bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Willingness of diabetes mellitus patients to use mHealth applications and its associated factors for self-care management in a low-income country: an input for digital health implementation
Authors: Walle Agmasie Damtew , Ferede Tigist Andargie , Shibabaw Adamu Ambachew , Wubante Sisay Maru , Guadie Habtamu Alganeh , Yehula Chalachew Msganaw , Demsash Addisalem Workie
Published: January 2024

Background

Although mHealth applications are becoming more widely available and used, there is no evidence about why people are willing to use them. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the willingness of patients with diabetes to use mHealth applications and associated factors for self-care management in Ethiopia.

Methods

An institutional cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 patients with diabetes. Data were collected using pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire. Epi Data V.4.6 for entering the data and STATA V.14 for analysing the data were used. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify factors associated with patient’s willingness to use mobile health applications.

Results

A total of 398 study participants were included in the study. About 284 (71.4%) 95% CI (66.8% to 75.9%)). Of participants were willing to use mobile health applications. Patients below 30 years of age (adjusted OR, AOR 2.21; 95% CI (1.22 to 4.10)), urban residents (AOR 2.12; 95% CI (1.12 to 3.98)), internet access (AOR 3.91; 95% CI (1.31 to 11.5)), favourable attitude (AOR 5.20; 95% CI (2.60 to 10.40)), perceived ease of use (AOR 2.57; 95% CI (1.34 to 4.85)) and perceived usefulness (AOR 4.67; 95% CI (1.95 to 5.77)) were significantly associated with patients’ willingness to use mobile health applications.

Conclusions

Overall, diabetes patients’ willingness to use mobile health applications was high. Patients’ age, place of residence, internet access, attitude, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness were significant factors concerning their willingness to use mobile health applications. Considering these factors could provide insight for developing and adopting diabetes management applications on mobile devices in Ethiopia.
Twenty-year follow-up of promising clinical studies reported in highly circulated newspapers: a meta-epidemiological study
Authors: Tajika Aran , Tsujimoto Yasushi , Onishi Akira , Tsutsumi Yusuke , Funada Satoshi , Ogawa Yusuke , Takeshima Nozomi , Hayasaka Yu , Iwakami Naotsugu , Furukawa Toshi A
Published: January 2024

Objectives

Researchers have identified cases in which newspaper stories have exaggerated the results of medical studies reported in original articles. Moreover, the exaggeration sometimes begins with journal articles. We examined what proportion of the studies quoted in newspaper stories were confirmed.

Methods

We identified newspaper stories from 2000 that mentioned the effectiveness of certain treatments or preventions based on original studies from 40 main medical journals. We searched for subsequent studies until June 2022 with the same topic and stronger research design than each original study. The results of the original studies were verified by comparison with those of subsequent studies.

Results

We identified 164 original articles from 1298 newspaper stories and randomly selected 100 of them. Four studies were not found to be effective in terms of the primary outcome, and 18 had no subsequent studies. Of the remaining studies, the proportion of confirmed studies was 68.6% (95% CI 58.1% to 77.5%). Among the 59 confirmed studies, 13 of 16 studies were considered to have been replicated in terms of effect size. However, the results of the remaining 43 studies were not comparable.

Discussion

In the dichotomous judgement of effectiveness, about two-thirds of the results were nominally confirmed by subsequent studies. However, for most confirmed results, it was impossible to determine whether the effect sizes were stable.

Conclusions

Newspaper readers should be aware that some claims made by high-quality newspapers based on high-profile journal articles may be overturned by subsequent studies within the next 20 years.
Delivering on NIH data sharing requirements: avoiding Open Data in Appearance Only
Authors: Watson Hope , Gallifant Jack , Lai Yuan , Radunsky Alexander P , Villanueva Cleva , Martinez Nicole , Gichoya Judy , Huynh Uyen Kim , Celi Leo Anthony
Published: January 2024

IntroductionIn January, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented a Data Management and Sharing Policy aiming to leverage data collected during NIH-funded research. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated that this practice is equally vital for augmenting patient research. In addition, data sharing acts as a necessary safeguard against the introduction of analytical biases. While the pandemic provided an opportunity to curtail critical research issues such as reproducibility and validity through data sharing, this did not materialise in practice and became an example of ‘Open Data in Appearance Only’ (ODIAO). Here, we define ODIAO as the intent of data sharing without the occurrence of actual data sharing (eg, material or digital data transfers).

ObjectivePropose a framework that states the main risks associated with data sharing, systematically present risk mitigation strategies and provide examples through a healthcare lens.

MethodsThis framework was informed by critical aspects of both the Open Data Institute and the NIH’s 2023 Data Management and Sharing Policy plan guidelines.

ResultsThrough our examination of legal, technical, reputational and commercial categories, we find barriers to data sharing ranging from misinterpretation of General Data Privacy Rule to lack of technical personnel able to execute large data transfers. From this, we deduce that at numerous touchpoints, data sharing is presently too disincentivised to become the norm.

