bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dose length product and outcome of CT fluoroscopy-guided interventions using a new 320-detector row CT scanner with deep-learning reconstruction and new bow-tie filter
Authors: Matsumoto Tomohiro , Endo Kazuyuki , Yamamoto Shota , Suda Satoshi , Tomita Kosuke , Kamei Shunsuke , Hasebe Terumitsu , Awai Kazuo , Osaragi Kensuke , Yoshimatsu Rika , Yamagami Takuji
Published: June 2022

Objectives:

To investigate the dose length product (DLP) and outcomes of CT fluoroscopy (CTF)-guided interventions using a novel 320-detector row CT scanner with deep-learning reconstruction (DLR) and a new bow-tie filter (i.e., Aquilion ONE Prism Edition) and compare with a 320-detector row CT system without DLR and the new bow-tie filter (i.e., Aquilion ONE Vision Edition) (Vision).

Methods:

CTF-guided interventions performed using Prism and Vision were retrospectively investigated in terms of the technical success rates, clinical success rates of biopsies, complications, DLPs of total CT scans (total DLPs) from February 2019 to January 2021. The total CT scans included pre-interventional CT scans, CTF scans during the CTF-guided procedure, additional CT scans for additional treatment, CTF scans for additional treatment, and post-interventional CT scans.

Results:

In this study, 87 and 85 CTF-guided interventions were performed using Vision (Vision group) and Prism (Prism group), respectively. There was no significant difference in the technical success rate (96.6% vs 98.8%, p = 0.621), clinical success rate of biopsies (92.9% vs 93.4%, p = 1.000), and minor (8.0% vs 7.1%, p = 0.807) and major (0% vs 3.5%, p = 0.119) complications between the Prism and Vision groups. The total DLPs for the Prism group were significantly lower than those for the Vision group regardless of the procedure (278 vs 548 mGy*cm, p < 0.001, in the biopsy and 246 vs 667 mGy*cm, p < 0.001, in the drainage and aspiration).

Conclusions:

CTF-guided interventions on Prism reduce the total DLP without performance degradation of the intervention.

Advances in knowledge:

The total DLPs of biopsies and drainages/aspirations in the Prism group decreased by 49 and 63%, respectively.
Read-out Segmented Echo Planar Imaging with Two-Dimensional Navigator Correction (RESOLVE): An Alternative Sequence to Improve Image Quality on Diffusion-Weighted Imaging of Prostate
Authors: Hosseiny Melina , Sung Kyung Hyun , Felker Ely , Suvannarerg Voraparee , Tubtawee Teeravut , Shafa Ariel , Arora Krishan R. , Ching Justin , Gulati Anjalie , Azadikhah Afshin , Zhong Xiaodong , Sayre James , Lu David , Raman Steven S
Published: June 2022

Objective:

We aimed to investigate if the use of read-out segmented echoplanar imaging with additional two-dimensional navigator correction (Readout Segmentation of Long Variable Echo, RESOLVE) for acquiring prostate diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) improves image quality, compared to single-shot echoplanar imaging (ss-EPI).

Methods:

This single-center prospective study cohort included 162 males with suspected prostate cancer, who underwent 3 Tesla multiparametric MRI (3T-mpMRI). Two abdominal radiologists, blinded to the clinical information, separately reviewed each 3T-mpMRI study to rank geometrical distortion, degree of rectal distention, lesion conspicuity, and anatomic details delineation first on ss-EPI-DWI and later on RESOLVE-DWI using 5-point scales (1 = excellent, 5 = poor). The average of the ranking scores given by two readers was generated and used as the final score.

Results:

There was good-to-excellent interreader agreement for scoring image quality parameters on both ss-EPI and RESOLVE. Geometrical distortion scores > 3 was seen in 12.3% (20/162) of ss-EPI images, with all having geometrical distortion score <3 on RESOLVE (p < .001). The mean image distortion score was significantly less on RESOLVE than ss-EPI (1.16 vs 1.61, p < .01 regardless of rectal gas, p< .05 when stratified by the degree of rectal distention ). RESOLVE was superior to ss-EPI for lesion conspicuity (mean 1.35 vs 1.53, p< .002) and anatomic delineation (2.60 vs 2.68, p< .001) of prostate on DWI.

