bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Headache and Facial Pain/Pressure in the Chronic Rhinosinusitis Population: A Systematic Review and Meta‐analysis
Authors: Heiland Luke D. , Farmer Hannah G. , Nguyen Shaun A. , Soler Zachary M. , Schlosser Rodney J.
Published: June 2024

Objective

To evaluate the severity and prevalence of headache and facial pain/pressurere in the chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) population.

Data Sources

CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus.

Review Methods

The literature was searched from inception through June 2023 for English language articles documenting “headache” or “facial pain/pressure” and “chronic rhinosinusitis.” Data collected included Lund‐MacKay computed tomography score, Lund‐Kennedy endoscopy score, sinonasal outcome test, and visual analog scale. Meta‐analyses were performed on continuous measures (mean), proportions (%), and regression.

Results

A total of 69 studies were included with 8643 CRS patients and 703 control patients. The CRS group had a mean age of 44.1 (range: 16‐82; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 40.3‐48) and 86.1% [95% CI: 76.4‐93.5] with nasal polyposis. The control group had a mean age of 39.2 (range: 17‐88; 95% CI: 28.7‐49.8). All CRS subgroups had significantly more severe headache and facial pain/pressure when compared to the control (P < .0001). Patients without polyps had significantly more severe facial pain/pressure and headache when compared to patients with polyps (P < .0001). Facial pain/pressure is a moderate problem or worse in 29.8% of polypoid patients versus 56.4% of nonpolypoid patients; Δ26.6% [95% CI: 0.7‐50; P = .045].

Conclusions

Across all outcome metrics, CRS patients experience significantly more severe headache and facial pain/pressure when compared to a control population. Nonpolypoid patients experience significantly more severe facial pain/pressure and headache when compared to polypoid patients. The majority of nonpolypoid patients experience facial pain/pressure that is moderate in severity or worse.
ChatENT: Augmented Large Language Model for Expert Knowledge Retrieval in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery
Authors: Long Cai , Subburam Deepak , Lowe Kayle , dos Santos André , Zhang Jessica , Hwang Sang , Saduka Neil , Horev Yoav , Su Tao , Côté David W.J. , Wright Erin D.
Published: June 2024

Objective

The recent surge in popularity of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, has showcased their proficiency in medical examinations and potential applications in health care. However, LLMs possess inherent limitations, including inconsistent accuracy, specific prompting requirements, and the risk of generating harmful hallucinations. A domain‐specific model might address these limitations effectively.

Study Design

Developmental design.

Setting

Virtual.

Methods

Otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (OHNS) relevant data were systematically gathered from open‐access Internet sources and indexed into a knowledge database. We leveraged Retrieval‐Augmented Language Modeling to recall this information and utilized it for pretraining, which was then integrated into ChatGPT4.0, creating an OHNS‐specific knowledge question & answer platform known as ChatENT. The model is further tested on different types of questions.

Results

ChatENT showed enhanced performance in the analysis and interpretation of OHNS information, outperforming ChatGPT4.0 in both the Canadian Royal College OHNS sample examination questions challenge and the US board practice questions challenge, with a 58.4% and 26.0% error reduction, respectively. ChatENT generated fewer hallucinations and demonstrated greater consistency.

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, ChatENT is the first specialty‐specific knowledge retrieval artificial intelligence in the medical field that utilizes the latest LLM. It appears to have considerable promise in areas such as medical education, patient education, and clinical decision support. The model has demonstrated the capacity to overcome the limitations of existing LLMs, thereby signaling a future of more precise, safe, and user‐friendly applications in the realm of OHNS and other medical fields.
Effects of dopamine‐modified ZnO and Ce‐Zr oxides on UV resistance and thermal stability of epoxy composites
Authors: Li Yi , Zhang Ning , Zhu Yanchao , Cheng Min , Gao Shuang
Published: June 2024

In this work, surface‐modified Ce‐Zr oxides and ZnO nanoparticles were conveniently prepared by dopamine (Dpa) treatment and then composited with epoxy (EP) by hot pressing. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and UV‐shielding properties of the EP composites with surface modification with Dpa‐CZ and Dpa‐ZnO were measured. The TGA results showed that the modified treated fillers had no loss of heat resistance of the matrix and had an enhancement effect on the initial and maximum decomposition temperatures. In addition, the UV‐shielding properties of EP composites after Dpa‐CZ and Dpa‐ZnO modifications both showed a significant enhancement effect compared to pure EP. The T(UVA) of the 0.5 wt% Dpa‐ZnO modified composite decreased to less than 0.017%, and the T(UVB) decreased to less than 0.0059%. The T(UVA) of the 0.5 wt% Dpa‐CZ modified composite decreased to less than 15.98%, and the T(UVB) decreased to below 1.14%. The composites have both excellent thermal stability and UV‐shielding efficiency.
The effectiveness of an ultra‐brief intervention in 1 min for hazardous drinking in a general hospital setting: A quasi‐randomized pilot trial
Authors: Tezuka Yukio , So Ryuhei , Fukuda Takahiro
Published: June 2024

Objective

We investigated the effectiveness of an ultra‐brief intervention (Ultra‐BI) for patients with hazardous drinking behaviors admitted to a general hospital.

