtained through a nonlinear wavelength converter and Tm-doped fiber amplifier. A mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser was first built and then amplified in subsequent amplifiers to an average power of 1.3 W. Ultra-short pulse burst output was achieved through a pulse multiplier and a fiber-pigtailed acousto-optic modulator. It was then injected into an all-fiber nonlinear wavelength converter constructed from P-doped fiber and Tm-doped fiber, obtaining an ultra-short pulse burst laser of 540 mW around 1.98 µm. Its average output power was then amplified to 4.33 W in a Tm-doped fiber amplifier with an intra-burst pulse repetition frequency of 0.9 GHz, a burst repetition frequency of 200 kHz, and a duty cycle of 2%, corresponding to about 200 pulses within each burst. This 1.98 µm pulse burst laser has enormous potential to be applied in bio-medical areas.
Exceptional points in parity-time symmetric plasmonic Huygens’ metasurfaces
Authors: Butler Andrew , Argyropoulos Christos
Published: January 2023

Parity-time (PT) symmetric optical structures exhibit several unique and interesting characteristics, with the most popular being exceptional points. While the emerging concept of PT-symmetry has been extensively investigated in bulky photonic designs, its exotic functionalities in nanophotonic non-Hermitian plasmonic systems still remain relatively unexplored. Towards this goal, in this work we analyze the unusual properties of a plasmonic Huygens’ metasurface composed of an array of active metal-dielectric core-shell nanoparticles. By calculating the reflection and transmission coefficients of the metasurface under various levels of gain, we demonstrate the existence of reflectionless transmission when an exceptional point is formed. The proposed new active metasurface design has subwavelength thickness and can be used to realize ultracompact perfect transmission optical filters.