ConclusionIn order to move towards Open Data, we propose the creation of mechanisms for incentivisation, beginning with recentring data sharing on patient benefits, additional clauses in grant requirements and committees to encourage adherence to data reporting practices.
Road map for clinicians to develop and evaluate AI predictive models to inform clinical decision-making
Authors: Hassan Nehal , Slight Robert , Morgan Graham , Bates David W , Gallier Suzy , Sapey Elizabeth , Slight Sarah
Published: January 2024

Background

Predictive models have been used in clinical care for decades. They can determine the risk of a patient developing a particular condition or complication and inform the shared decision-making process. Developing artificial intelligence (AI) predictive models for use in clinical practice is challenging; even if they have good predictive performance, this does not guarantee that they will be used or enhance decision-making. We describe nine stages of developing and evaluating a predictive AI model, recognising the challenges that clinicians might face at each stage and providing practical tips to help manage them.

Findings

The nine stages included clarifying the clinical question or outcome(s) of interest (output), identifying appropriate predictors (features selection), choosing relevant datasets, developing the AI predictive model, validating and testing the developed model, presenting and interpreting the model prediction(s), licensing and maintaining the AI predictive model and evaluating the impact of the AI predictive model. The introduction of an AI prediction model into clinical practice usually consists of multiple interacting components, including the accuracy of the model predictions, physician and patient understanding and use of these probabilities, expected effectiveness of subsequent actions or interventions and adherence to these. Much of the difference in whether benefits are realised relates to whether the predictions are given to clinicians in a timely way that enables them to take an appropriate action.

Conclusion

The downstream effects on processes and outcomes of AI prediction models vary widely, and it is essential to evaluate the use in clinical practice using an appropriate study design.
From measures to action: can integrating quality measures provide system-wide insights for quality improvement decision making?
Authors: Khayal Inas S , Sanz Jordan T.
Published: January 2024

Background

Quality improvement decision makers are left to develop an understanding of quality within their healthcare system from a deluge of narrowly focused measures that reflect existing fragmentation in care and lack a clear method for triggering improvement. A one-to-one metric-to-improvement strategy is intractable and leads to unintended consequences. Although composite measures have been used and their limitations noted in the literature, what remains unknown is ‘Can integrating multiple quality measures provide a systemic understanding of care quality across a healthcare system?’

Methods

We devised a four-part data-driven analytic strategy to determine if consistent insights exist about the differential utilisation of end-of-life care using up to eight publicly available end-of-life cancer care quality measures across National Cancer Institute and National Comprehensive Cancer Network-designated cancer hospitals/centres. We performed 92 experiments that included 28 correlation analyses, 4 principal component analyses, 6 parallel coordinate analyses with agglomerative hierarchical clustering across hospitals and 54 parallel coordinate analyses with agglomerative hierarchical clustering within each hospital.

Results

Across 54 centres, integrating quality measures provided no consistent insights across different integration analyses. In other words, we could not integrate quality measures to describe how the underlying quality constructs of interest—intensive care unit (ICU) visits, emergency department (ED) visits, palliative care use, lack of hospice, recent hospice, use of life-sustaining therapy, chemotherapy and advance care planning—are used relative to each other across patients. Quality measure calculations lack interconnection information to construct a story that provides insights about where, when or what care is provided to which patients. And yet, we posit and discuss why administrative claims data—used to calculate quality measures—do contain such interconnection information.

Conclusion

While integrating quality measures does not provide systemic information, new systemic mathematical constructs designed to convey interconnection information can be developed from the same administrative claims data to support quality improvement decision making.
Quantifying digital health inequality across a national healthcare system
Authors: Zhang Joe , Gallifant Jack , Pierce Robin L , Fordham Aoife , Teo James , Celi Leo , Ashrafian Hutan
Published: January 2024

Objectives

Digital health inequality, observed as differential utilisation of digital tools between population groups, has not previously been quantified in the National Health Service (NHS). Deployment of universal digital health interventions, including a national smartphone app and online primary care services, allows measurement of digital inequality across a nation. We aimed to measure population factors associated with digital utilisation across 6356 primary care providers serving the population of England.

Methods

We used multivariable regression to test association of population and provider characteristics (including patient demographics, socioeconomic deprivation, disease burden, prescribing burden, geography and healthcare provider resource) with activation of two independent digital services during 2021/2022.

Results

We find a significant adjusted association between increased population deprivation and reduced digital utilisation across both interventions. Multivariable regression coefficients for most deprived quintiles correspond to 4.27 million patients across England where deprivation is associated with non-activation of the NHS App.