Method

In a quasi‐randomized controlled trial at a general hospital in Japan, we assigned participants to intervention or control groups based on the last digit of their patient ID (odd for intervention, even for control). The study included inpatients with Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test‐Consumption (AUDIT‐C) scores of ≥5 for men and ≥4 for women. The intervention involved providing advice and feedback within 1 min, accompanied by a leaflet on alcohol‐related issues (Ultra‐BI). The control group did not receive any intervention. The primary outcome was average weekly alcohol consumption at 3 months postintervention.

Results

The study included 68 participants. The intervention group showed a reduction in average weekly alcohol consumption by −69.7 g/week compared to the control group (95% confidence interval [CI] −145.7 to 6.3 g/week, p = 0.07). Post‐hoc analysis, adjusting for baseline values, indicated a between‐group difference of −78.7 g/week (95% CI −135.2 to −22.2 g/week, p = 0.007).

Conclusion

This pilot trial suggests the potential effectiveness of the Ultra‐BI in general hospital wards. Further large‐scale studies are required to confirm these findings.
A fast and sensitive size‐exclusion chromatography method for plasma extracellular vesicle proteomic analysis
Authors: Díaz Ludovico Ivo , Powell Samantha M. , Many Gina , Bramer Lisa , Sarkar Soumyadeep , Stratton Kelly , Liu Tao , Shi Tujin , Qian Wei‐Jun , Burnum‐Johnson Kristin E. , Melchior John T. , Nakayasu Ernesto S.
Published: June 2024

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) carry diverse biomolecules derived from their parental cells, making their components excellent biomarker candidates. However, purifying EVs is a major hurdle in biomarker discovery since current methods require large amounts of samples, are time‐consuming and typically have poor reproducibility. Here we describe a simple, fast, and sensitive EV fractionation method using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) on a fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) system. Our method uses a Superose 6 Increase 5/150, which has a bed volume of 2.9 mL. The FPLC system and small column size enable reproducible separation of only 50 µL of human plasma in 15 min. To demonstrate the utility of our method, we used longitudinal samples from a group of individuals who underwent intense exercise. A total of 838 proteins were identified, of which, 261 were previously characterized as EV proteins, including classical markers, such as cluster of differentiation (CD)9 and CD81. Quantitative analysis showed low technical variability with correlation coefficients greater than 0.9 between replicates. The analysis captured differences in relevant EV proteins involved in response to physical activity. Our method enables fast and sensitive fractionation of plasma EVs with low variability, which will facilitate biomarker studies in large clinical cohorts.
Rheostatic contributions to protein stability can obscure a position's functional role
Authors: O'Neil Pierce T. , Swint‐Kruse Liskin , Fenton Aron W.
Published: June 2024

Rheostat positions, which can be substituted with various amino acids to tune protein function across a range of outcomes, are a developing area for advancing personalized medicine and bioengineering. Current methods cannot accurately predict which proteins contain rheostat positions or their substitution outcomes. To compare the prevalence of rheostat positions in homologs, we previously investigated their occurrence in two pyruvate kinase (PYK) isozymes. Human liver PYK contained numerous rheostat positions that tuned the apparent affinity for the substrate phosphoenolpyruvate (Kapp‐PEP) across a wide range. In contrast, no functional rheostat positions were identified in Zymomonas mobilis PYK (ZmPYK). Further, the set of ZmPYK substitutions included an unusually large number that lacked measurable activity. We hypothesized that the inactive substitution variants had reduced protein stability, precluding detection of Kapp‐PEP tuning. Using modified buffers, robust enzymatic activity was obtained for 19 previously‐inactive ZmPYK substitution variants at three positions. Surprisingly, both previously‐inactive and previously‐active substitution variants all had Kapp‐PEP values close to wild‐type. Thus, none of the three positions were functional rheostat positions, and, unlike human liver PYK, ZmPYK's Kapp‐PEP remained poorly tunable by single substitutions. To directly assess effects on stability, we performed thermal denaturation experiments for all ZmPYK substitution variants. Many diminished stability, two enhanced stability, and the three positions showed different thermal sensitivity to substitution, with one position acting as a “stability rheostat.” The differences between the two PYK homologs raises interesting questions about the underlying mechanism(s) that permit functional tuning by single substitutions in some proteins but not in others.
Basic immunologic study as a foundation for engineered therapeutic development
Authors: DeStefano Sabrina , Fertil Daphna , Faust Mondreakest , Sadtler Kaitlyn
Published: June 2024

Bioengineering and drug delivery technologies play an important role in bridging the gap between basic scientific discovery and clinical application of therapeutics. To identify the optimal treatment, the most critical stage is to diagnose the problem. Often these two may occur simultaneously or in parallel, but in this review, we focus on bottom‐up approaches in understanding basic immunologic phenomena to develop targeted therapeutics. This can be observed in several fields; here, we will focus on one of the original immunotherapy targets—cancer—and one of the more recent targets—regenerative medicine. By understanding how our immune system responds in processes such as malignancies, wound healing, and medical device implantation, we can isolate therapeutic targets for pharmacologic and bioengineered interventions.
Spatial poverty dynamics and social mobility in rural America
Authors: Connor Dylan S. , Xie Siqiao , Uhl Johannes H. , Talbot Catherine , Hester Cyrus , Jaworski Taylor , Gutmann Myron , Leyk Stefan , Hunter Lori
Published: June 2024