Conclusion:

Compared to conventional ss-EPI, the use of RESOLVE for acquisition of prostate DWI resulted in significantly enhanced image quality and reduced geometrical distortion.

Advances in knowledge:

RESOLVE could be an alternative or replacement of ss-EPI for acquiring prostate DWI with significantly less geometrical distortion and significantly improved lesion conspicuity and anatomic delineation.
Pegvisomant therapy in acromegalic patient resistant to other treatment: case report
Authors: Nowicka Emilia , Obel Michał , Dzikowski Piotr , Stefaniak Martyna , Pietrzak Zofia , Obel Ewa
Published: June 2022

Introduction: Acromegaly is a chronic, rare disorder resulting from growth hormone (GH) hypersecretion, usually caused by a pituitary adenoma. GH stimulates synthesis of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), whom assay should be used as a screening test whenever acromegaly is suspected. Patients with acromegaly normally take from 5 to 10 years to receive a correct diagnosis, leading to complications such as cardiovascuar, respiratory, and endocrine problems that are responsible for an increase mortality. Late diagnosis of the disease also impact the effectiveness of surgical, pharmacological and radiotherapy treatment. 

 

Case report: A 33-year-old acromegalic man with pituitary macroadenoma resistant to therapy of somastatin analogue (octreotide, lanreotide) and dopamine agonist (cabergoline). The patient underwent transsphenoidal adenomectomy, after wich high level of GH and IGF-1 were still measured. Due to the lack of the effect of the current treatment, the patient was qualified for pegvisomant therapy, as a result of which biochemical control was achieved without adverse events and with a good compliance of treatment. 

 

Conclusions: Treatment with pegvisomant is now an important therapeutic strategy to achieve full disease control in acromegalic patients resistant or poorly responders to first generation somatostatin receptor ligands and in patients who do not respond adequately to selective excision of pituitary adenoma and /or for whom surgery is not possible.
Optimal Subjective Contracting with Revision
Authors: He Xinhao , Li Jin , Yuan Zhaoneng
Published: June 2022

We study the optimal contracting problem with subjective evaluation when the principal can ask the agent to revise his work. The possibility of revision benefits the principal by providing the option value of making another attempt at the work. However, it also introduces a new type of incentive problem for the principal: she may ask for revision even if it is inefficient to do so. This new incentive issue for the principal also affects the incentive of the agent: he may procrastinate his effort in anticipation of excessive revision. This results in a trilemma: The optimal contract cannot simultaneously provide for efficient revision, efficient effort, and minimal ex post surplus destruction. The optimal contract will of necessity contain at least one of the following problems: revision, the principal asks for excessive revision; procrastination, the agent shirks in the early stage; or punishment, excessive surplus destruction at low-quality final output.

This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy.
Green Cloud? An Empirical Analysis of Cloud Computing and Energy Efficiency
Authors: Park Jiyong , Han Kunsoo , Lee Byungtae
Published: June 2022

The rapid, widespread adoption of cloud computing over the last decade has sparked debates on its environmental impacts. Given that cloud computing alters the dynamics of energy consumption between service providers and users, a complete understanding of the environmental impacts of cloud computing requires an investigation of its impact on the user side, which can be weighed against its impact on the vendor side. Drawing on production theory and using a stochastic frontier analysis, this study examines the impact of cloud computing on users’ energy efficiency. To this end, we develop a novel industry-level measure of cloud computing based on cloud-based information technology (IT) services. Using U.S. economy-wide data from 57 industries during 1997–2017, our findings suggest that cloud-based IT services improve users’ energy efficiency. This effect is found to be significant only after 2006, when cloud computing started to be commercialized, and becomes even stronger after 2010. Moreover, we find heterogeneous impacts of cloud computing, depending on the cloud service models, energy types, and internal IT hardware intensity, which jointly assist in teasing out the underlying mechanisms. Although software-as-a-service (SaaS) is significantly associated with both electric and nonelectric energy efficiency improvement across all industries, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is positively associated only with electric energy efficiency for industries with high IT hardware intensity. To illuminate the mechanisms more clearly, we conduct a firm-level survey analysis, which demonstrates that SaaS confers operational benefits by facilitating energy-efficient production, whereas the primary role of IaaS is to mitigate the energy consumption of internal IT equipment and infrastructure. According to our industry-level analysis, the total user-side energy cost savings from cloud computing in the overall U.S. economy are estimated to be USD 2.8–12.6 billion in 2017 alone, equivalent to a reduction in electricity use by 31.8–143.8 billion kilowatt-hours. This estimate exceeds the total energy expenditure in the cloud service vendor industries and is comparable to the total electricity consumption in U.S. data centers.