Conclusion

Results are concerning for technologically driven widening of healthcare inequalities. Targeted incentive to digital is necessary to prevent digital disparity from becoming health outcomes disparity.
Call for the responsible artificial intelligence in the healthcare
Authors: Upadhyay Umashankar , Gradisek Anton , Iqbal Usman , Dhar Eshita , Li Yu-Chuan , Syed-Abdul Shabbir
Published: January 2024

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare is progressively becoming pivotal, especially with its potential to enhance patient care and operational workflows. This paper navigates through the complexities and potentials of AI in healthcare, emphasising the necessity of explainability, trustworthiness, usability, transparency and fairness in developing and implementing AI models. It underscores the ‘black box’ challenge, highlighting the gap between algorithmic outputs and human interpretability, and articulates the pivotal role of explainable AI in enhancing the transparency and accountability of AI applications in healthcare. The discourse extends to ethical considerations, exploring the potential biases and ethical dilemmas that may arise in AI application, with a keen focus on ensuring equitable and ethical AI use across diverse global regions. Furthermore, the paper explores the concept of responsible AI in healthcare, advocating for a balanced approach that leverages AI’s capabilities for enhanced healthcare delivery and ensures ethical, transparent and accountable use of technology, particularly in clinical decision-making and patient care.
Czech society and drones: experience, norms, and concerns
Authors: Komasová Sarah
Published: January 2024

Understanding societal acceptance of drones is key to their operational incorporation to flight space. For this reason, this study measures experience, norms, and concerns related to drone operation on a quota representative sample of the Czech public and provides an overview of the situation. It finds out that a majority of Czechs already has some level of personal experience with drones and that Czechs are quite confident about high quality of drones’ performance in regard to manoeuvrability, video recording, or low noise levels. Despite these, more legislative regulations and their stronger enforcement are favoured by the majority. Public acceptance of a particular type of flight operations is then highly dependent on the operators’ institutional background. Operations by police and firefighters are supported significantly more. Finally, it is shown that privacy is the driving concern compared to safety or noise in the Czech Republic. Given these, it seems reasonable to focus further communication with the public about this issue, particularly on the introduction of technological capabilities, societal effects of drone operation, and the current legislative framework related to privacy rights and new technologies rather than on promoting drone operation safety.
Correlation between Vaccination and Child Mortality Rate Using Multivariate Linear Regression Model
Authors: Revathi A. , Kaladevi R. , Vimaladevi M. , Hariharan S. , Cherukuri A. K. , Sujatha R.
Published: January 2024

Population has increased drastically over the years and new diseases compete with the population. Immunisation is a preventive measure, which makes the person resistant or immune to the disease. Vaccination stimulates our own immune system against infection or diseases. Vaccines are available for more than twenty life-threatening diseases and it saves millions of lives throughout the world. In the 70th World Assembly conducted in the year 2017, around 194 countries participated and took the oath to strengthen vaccination thereby achieving goals of Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). In spite of remarkable immunisation progress, approximately 20 million infants are not exposed to vaccination every year. The immunisation progress has stalled or even reversed in some countries, and there is a real risk that complacency will undermine past achievements. This paper considered the database of vaccine consumption rate from many countries issued by WHO to analyse the reason for poor access to vaccine with respect to the morality and poverty levels. For this analysis, the relation between vaccine consumption by children below five years, the children’s death rate record issued by the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), poverty index issued by the United Nations are considered. Multivariate linear regression algorithm is used to identify the correlation between datasets. The result shows that an increase in vaccination coverage results in reduction on mortality rate in most of the countries. A correlation coefficient of 0.7 was found between IMR and the vaccine dosages. Sub-Sahara countries’ poverty index has direct impact on the declined view of vaccination coverage.
Optimal investment–consumption–insurance strategy with inflation risk and stochastic income in an Itô–Lévy setting
Authors: Moagi Gaoganwe S. , Doctor Obonye
Published: January 2024

This paper’s focus is on finding the optimal strategies for a trader who invests in stock, a money market account and an inflation-linked index bond. The stock follows a jump diffusion process and the bond is linked to inflation making the two risky. The optimal strategies are determined on two generations of the life of an investor, that is before the investor dies and after the investor dies. We applied the concept of change of probability measures considering Girsanov’s and the Radon–Nikodym theorems. We found the generator of the Backward Stochastic differential equations defined and employed the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) dynamic programming in finding the stochastic optimal controls of interest.
DistressNet-NG: A Resilient Data Storage and Sharing Framework for Mobile Edge Computing in Cyber-Physical Systems
Authors: Sagor Mohammad , Haroon Amran , Stoleru Radu , Bhunia Suman , Altaweel Ala , Chao Mengyuan , Jin Liuyi , Maurice Maxwell , Blalock Roger
Published: January 2024