Rural America is often depicted as a distressed and left‐behind place, with limited opportunities for the children growing up there. This paper addresses this topic by examining the dynamics of rural places over the past four decades and how these changes impact the economic mobility of children raised in poor rural households. Employing a place‐based framework, we utilise sequence analysis to identify dominant trajectories of change for more than 8000 rural communities. Our analysis reveals highly diverse community trajectories that connect deindustrialisation and racial inequality to elevated and rising poverty rates in certain places, while also documenting more favourable poverty trends elsewhere. These diverging local outcomes shed new light on the conflicting narratives surrounding rural America. We then demonstrate that, among children from poorer households, exposure to community poverty is predictive of adult economic mobility, patterns which are partly mediated by family stability and child poverty. Our finding that poor children face additional disadvantages when they also grow up in poor places suggests a potential role for place‐based policies and redistribution to help ameliorate these disparities.
Non‐Hermitian Control of Multimode Duan‐PPT Criteria and Steering in Energy‐Level Cascaded Four‐Wave Mixing Processes
Authors: Wei Jiajia , Huang Cheng , He Yandong , Wei Jiaxuan , Qin Wenqiang , Tang Haitian , Li Ning , Li Feng , Cai Yin , Li Bo , Zhang Yanpeng
Published: June 2024

The non‐Hermitian singularity control of multimode entanglement in the energy‐level cascaded four‐wave mixing system within a single atomic vapor is of great significance and importance. In this study, a non‐Hermiticity system by means of quasi‐quantization of energy‐band based on non‐Hermiticity systems is constructed. By employing atomic coherence in the non‐Hermiticity system, high‐dimensional quantized photon correlations underdressed field‐induced parity‐time (PT) symmetry and symmetry breaking through the quantization of energy levels are studied. Such a phenomenon happens at microscopic (nanoscale) when the eigenvalues of dressed energy‐level and multimode entanglement are considered for both real and imaginary parts symmetry breaking. Double dressing effect is observed with more coherent channels and larger information capacity than single dressing in the energy‐level cascaded four‐wave mixing system. The study found that the splitting of the real part is larger than an imaginary part in a second‐order system, and the imaginary part splitting is also greater than the real part splitting in a third‐order system. The real part (in phase) is constructive dressing quantization, and the imaginary (out of phase) is destructive dressing quantization. Exceptional points (EP points) can be used to enhance sensitivity detection of entanglement quantum state.
Kikuchi‐Fujimoto disease following SARS‐CoV‐2 infection: A rare disease with increased incidence during the COVID‐19 pandemic?
Authors: Leung Cheuk Cheung Derek , Chan Hiu Ching Christy , Chan Ming Chiu , Chan Yu Hong , Ho Man Ying , Chen Chun Hoi , Ngai Ching Man , Yeung Yiu Cheong
Published: June 2024

Kikuchi‐Fujimoto Disease (KFD), also known as Kikuchi disease or Kikuchi histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis, is a rare and self‐limiting condition characterized by cervical lymphadenopathy and fever, primarily affecting young Asian adults. The aetiology of KFD remains unknown, although various infectious agents have been suggested as potential triggers. With the emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic, cases of post‐COVID‐19 KFD and post‐COVID‐19 vaccine KFD have been reported. In this article, we present the first case of post‐COVID‐19 KFD in Hong Kong. A 24‐year‐old man developed fever and painful neck swelling 1 month after recovering from COVID‐19. Diagnostic evaluation, including ultrasound‐guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), confirmed the diagnosis of KFD. The patient's symptoms resolved spontaneously with supportive care. This case underscores the importance of considering KFD as a potential differential diagnosis in patients presenting with cervical lymphadenopathy and fever following COVID‐19 recovery or vaccination.
Fault estimation for a class of nonlinear distributed systems using the adaptive observer technique
Authors: Liu Yulan , Yan Ge , Chen Tianrui
Published: June 2024

In this article, a fault estimation method is proposed for a class of nonlinear distributed systems, in which the adaptive observer technique is exploited to estimate the parameters related to the fault in the interconnection items. First, we consider the simple case that the interconnection items only contain measurable variables. And then the result will be extended to the case that the interconnection items contain unmeasurable variables. Due to the existing of nonlinear item, the state and parameter estimations cannot be decoupled from each other, which makes the analysis of the convergence of the state and parameter estimations much more difficult. To overcome this problem, by designing of an integral Lyapunov function, and by exploiting the converse theorem of Lyapunov, a sufficient condition for the exponential convergence of the proposed algorithm is derived. Moreover, the detail relationship between the observer gain, Lipschitz parameter of the nonlinear item and the PE level of the estimation system is also derived. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed fault identification scheme.
Event‐triggered extended dissipativity control for semi‐Markov jump systems under multiple types of deception attacks: A semi‐Markov model approach
Authors: Wang Qian , Zhang Xiaojun , Zhong Shouming , Cheng Jun , Shi Kaibo
Published: June 2024