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) has been gaining a major interest for use in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) for Disaster Response and Tactical applications. These CPS generate a very large amount of mission-critical and personal data that require resilient and secure storage and sharing. In this article, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a framework for resilient data storage and sharing for MEC in CPS targeting the aforementioned applications. Our framework is built on the resiliency of three main components: EdgeKeeper, which ensures resilient coordination of the framework’s components; RSock, which provides resilient communication among CPS’s nodes; and R-Drive/R-Share which, leveraging EdgeKeeper and RSock, provides resilient data storage and sharing. EdgeKeeper employs a set of replicas and a consensus protocol for storing critical meta-data and ensuring fast reorganization of the CPS; RSock decides an optimal degree for replicating data that is communicated over lossy links. R-Drive employs an adaptive erasure-coded and encrypted resilient data storage; R-Share, leveraging RSock provides resilient peer-to-peer data sharing. We implemented our proposed framework on rapidly deployable systems (e.g., manpacks, testMobile Edge Clouds) and on Android devices, and integrated it with existing MEC applications. Performance evaluation results from three real-world deployments show that our framework provides resilient data storage and sharing in MEC for CPS.
Linking Entities across Relations and Graphs
Authors: Fan Wenfei , Lu Ping , Pang Kehan , Jin Ruochun , Yu Wenyuan
Published: January 2024

This article proposes a notion of parametric simulation to link entities across a relational database 𝒟 and a graph
G
. Taking functions and thresholds for measuring vertex closeness, path associations, and important properties as parameters, parametric simulation identifies tuples
t
in 𝒟 and vertices
v
in
G
that refer to the same real-world entity, based on both topological and semantic matching. We develop machine learning methods to learn the parameter functions and thresholds. We show that parametric simulation is in quadratic-time by providing such an algorithm. Moreover, we develop an incremental algorithm for parametric simulation; we show that the incremental algorithm is bounded relative to its batch counterpart, i.e., it incurs the minimum cost for incrementalizing the batch algorithm. Putting these together, we develop
HER
, a parallel system to check whether (
t, v
) makes a match, find all vertex matches of
t
in
G
, and compute all matches across 𝒟 and
G
, all in quadratic-time; moreover,
HER
supports incremental computation of these in response to updates to 𝒟 and
G
. Using real-life and synthetic data, we empirically verify that
HER
is accurate with F-measure of 0.94 on average, and is able to scale with database 𝒟 and graph
G
for both batch and incremental computations.
Mixed Integer Programming based Placement Refinement by RSMT Model with Movable Pins
Authors: Tang Ke , Feng Lang , Wang Zhongfeng
Published: January 2024

Placement is a critical step in the physical design for digital application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), as it can directly affect the design qualities such as wirelength and timing. For many domain specific designs, the demands for high performance parallel computing result in repetitive hardware instances, such as the processing elements in the neural network accelerators. As these instances can dominate the area of the designs, the runtime of the complete design’s placement can be traded for optimizing and reusing one instance’s placement to achieve higher quality. Therefore, this work proposes a mixed integer programming (MIP)-based placement refinement algorithm for the repetitive instances. By efficiently modeling the rectilinear steiner tree wirelength, the placement can be precisely refined for better quality. Besides, the MIP formulations for timing-driven placement are proposed. A theoretical proof is then provided to show the correctness of the proposed wirelength model. For the instances in various popular fields, the experiments show that given the placement from the commercial placers, the proposed algorithm can perform further placement refinement to reduce 3.76%/3.64% detailed routing wirelength and 1.68%/2.42% critical path delay under wirelength/timing-driven mode, respectively, and also outperforms the state-of-the-art previous work.
The Book Review Column
Authors: Tran Nicholas
Published: January 2024

When Least Is Best: How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible (2021 ed.) by Paul J. Nahin updates a historical but highly technical account of "what many brilliant mathematicians have done in the subject of extrema over the last two dozen centuries."
Technical Report Column
Authors: Kelley Dean
Published: January 2024

Welcome to the Technical Reports Column. If your institution publishes technical reports that you'd like to have included here, please contact me at the email address above.
Guest Column: The 7 faces of quantum NP
Authors: Gharibian Sevag
Published: January 2024

When it comes to NP, its natural definition, its wide applicability across scientific disciplines, and its timeless relevance, the writing is on the wall: There can be only one. Quantum NP, on the other hand, is clearly the apple that fell far from the tree of NP. Two decades since the first definitions of quantum NP started rolling in, quantum complexity theorists face a stark reality: There's QMA, QCMA, QMA1, QMA(2), StoqMA, and NQP. In this article aimed at a general theoretical computer science audience, I survey these various definitions of quantum NP, their strengths and weaknesses, and why most of them, for better or worse, actually appear to fit naturally into the complexity zoo.
Synergistic Effect of CNT-TiO2 Catalyst and 3D Electrode Architecture for Electrochemical Performance in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries
Authors: Grace J. Priscilla , Ghosh Sourav , Bhar Madhushri , Martha Surendra K.
Published: January 2024

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) are a potential electrochemical storage system for the future with high capacity (1675 mAh g−1) and energy density (∼2600 Wh kg−1). The poor conductivity of sulfur, polysulfide shuttle effect, and volume expansion of the sulfur cathode are the main hurdles to their commercialization. To mitigate these issues, this work represents a rational composite of hybrid multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) -TiO2 high surface area carbon-sulfur composite (CTHS) onto a 3D carbon fiber (CF) based free-standing electrode (CTHS@CF) architecture. TiO2 can effectively anchor the polysulfides by chemical bonding and improve cyclability. MWCNTs and CFs are the effective electron transport materials that accelerate the redox kinetics of polysulfides. The electrochemistry of CTHS@CF reveals an excellent discharge capacity of 910 mAh g−1 (1st cycle) at 100 mA g−1 compared to the conventional aluminum-coated (CTHS@Al) of 532 mAh g−1. The CTHS@CF (at 300 mA g−1) displays 514 mAh g−1 (initial discharge) capacity with 83% capacity retention up to 100 cycles, whereas CTHS@Al shows 394 mAh g−1 with 44% capacity retention. Combining 3D electrode architecture with the metal oxide (TiO2) plays a vital role in the electrochemistry of LSBs by improving the stability of the battery’s cycle life and overall energy density.
“Zero” Porosity High Loading NMC622 Positive Electrodes for Li-Ion Batteries
Authors: Alolaywi Haidar Y. , Uzun Kubra , Cheng Yang-Tse
Published: January 2024

LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 (NMC622) is a widely used positive electrode material for lithium-ion batteries, including electric vehicles. In this work, we investigated the effects of porosity, ranging from “zero” to the typical 35%, on the electrochemical behavior of high-loading NMC622 electrodes. Although it is well known that the energy density of the electrode increases with increasing areal capacity and decreasing porosity, NMC-positive electrodes with exceedingly low porosity (e.g., near zero) and high loading (e.g., 4 mAh cm−2) have not been investigated. Here, we report an intriguing observation that the “zero porosity” NMC electrode can have higher capacity at low C-rates, and the volumetric energy density significantly increases to 1739 Wh l−1 compared to 805 Wh l−1 of conventional electrodes of 35% porosity. We performed cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to help understand this observation. This work provides new insights into the effects of porosity on the electrochemical behavior of high-loading positive electrodes.
Evaluation of Fire Spread and Suppression Techniques in Micro-Mobility Battery Packs
Authors: Torelli Daniel A. , Faenza Nicholas , Johns Phil , Lawton Sam , Frake James
Published: January 2024

Lithium-ion battery packs used in micro-mobility devices, such as e-bikes and e-scooters can lead to substantial safety hazards should a single cell go into thermal runaway. In this paper we explore the extent and severity of e-mobility battery fires resulting from a single cell thermal runaway failure and evaluate various suppression techniques a user may attempt to implement if they experience a battery fire at home. We tested a household water hose as well as different fire blankets deployed both before the forced thermal runaway event and after initiation. The water hose was unable to supply a sufficient amount of water to extinguish the thermal event, however, the average pack temperature was decreased and the cell-to-cell propagation rate was slowed. Neither fire blanket tested was able to contain the flames or debris ejected from the battery packs and both acted to hold in the heat from the event, increasing the temperature, rather than allowing it to dissipate. In addition, we also demonstrated how various design approaches, such as added thermal insulation between cells, can help prevent cell-to-cell propagation and reduce the severity of a battery pack failure.
Communication—Annealing Strategies for Spray Deposited Precursor Films of p-Type CuCr1-xMgxO2
Authors: Boshta M. , Gomaa M. M. , Sayed M. H. , Mohamed H. , Shengelaya A. , Chikoidze E. , Dumont Y. , Neumann-Spallart M.
Published: January 2024

Annealing of sprayed pure and Mg doped CuCrO2 thin films by high intensity, short time light irradiation leads to a single delafossite phase at comparatively low temperatures compared with traditional furnace annealing. P-type crystalline undoped and Mg-doped CuCrO2 films were obtained within few minutes by annealing with halogen lamp between 550 °C and 650 °C in Ar atmosphere. Transport properties of Mg-doped thin films were comparable to furnace annealed samples despite much shorter annealing time. The results demonstrate that post-annealing of chemically deposited samples using light irradiation is an effective and fast method for obtaining transparent conducting delafossite thin films.
Crystallinity-Controlled Atomic Layer Deposition of Ti-Doped ZrO2 Thin Films
Authors: Song Seokhwi , Kim Eungju , Kim Kyunghoo , Bae Jangho , Lee Jinho , Jung Chang Hwa , Lim Hanjin , Jeon Hyeongtag
Published: January 2024

We investigated Ti-doped ZrO2 deposition using a cyclopentadienyl tris(dimethylamino) zirconium (CpZr(NMe2)3) precursor and a titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) precursor using an O3 thermal atomic layer deposition process. In addition, the effect of Ti doping concentration on the chemical bonding and electrical properties of the Ti-doped ZrO2 thin films was studied. O3 was used at a high concentration of 400 g m−3. We varied the Ti doping concentration by controlling the rate of the supercycle process in the ZrO2 process window of 200 °C–300 °C. As a result, the highest dielectric constant was observed at a Ti doping concentration of 2.5% because it enhances the crystallinity of ZrO. Excessive Ti doping hinders crystal formation.
InGaN for Solar Cell Application
Authors: Wu Jin
Published: January 2024