The event‐triggered extended dissipativity control problem for semi‐Markov jump systems (SMJSs) on the basis of multiple types of deception attacks is discussed in this paper. The mode‐ and disturbance‐dependent event‐triggered mechanism (ETM), unlike the traditional ETM, is designed to identify the triggered moments which can prevent network resources from being wasted. Additionally, as the attack evolves into a more intelligent and complex strategy, It is hypothesized that there are multiple deception attacks that can be applied to the communication channels between the sensor and the controller, which are modeled by a more general semi‐Markov process (SMP). As a result, by using stochastic analysis techniques and system‐mode‐dependent and attack‐mode‐dependent Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional (LKF), a new sufficient condition is established to guarantee the stochastic stability and extended dissipativity of the closed‐loop SMJSs. Four numerical cases are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed method.
Emotions in search of words: Does alexithymia predict treatment outcome in chronic musculoskeletal pain?
Authors: Lanzara Roberta , Conti Chiara , Lalli Vittorio , Cannizzaro Paolo , Affaitati Gianna Pia , Giamberardino Maria Adele , Williams Alison , Porcelli Piero
Published: June 2024

Chronic pain, with its complex and multidimensional nature, poses significant challenges in identifying effective long‐term treatments. There is growing scientific interest in how psychopathological and personality dimensions may influence the maintenance and development of chronic pain. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate whether alexithymia can predict the improvement of pain severity following a treatment‐as‐usual programme for chronic musculoskeletal pain over and above psychological cofactors (emotional distress, catastrophizing, and self‐efficacy). A consecutive sample of 129 patients with diagnosed chronic musculoskeletal pain referred to two tertiary care centres was recruited and treated for 16 weeks. Clinical pain, psychological distress, self‐efficacy, catastrophizing, and alexithymia were assessed with validated self‐report measures at the first medical visit (T0) and at 16‐week follow‐up (T1). Compared with non‐responder patients (n = 72, 55.8%), those who responded (i.e., reduction of >30% in pain severity; n = 57, 44.2%) reported an overall improvement in psychological variables except alexithymia. Alexithymia showed relative stability between baseline and follow‐up within the entire sample and remained a significant predictor of treatment outcome even when other predictive cofactors (i.e., pain interference, depressive symptoms, and catastrophizing) were considered simultaneously. Our results suggest that identifying patients with a co‐occurrence between alexithymia, depressive symptoms, catastrophizing, and the stressful experience of chronic pain can be clinically relevant in pain prevention and intervention programs.
Multifunctional Nanodrug‐Mediated Immunotherapy in Microsatellite Stable Colorectal Cancer via Promoting m6A Modification and M1‐Like Tumor‐Associated Macrophages Polarization
Authors: Li Caiying , Chen Gengjia , Li Tan , Xie Peiyi , Ma Decai , Yang Long , Xiao Zecong , Shuai Xintao , Meng Xiaochun
Published: June 2024

Immunotherapy has made great progress in various solid tumors. However, the “cold” tumor immune microenvironment of microsatellite stable subtype colorectal cancer (MSS‐CRC) hinders the effectiveness of immunotherapy. Therefore, reshaping the immunosuppressive microenvironment and initiating efficient antitumor immune responses are critical for immunotherapy of MSS‐CRC. According to the analysis of clinical samples, it is found that the levels of fat mass and obesity‐associated protein (FTO) and M2‐like tumor‐associated macrophages (TAMs) infiltration are significantly elevated in CRC tissue, which has driven one to construct a targeted cationic liposome to simultaneously enhance the RNA methylation and inhibit the CD47 immune checkpoint expression of tumor cells in the hope of promoting the M1‐like TAMs polarization and phagocytosis. By upregulating the m6A modification of tumor cells, the lactate secretion is decreased to promote the TAMs repolarized into M1‐like. Meanwhile, CD47 siRNA codelivered by the cationic liposomes downregulates the expression of immune checkpoint CD47 on the cancer cell surface, which enhances the phagocytic ability of the M1‐like TAMs. The combination treatment scheme is expected to provide a new option for treating MSS‐CRC, which may also be extended for treating other immunologically “cold” tumors.
Rethinking Global Englishes and Moving toward Reparative Redress for Language‐Minoritized and Racialized TESOL Practitioners
Authors: Imperial Rowland Anthony
Published: June 2024

In this article, I propose an ontological break in Global Englishes‐oriented research and teaching practice, and a critical‐ethical movement beyond the five foundational paradigms of GELT. I do this by first drawing on two philosophical perspectives on liberation and justice—Enrique Dussel's (2013) ethics of liberation and Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò's (2022) constructive and distributive model of reparative justice—and then conceptually linking them to two critical perspectives outside of the Global Englishes paradigm, that is, Flores & Rosa's (2015, 2022) raciolinguistic perspective and Canagarajah's (2023) decolonial crip linguistics perspective. The conceptual work that I present here involves mapping out a critical‐ethical framework, a pedagogy for repair, that seeks to redress rather than reproduce structural injustices in ELT. The framework prioritizes the uptake of ethical research questions and positions and provides a heuristic for rethinking ELT in ways that allow us to be wholly committed to continuing TESOL's “transformative journey as an adaptable profession” (Rose & Galloway, 2019, p. 222). I argue that it is by critically addressing issues of injustice and ethically centering our work on the lives of language minoritized and racialized ELT/TESOL practitioners that we will ensure the long‐term adaptability and sustainability of the teaching profession.
Knowledge Transfer From Business Schools to Firms Through Academics: An AMO Perspective in an Emerging Economy
Authors: Boafo Christopher , Dornberger Utz
Published: June 2024