InGaN can reach all values of bandgap from 3.4 to 0.7eV, which covers almost the entire solar spectrum. This study is to understand the influence of each parameter of the solar cell for an improved optimization of performance. The yield obtained for a reference cell is 10.5 % for optimal values of doping of the layers. For generation and recombination, performance of the cell varies with these settings. III nitrides have a high absorption coefficient, a very thin layers of material are sufficient to absorb most of the light.
Empagliflozin improves vascular insulin sensitivity and muscle perfusion in persons with type 2 diabetes
Authors: Jahn Linda A. , Hartline Lee M. , Nguyen Thi , Aylor Kevin , Horton William B. , Liu Zhenqi , Barrett Eugene J.
Published: January 2024

The physiological underpinnings of the cardiovascular benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors remain uncertain. We tested whether empagliflozin mitigates vascular insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes. Aortic and peripheral systolic, diastolic, mean and pulse pressures, endothelial function, vascular stiffness, and heart and muscle microvascular perfusion were measured before and during an insulin infusion at baseline and after 12 wk of empagliflozin. After empagliflozin, vascular responses to insulin improved dramatically.
Motion state-dependent motor learning based on explicit visual feedback has limited spatiotemporal properties compared with adaptation to physical perturbations
Authors: Zhou Weiwei , Monsen Emma , Fernandez Kareelynn Donjuan , Haly Katelyn , Kruse Elizabeth A. , Joiner Wilsaan M.
Published: January 2024

Adjustment of motor output based on limb motion state information can be achieved based on explicit information or from physical perturbations. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal characteristics of short-term motor learning to determine the properties of the respective learning mechanisms. Our results suggest that adjustments based on physical perturbations are more temporally stable and applied over a greater spatial range than the learning based on explicit visual feedback, suggesting largely separate learning mechanisms.
A Knee Point‐Driven Many‐Objective Evolutionary Algorithm with Adaptive Switching Mechanism
Authors: He Maowei , Wang Xu , Chen Hanning , Li Xuguang
Published: January 2024

The Pareto dominance‐based evolutionary algorithms can effectively address multiobjective optimization problems (MOPs). However, when dealing with many‐objective optimization problems with more than three objectives (MaOPs), the Pareto dominance relationships cannot effectively distinguish the nondominated solutions in high‐dimensional spaces. With the increase of the number of objectives, the proportion of dominance‐resistant solutions (DRSs) in the population rapidly increases, which leads to insufficient selection pressure. In this paper, to address the challenges on MaOPs, a knee point‐driven many‐objective evolutionary algorithm with adaptive switching mechanism (KPEA) is proposed. In KPEA, the knee points determined by an adaptive strategy are introduced for not only mating selection but also environmental selection, which increases the probability of generating excellent offspring. In addition, to remove dominance‐resistant solutions (DRSs) in the population, an interquartile range method is adopted, which enhances the selection pressure. Moreover, a novel adaptive switching mechanism between angle‐based selection and penalty for selecting solutions is proposed, which is aimed at achieving a balance between convergence and diversity. To validate the performance of KPEA, it is compared with five state‐of‐the‐art many‐objective evolutionary algorithms. All algorithms are evaluated on 20 benchmark problems, i.e., WFG1‐9, MaF1, and MaF4‐13 with 3, 5, 8, and 10 objectives. The experimental results demonstrate that KPEA outperforms the compared algorithms in terms of HV and IGD in most of the test instances.
Study on the Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndromes in Patients with Erosive Gastritis Based on Metabolomics
Authors: Shixiong Zhang , Shaowei Liu , Zeqi Yang , Miaochan Xu , Pingping Zhou , Haiyan Bai , Jingjing Lv , Yangang Wang
Published: January 2024

According to traditional Chinese medicine theory, tongue coatings reflect changes in the body. The goal of this study was to identify a metabolite or a set of metabolites capable of classifying characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine syndromes in erosive gastritis. In this study, we collected tongue coatings of patients with erosive gastritis with damp-heat syndrome (DHS), liver depression and qi stagnation syndrome (LDQSS), and healthy volunteers. Then, we analyzed the differences in metabolic characteristics between the two groups based on metabolomics. We identified 14 potential biomarkers related to the DHS group, and six metabolic pathways were enriched. The differential pathways included pyrimidine metabolism, pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, citrate cycle (TCA cycle), pyruvate metabolism, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, and purine metabolism. Similarly, in the LDQSS group, we identified 25 potential biomarkers and 18 metabolic pathways were enriched. The top five pathways were the TCA cycle, sphingolipid metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, and the pentose phosphate pathway. In conclusion, the DHS group and the LDQSS group have different characteristics.
Splitting Long Event Sequences Drawn from Cyclic Processes for Discovering Workflow Nets
Authors: Alvarez-Pérez Yolanda , López-Mellado Ernesto
Published: January 2024

This paper addresses the preprocessing of event sequences issued from cyclic discrete event processes, which perform activities continuously whose delimitation of jobs or cases is not explicit. The sequences include several occurrences of the same events due to the iterative behaviour, such that discovery methods conceived for workflow nets (WFN) cannot process such sequences. In order to handle this issue, a novel technique for splitting a set of long event traces S = {Sk} (|S| ≥ 1) exhibiting the behaviour of cyclic processes is presented. The aim of this technique is to obtain from S a log λ = {σi} of event traces representing the same behaviour, which can be processed by methods that discover WFN. The procedures derived from this technique have polynomial-time complexity.
Climate Change Affects Choice and Management of Training Systems in the Grapevine
Authors: Del Zozzo Filippo , Poni Stefano
Published: January 2024

Although vertical shoot positioned (VSP) training systems, either cane- or spur-pruned, are adopted in the great majority of the vineyards worldwide, the lianas nature of the grapevine and the presence of long and flexible canes confer high plasticity and render structural and pruning changes quite easy. The focus of this review is if, in light of the most consistent features triggered by global warming (e.g., longer growing season, earlier phenology, faster ripening, higher incidence of overheating stress and sunburn, higher frequency of extreme weather events), the type and management of training systems should also be reconsidered. We surveyed the main methods to assess training system efficiency and the current attempts and outlook toward exploiting the training system as an adaptation tool to climate change. For the latter, we considered 12 main trellis types and scored them based on climate-related features and general traits such as vigor, yield control, susceptibility to fungal diseases, and suitability according to wine types (still or sparkling). The resulting balance of positive and negative recommendations leads to a re-evaluation of either old, nonmechanizable trellis types (e.g., Raggi-Bellussi and pergola types), divided canopy systems (e.g., GDC and Scott Henry) or, among the single canopy types, of the single high wire (SHW) trellis. However, historical systems traditionally used by best regions and producers (e.g., goblet and VSP either cane- or spur-pruned) overall show less adherence to the chosen evaluation criteria. To direct future evolution of training systems, regardless of the broadly shared need for suitability to partial or full mechanization, the scenario looks different depending on cool and temperate (warm) areas. The former experiences an outburst of interest as warming is broadening growing areas and affordable genotypes. Under such circumstances, training systems should help accelerate or favor the ripening process through vigor control and lower yield, better cluster exposure, and nonlimiting leaf area-to-fruit ratio. Whereas, in warm areas that are now becoming sub-tropical areas in the worst cases, the SHW gains credit as compared to goblet and traditional VSP. The latter requires an increasing number of canopy manipulations and a rethinking of some planting choices to accommodate the needs of slower and more delayed ripening, more cluster shading, and higher cordons, the latter reducing the probability of incurring significant frost damage.
Conservative Nonsurgical Approach for Management of a Case of Type II Dens in Dente
Authors: Agarwal Navin S. , Singh Shishir , Chandrasekhar Padmini , Kulkarni Gaurav , Podar Rajesh
Published: January 2024

Dens in dente is a developmental dental anomaly which poses a challenge for the endodontist due to its complex pulpal anatomy. In this case report, a class 2 dens in dente was managed nonsurgically. A 32‐year‐old female reported with a palatal swelling and pain in the upper front region of the jaw. On examination, #7 was observed to be malformed and showed a negative pulpal sensibility test. Radiographic and CBCT analysis revealed Ohler’s type 2 dens in dente with a periapical radiolucency. In the first visit, invagination was removed using diamond‐coated ultrasonic tips, the canal was minimally instrumented, and premixed calcium hydroxide was injected in the canal which accidentally extruded periapically. After two weeks, a draining sinus was observed on the palatal side which when traced, lead to #7. Intracanal dressing was replaced with a mix of powdered calcium hydroxide and saline. The dressing was replaced every two weeks, and radiographs were taken, which revealed the resorption of extruded calcium hydroxide and reduction in the osseous defect. Biodentine was used to obturate the entire canal space. Subsequent follow‐up radiographs till 24 months showed significant periapical healing and resorption of extruded calcium hydroxide.
Partial Replacement of Fish Meal with an Aquatic Macrophyte, Ceratophyllum demersum in the Diet of Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio var. communis Fingerlings
Authors: Ahmed Imtiaz , Lateef Anzar , Jan Kousar , Khan Younis Mohd
Published: January 2024