Society's growing demand for knowledge transfer from higher education institutions to firms through academics is a notable trend. Nonetheless, the nuances of how business school academics perceive their engagement in knowledge transfer to firms remain inadequately explored. This research endeavors to bridge this knowledge gap by drawing upon interviews conducted with 52 business school academics in Ghana. The synthesized findings derived from the interpretive phenomenological data analysis provide crucial insights grounded in the ability–motivation–opportunity theory framework. Within this framework, “opportunity” describes image‐ and project‐opportunity context drivers, such as media engagement, goodwill, in‐service training students, and projects by international development organizations fostered through relationship‐building and networking. “Motivation” explains the established national, societal, and self‐serving mandates, stimulating institutional‐, society‐, and person‐driven motivations. “Ability” encompasses the capacity of academics to employ both generic and relational mechanisms. The interplay among ability, motivation, and opportunity catalyzes the creation of various knowledge content types linked to specific market contexts.
Studies on the association of malondialdehyde as a biomarker for oxidative stress and degree of malignancy in dogs with mammary adenocarcinomas
Authors: Schroers Maike , Walter Beate , Fischer Stine , Cremer Jessica , Bauer Eva‐Maria , Zablotzki Yury , Majzoub‐Altweck Monir , Meyer‐Lindenberg Andrea
Published: June 2024

Background

Mammary adenocarcinomas are one of the most common tumour diseases in bitches. The relationship between oxidative stress and the degree of malignancy of the tumour has not been sufficiently researched in veterinary medicine.

Objectives

The main objective was to investigate the potential role of MDA as a practice‐relevant biomarker for the assessment of systemic oxidative stress and to determine whether this parameter can indicate the malignancy grade of a mammary adenocarcinoma.

Methods

In the present pilot study, MDA plasma concentrations were analysed in 55 bitches with (n = 28) and without (n027) malignant adenocarcinomas of the mammary gland using two different measurement methods and the relationship to tumour size was investigated.

Results

The mean MDA concentration measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was 289 ng/mL (range 365–634 ng/mL) in dogs with grade 1 adenocarcinoma (n = 13), 288.5 ng/mL (range 85–752 ng/mL) in dogs with grade 2 adenocarcinoma (n = 10), 332 ng/mL (range 239–947 ng/mL) in dogs with grade 3 (n = 5) adenocarcinoma and 293 ng/mL (range 175–549 ng/mL) in dogs without a mammary tumour (n = 27). When MDA was measured by HPLC, the average MDA concentration in the study group (n = 11) was 0.24 µmol/L (range 0.16–0.37) and that of the control group (n = 15) was 0.27 µmol/L (range 0.16–1.62). Thus, there were no significant differences between the study group with malignant adenocarcinomas and the control group in both examination methods (p > 0.05). Furthermore, there was no correlation between the MDA concentrations and the approximate volume of the mammary tumour.

Conclusion

The results highlight the challenges of providing a prognosis for the malignancy of a mammary adenocarcinoma based on MDA concentrations in plasma using ELISA or HPLC. As a result, histopathological examination remains the gold standard for diagnosing and differentiating adenocarcinomas of the mammary gland.
Consumer experiences navigating health care provider directories and support of federal policy action
Authors: Haeder Simon F. , Xu Wendy Yi
Published: June 2024

Most Americans rely on managed care networks and provider directories to access care. Little is known about how patients experience navigating directories, how it affects their lives, and whether Americans support federal action on the issue. We fielded a large, and demographically diverse survey of US adults (N = 10,739) from January to April 2022. The survey queried respondents about their experience using provider directories, problems they encountered, and support for federal policy action. Analyses were conducted using Weighted Ordinary Least Squares regression. We found that 43% of Americans used provider directories last year. Among these, provider directory inaccuracy affected 56%, with inaccurate network status (34%), providers having left the practice (18%), and wrong contact information (15%) serving as primary problems. A majority of those using provider directories faced challenges in accessing care subsequently. This included 28% delaying care, 10% seeking out Urgent Care and 6% Emergency Care, respectively, 5% going out of network, and 10% forging care. A substantial number suffered health (54%) and financial (51%) problems as a result and about half took some action as a result. Overall, Americans strongly supported various federal actions to improve directory accuracy. Provider directory inaccuracy affects a larger number of Americans, many of whom are severely affected by the challenges. Broad public support should encourage federal action on the issue.
Using the full potential of Airborne Laser Scanning (aerial LiDAR) in wildlife research
Authors: Cosgrove Cameron F. , Coops Nicholas C. , Martin Tara G.
Published: June 2024

Species' habitats are strongly influenced by the 3‐dimensional (3D) structure of ecosystems. The dominant technique used to measure 3D structure is Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS), a type of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology. Airborne Laser Scanning captures fine‐scale structural information over large spatial extents and provides useful environmental predictors for habitat modeling. However, due to technical complexities of processing ALS data, the full potential of ALS is not yet realized in wildlife research, with most studies relying on a limited set of 3D predictors, such as vegetation metrics developed principally for forestry applications. Here, we highlight the full potential of ALS data for wildlife research and provide insight into how it can be best used to capture the environmental conditions, resources, and risks that directly determine a species' habitat. We provide a nontechnical overview of ALS data, covering data considerations and the modern options available for creating custom, ecologically relevant, ALS predictors. Options included the following: i) direct point cloud approaches that measure structure using grid, voxel, and point metrics, ii) object‐based approaches that identify user‐defined features in the point cloud, and iii) modeled environmental predictors that use additional modeling to infer a range of habitat characteristics, including the extrapolation of field acquired measurements over ALS data. By using custom ALS predictors that capture species‐specific resources, risks, and environmental conditions, wildlife practitioners can produce models that are tailored to a species' ecology, have greater biological realism, test a wider range of species‐environment relationships across scales, and provide more meaningful insights to inform wildlife conservation and management.
Thermal effects of electromagnetic radiation on the skin tissue by considering fourth‐order MGT bioheat model
Authors: Abouelregal Ahmed E. , Megahid Sami F. , Sedighi Hamid M.
Published: June 2024

Understanding the biothermal response of skin tissue exposed to electromagnetic (EM) radiation and variable thermal fields is crucial for mitigating risks associated with such exposures. This knowledge can empower the development of safe and efficacious evidence‐based treatments for various skin conditions within the medical field. This study employs the fourth‐order Moore–Gibson–Thomson (MGT) concept to establish a theoretical framework for biothermal analysis. This investigation aims to elucidate the biothermal response of skin tissues to EM radiation. The developed model facilitates the prediction of thermal reactions within human skin and the subsequent evaluation of bioheat transfer efficiency in biological tissues. The proposed model is implemented on a one‐dimensional representation of a skin layer and incorporates the effects of an induced electric field and a time‐harmonic heat source. Additionally, a linear dependence of metabolic heat generation on tissue temperature is considered. By employing Laplace transforms, the analytical solutions for tissue temperature are presented. The derived analytical solutions are compared with established theories to assess the accuracy of the proposed model. The results reveal that the modified MGT bioheat transfer model predicts lower temperatures compared to the conventional Pennes model, attributable to the incorporation of the thermal relaxation time constant.
AI-Enhanced UWB-Based Localisation in Wireless Networks
Authors: Dehmollaian Eshagh , Etzlinger Bernhard , Peterseil Philipp , Springer Andreas
Published: June 2024

Thanks to low complex and affordable hardware, low power consumption, and pulse-based communication, ultra-wideband (UWB) technology has brought the possibility of positioning in wireless networks for various applications with high precision. Nowadays, the widespread use of this technology for location-based applications together with the integration of this technology in smartphones, motivates more research on the use of this technology for localisation systems. Current research results emphasize that artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can help to improve the positioning performance of UWB technology due to the use of large amounts of data. In this work, we provide an overview of the challenges and their AI-based solutions in UWB-based localisation systems. This is followed by an overview of related work and an application example.
Location Awareness in HealthCare
Authors: van de Laar Frank , Klabunde Karin
Published: June 2024

Waiting for patients and looking for or loosing assets in healthcare costs millions/year and may cause considerable annoyance for caregivers and additional health risks for patients. Localization solutions for healthcare may help to reduce these significantly. This paper provides an overview on localization for Healthcare. It starts with an overview of applicable technologies for both indoor and outdoor localization that may be applied in healthcare logistics solutions. The next section describes various aspects that needs to be considered for an end-to-end localization solution. It is followed by a section on use-cases for healthcare with different operational requirements that may deploy technologies and methods as presented. The final section is on building a use-case concept demonstrator taking into account the technologies and considerations addressed in the previous sections. Security and privacy aspects are also considered to comply with EU healthcare regulations, especially when dealing with personal location data.
Artificial Intelligence for Wireless Avionics Intra-Communications
Authors: Robles Ramiro Samano , Venkatesha Prasad R. , Arts Ad , Rzymowski Mateusz , Kulas Lukasz
Published: June 2024

This chapter presents a summary of the description and preliminary results of the use case related to the implementation of artificial intelligence tools in the emerging technology called wireless avionics intra-communications (WAICs). WAICs aims to replace some of the cable buses of modern aircraft. This replacement of infrastructure leads to: (1) complexity reduction of future airplanes, (2) creation of innovative services where wireless links are more flexible than wireline links, and mainly (3) a considerable weight reduction, which in turn leads to fuel consumption efficiency, increase of payload, as well as range extension. Therefore, WAICs is expected to have a large impact on the aeronautics industry, propelling a new generation of greener, more efficient, and less expensive aeronautical services. However, there are still several reliability, trust, interoperability and latency issues that need to be addressed before this technology becomes commercial. It is expected that AI will boost the applicability of this technology, contributing to the realization of the concept of “fly-by-wireless”.
The Development of Ethical and Trustworthy AI Systems Requires Appropriate Human-Systems Integration
Authors: Moertl Peter , Ebinger Nikolai
Published: June 2024