A 12‐week feeding trial was conducted to investigate the nutrient utilization, growth performance, and hematological indices of Cyprinus carpio var. communis fingerlings fed diets based on aquatic macrophyte, Ceratophyllum demersum as a replacement of fish meal (FM). Six isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets containing graded levels of C. demersum 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%, respectively, as replacer of FM were formulated. Total of 360 fingerlings with an initial weight of 3.65 ± 0.98 g were randomly stocked in 70 L plastic tanks water volume 60 L connected with a continuous flow‐through system (1–1.5 L/min) for each treatment and were run in triplicate having 20 fish in each tank. At the end of the feeding trial, it was observed that the C. carpio var. communis fingerlings receiving 5% and 10% C. demersum in the diet showed improvements in live weight gain (LWG), specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and protein efficiency rate (PER). While further addition of C. demersum as a replacement of FM from 15% to 25% led to the progressive decline in the values of LWG, SGR, FCR, and PER. Hematological data also exhibited a linear declining trend beyond the 10% C. demersum replacement level. The fish fed with higher inclusions of C. demersum in each diet significantly (P < 0.05) affected whole body composition with the lowest protein and fat amounts recorded at higher replacement levels significantly (P < 0.05). The highest protein and fat contents were observed at 5% and 10% diets. Except serum glucose, cholesterol, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), the other serum indices exhibited a decreasing trend with increasing inclusion of C. demersum in the diet. The results of the present study clearly demonstrated that the inclusion of 10% C. demersum did not affect the growth and other parameters of C. carpio var. communis fingerlings compared to the 50% FM diet. However, it is recommended that 10% FM can be substituted without compromising the growth and nutritional quality of fish.
Residue of Pesticides in Fruits, Vegetables, and Their Management in Ethiopia
Authors: Gelaye Yohannes , Negash Belete
Published: January 2024

In Ethiopia, using pesticides to manage pests in the growing of fruits and vegetables is a standard practice. Various classes of pesticides have been approved to combat pests, but the majority of those in use now are outdated broad-spectrum insecticides with significant residual effects on crops of freshly eaten fruits and vegetables. This review reveals that Ethiopia’s assessment of the residual pesticide level in fruits and vegetables has been lacking. According to the reviewed literature, crops that are often treated with pesticides in many countries have significant residual pesticide levels. However, Ethiopia has not adequately reported on this issue. Furthermore, due to a lack of knowledge regarding the impact of pesticide residues on human health, Ethiopians frequently use pesticides improperly to control pests in fruits and vegetables. The majority of consumers eat their fruits and vegetables unprocessed, without washing or cooking them first. To reduce the risk of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables for consumer safety and to battle the health effects of toxic chemicals in humans, monitoring pesticide residues and raising awareness about the adverse effects of pesticides on humans are urgently needed. Before they may be registered and sold, pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables as well as in the environment must also undergo proper testing and evaluation. New pesticide generations that have fewer side effects on fruits and vegetables must also be developed. By washing, peeling, canning, or boiling fruits and vegetables before consumption, the detrimental effects of pesticide residues on human health can be minimized.
Early Detection of Molecular Residual Disease and Risk Stratification for Children with Acute Myeloid Leukemia via Circulating Tumor DNA
Authors: Liu Li-Peng , Zong Su-Yu , Zhang Ao-Li , Ren Yuan-Yuan , Qi Ben-Quan , Chang Li-Xian , Yang Wen-Yu , Chen Xiao-Juan , Chen Yu-Mei , Zhang Li , Zou Yao , Guo Ye , Zhang Ying-Chi , Ruan Min , Zhu Xiao-Fan
Published: January 2024

Purpose:

Patient-tailored minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring based on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) sequencing of leukemia-specific mutations enables early detection of relapse for pre-emptive treatment, but its utilization in pediatric acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is scarce. Thus, we aim to examine the role of ctDNA as a prognostic biomarker in monitoring response to the treatment of pediatric AML.

Experimental Design:

A prospective longitudinal study with 50 children with AML was launched, and sequential bone marrow (BM) and matched plasma samples were collected. The concordance of mutations by next-generation sequencing–based BM-DNA and ctDNA was evaluated. In addition, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated.

Results:

In 195 sample pairs from 50 patients, the concordance of leukemia-specific mutations between ctDNA and BM-DNA was 92.8%. Patients with undetectable ctDNA were linked to improved OS and PFS versus detectable ctDNA in the last sampling (both P < 0.001). Patients who cleared their ctDNA post three cycles of treatment had similar PFS compared with persistently negative ctDNA (P = 0.728). In addition, patients with >3 log reduction but without clearance in ctDNA were associated with an improved PFS as were patients with ctDNA clearance (P = 0.564).

Conclusions:

Thus, ctDNA-based MRD monitoring appears to be a promising option to complement the overall assessment of pediatric patients with AML, wherein patients with continuous ctDNA negativity have the option for treatment de-escalation in subsequent therapy. Importantly, patients with >3 log reduction but without clearance in ctDNA may not require an aggressive treatment plan due to improved survival, but this needs further study to delineate.