The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies experiences worldwide an ongoing challenge to become trustworthy and ethical for users and the general public. This challenge currently stands between the promise of AI to create immense societal and individual impact and its realization. Because of this, possible large marketplaces still remain hesitant or closed. We have investigated this problem and identified potential solutions in the InSecTT project, a large international EU research and development project that investigates ethical, smart technologies. Thereby, working with industrial and research partners, we assert that developing trustworthy AI technologies is not foremost a technical challenge, but increasingly an organizational and process challenge that results from applying traditional ways of conceiving, designing, and selling technologies to technologies with very new types of user and societal implications. Because AI technologies can shift the role that humans and society see as acceptable, traditional development processes that rely on the strict separation of specialties are overburdened. In our view, a research and development approach for trustworthy AI systems should put human concerns and needs at the start of the development process to effectively integrate humans and systems and thereby have a chance to meet EU guidelines for developing ethical AI. Our proposed approach to develop such ethical, trustworthy AI systems centers around the assessment of trustworthiness risks through intensive user involvement prior to the elicitation of system requirements that are then managed throughout the system’s life cycle. Also, the approach includes concrete recommendations to establish the organizational prerequisites for producing ethical, trustworthy AI systems. In this chapter, we describe the Human-Systems Integration (HSI) approach and motivate the underlying principles in some detail. The chapter intends to inform managers of technical organizations and product managers, as well as principal investigators, to set up the prerequisites for trustworthy AI, while also soliciting inputs for further refinement and discussion.
Structuring the Technology Landscape for Successful Innovation in AIoT
Authors: Priller Peter , Jerne Michael
Published: June 2024

The InSecTT consortium started with a ground-breaking vision: to combine IoT and AI, or in short: AI + IoT = AIoT. But how can research and development in such a large project with many partners be structured and managed to lead to successful innovations? Especially in such a highly competitive market of digital solutions? This section provides an overview of processes and methods, from requirement engineering, followed by technology structuring, leading into joined development of re-usable technical building blocks. To validate and proof the approach, these technologies were integrated into a wide range of demonstrators in many different industrial domains. An iterative approach allowed to learn and improve along that way. Additional measures like use case marketplaces allowed to identify and exploit synergies. Finally, measures to support the exploitation of results are introduced.
InSecTT Technologies for the Enhancement of Industrial Security and Safety
Authors: Punnekkat Sasikumar , Markovic Tijana , León Miguel , Leander Björn , Dehlaghi-Ghadim Alireza , Strandberg Per Erik
Published: June 2024

The recent advances in digitalization, improved connectivity and cloud based services are making a huge revolution in manufacturing domain. In spite of the huge potential benefits in productivity, these trends also bring in some concerns related to safety and security to the traditionally closed industrial operation scenarios. This paper presents a high-level view of some of the research results and technological contributions of the InSecTT Project for meeting safety/security goals. These technology contributions are expected to support both the design and operational phases in the production life cycle. Specifically, our contributions spans (a) enforcing stricter but flexible access control, (b) evaluation of machine learning techniques for intrusion detection, (c) generation of realistic process control and network oriented datasets with injected anomalies and (d) performing safety and security analysis on automated guided vehicle platoons.
On classical de Sitter solutions and parametric control
Authors: Andriot David , Ruehle Fabian
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Finding string backgrounds with de Sitter spacetime, where all approximations and corrections are controlled, is an open problem. We revisit the search for de Sitter solutions in the classical regime for specific type IIB supergravity compactifications on group manifolds, an under-explored corner of the landscape that offers an interesting testing ground for swampland conjectures. While the supergravity de Sitter solutions we obtain numerically are ambiguous in terms of their classicality, we find an analytic scaling that makes four out of six compactification radii, as well as the overall volume, arbitrarily large. This potentially provides parametric control over corrections. If we could show that these solutions, or others to be found, are fully classical, they would constitute a counterexample to conjectures stating that asymptotic de Sitter solutions do not exist. We discuss this point in great detail.
One-loop elastic amplitudes from tree-level elasticity in 2d
Authors: Fabri Matheus , Polvara Davide
Published: June 2024

Abstract

In this paper we extend the study initiated in [1] to the computation of one-loop elastic amplitudes. We consider 1+1 dimensional massive bosonic Lagrangians with polynomial-like potentials and absence of inelastic processes at the tree level; starting from these assumptions we show how to write sums of one-loop diagrams as products and integrals of tree-level amplitudes. We derive in this way a universal formula for the one-loop two-to-two S-matrices in terms of tree S-matrices. We test our results on different integrable theories, such as sinh-Gordon, Bullough-Dodd and the full class of simply-laced affine Toda theories, finding perfect agreement with the bootstrapped S-matrices known in the literature. We show how Landau singularities in amplitudes are naturally captured by our universal formula while they are lost in results based on unitarity-cut methods implemented in the past [2, 3].
Floquet SYK wormholes
Authors: Berenguer Martí , Dey Anshuman , Mas Javier , Santos-Suárez Juan , Ramallo Alfonso V.
Published: June 2024

Abstract

We study the non-equilibrium dynamics of two coupled SYK models, conjectured to be holographically dual to an eternal traversable wormhole in AdS2. We consider different periodic drivings of the parameters of the system. We analyze the energy flows in the wormhole and black hole phases of the model as a function of the driving frequency. Our numerical results show a series of resonant frequencies in which the energy absorption and heating are enhanced significantly and the transmission coefficients drop, signalling a closure of the wormhole. These frequencies correspond to part of the conformal tower of states and to the boundary graviton of the dual gravitational theory. Furthermore, we provide evidence supporting the existence of a hot wormhole phase between the black hole and wormhole phases. When driving the strength of the separate SYK terms we find that the transmission can be enhanced by suitably tuning the driving.
Effect of continuum states on the double-heavy hadron spectra
Authors: Castellà Jaume Tarrús
Published: June 2024

Abstract

We present the leading order coupling of double-heavy hadrons to heavy hadron pairs in Born-Oppenheimer effective field theory. We obtain the expressions for the contribution of heavy hadron pairs to the masses and widths of double-heavy hadrons. We apply our result for the specific case of the coupling of the lowest lying heavy hybrids and $$ {D}_{(s)}^{\left(\ast \right)}{\overline{D}}_{(s)}^{\left(\ast \right)}\left({B}_{(s)}^{\left(\ast \right)}{\overline{B}}_{(s)}^{\left(\ast \right)}\right) $$

D

s

∗

D
¯

s

∗

B

s

∗

B
¯

s

∗

obtaining a set of selection rules for the decays. We build a model for the coupling potential and compute the corresponding decay widths and the contributions to the mass of the heavy hybrids. We compare our results with the experimental exotic quarkonium spectrum and discuss the most likely experimental candidates for quarkonium hybrids.
Planar RG flows on line defects
Authors: Nagar Ivri , Sever Amit , Zhong De-liang
Published: June 2024

Abstract

We study a class of renormalization group flows on line defects that can be described by a generalized free field with ordered planar contractions on the line. They are realized, for example, in large N gauge theories with matter in the fundamental representation and arise generically in non-relativistic CFTs. We analyze the flow exactly and compute the change in the g-function between the UV and IR fixed points. We relate the result to the change in the two-point function of the displacement operator and check the monotonicity of the defect entropy along the flow analytically. Finally, we give a general realization of this type of flow starting from the direct sum of the IR fixed point and a trivial line. This type of defect renormalization group flow parallels the well-studied case of double-trace flow.
Liouville irregular states of half-integer ranks
Authors: Hamachika Ryo , Nakanishi Tomoki , Nishinaka Takahiro , Tanigawa Shou
Published: June 2024

Abstract

We conjecture a set of differential equations that characterizes the Liouville irregular states of half-integer ranks, which extends the generalized AGT correspondence to all the (A1, Aeven) and (A1, Dodd) types Argyres-Douglas theories. For lower half-integer ranks, our conjecture is verified by deriving it as a suitable limit of a similar set of differential equations for integer ranks. This limit is interpreted as the 2D counterpart of a 4D RG-flow from (A1, D2n) to (A1, D2n−1). For rank 3/2, we solve the conjectured differential equations and find a power series expression for the irregular state |I(3/2)〉. For rank 5/2, our conjecture is consistent with the differential equations recently discovered by H. Poghosyan and R. Poghossian.
Thermodynamics of the 3-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell system
Authors: Miyashita Shoichiro
Published: June 2024

Abstract

Recently, I studied the thermodynamical properties of the Einstein-Maxwell system with a box boundary in 4-dimensions [1]. In this paper, I investigate those in 3-dimensions using the zero-loop saddle-point approximation and focusing only on a simple topology sector as usual. Similar to the 4-dimensional case, the system is thermodynamically well-behaved when Λ < 0 (due to the contribution of the “bag of gold” saddles). However, when Λ = 0, a crucial difference to the 4-dimensional case appears, i.e. the 3-dimensional system turns out to be thermodynamically unstable, while the 4-dimensional one is thermodynamically stable. This may offer two options for how we think about the thermodynamics of 3-dimensional gravity with Λ = 0. One is that the zero-loop approximation or restricting the simple topology sector is not sufficient for 3-dimensions with Λ = 0. The other is that 3-dimensional gravity is really thermodynamically unstable when Λ = 0.
Negative Spectrum of Schrödinger Operators with Rapidly Oscillating Potentials
Authors: Read Larry
Published: June 2024

For Schrödinger operators with potentials that are asymptotically homogeneous of degree

$$-2$$

-
2

, the size of the coupling determines whether it has finite or infinitely many negative eigenvalues. In the latter case, the asymptotic accumulation of these eigenvalues at zero has been determined by Kirsch and Simon. A similar regime occurs for potentials that are not asymptotically monotone but oscillatory. In this case, when the ratio between the amplitude and frequency of oscillation is asymptotically homogeneous of degree

$$-1$$

-
1

, the coupling determines the finiteness of the negative spectrum. We present a new proof of this fact by making use of a ground-state representation. As a consequence of this approach, we derive an asymptotic formula analogous to that of Kirsch and Simon.