This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems.

Supplemental Material: Data files and the online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4442 .
On-Site Inspecting Zombie Lending
Authors: Bonfim Diana , Cerqueiro Geraldo , Degryse Hans , Ongena Steven
Published: June 2022

“Zombie lending” remains a widespread practice by banks around the world. In this paper, we exploit a series of large-scale on-site inspections made on the credit portfolios of several Portuguese banks to investigate how these inspections affect banks’ future lending decisions. We find that an inspected bank becomes 20% less likely to refinance zombie firms, immediately spurring their default. Overall, banks seemingly reduce zombie lending because the incentives to hold these loans disappear once they are forced to recognize losses.

This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance.

Funding: D. Bonfim and G. Cerqueiro acknowledge financial support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [Grants PTDC/EGE-OGE/30314/2017 and UID/GES/00407/2013]. H. Degryse acknowledges financial support from Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek. S. Ongena acknowledges financial support from the Horizon 2020 European Research Council [Grant ERC ADG 2016 - GA 740272 lending].

Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4452 .
Salvaging security for speedy single-page applications
Authors: Archer Gary
Published: June 2022

The single-page application (SPA) is now the most popular way to create websites that load faster without hitting the server every time a user interacts with an application. But, while speed is clearly very important, security is too – after all, data breaches cost customers more than delays. Striking a balance between these needs is the real challenge.
Virtualised network security is not a one-size-fits-all approach
Authors: Eckel Michael , Laffey Tom
Published: June 2022

As the deployment of next-generation networks accelerates, and promises of new technologies and IoT devices bring new opportunities worldwide, with virtualisation becoming key, there is an increasing awareness of the need for a secure network to ensure a secure ecosystem. As networks grow, service operators have a huge responsibility to provide both reliable and secure services to end users.
Safeguard the future of your network
Authors: Wood Michael
Published: June 2022

Widespread remote working has meant that organisations must be able to provide a high level of accessibility to users scattered across potentially thousands of individual locations. They must also deliver a high level of security assurance against threat actors seeking to take advantage of more diffuse networks.
Design and fabrication of a tapered fiber bundle for a pump combiner with a uniform splicing region
Authors: Majumder Debparna , Das Chowdhury Sourav , Pal Atasi
Published: June 2022

A process of fabricating tapered fiber bundle (TFB) consisting of a set of input pump fibers, stacked inside a low-OH silica capillary, has been optimized to combine multiple multimode pump powers into different output fibers having cladding diameters of 400, 250, and 125 µm. Instead of individual input and output fiber processing, here pump combiner fabrication is based on the processing of the TFB to match its diameter with the output fiber to eliminate any perturbation in light guidance. Fabrication of the TFB includes multiple fusing steps and tapering with brightness conservation, followed by reduction of the outer silica layer through chemical etching to obtain the desired outer diameter. To reduce pump power leakage, the optimum fluorine cladding layer thickness outside the pump fiber cores and outer silica layer thickness have been estimated through numerical simulations using a finite element solver. The influence of fabrication parameters such as interstitial gaps between the input pump fibers, taper ratio, fluorine cladding, outer silica layer thickness, and non-uniformity of splicing region has been characterized in terms of transmission efficiency per port, as well as cumulative power handling along with the operating temperature at maximum power.
Three-channel (de)multiplexer for dense wavelength division (de)multiplexing based on a photonic crystal AAH cavity
Authors: Hu Yuchen , Chen Heming
Published: June 2022

We propose a three-channel (de)multiplexer for dense wavelength division (de)multiplexing based on a photonic crystal Aubry–André–Harper cavity. The transmission performance of the designed structure was modeled and analyzed according to coupled mode theory. The parameters of the proposed device are calculated using a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method for verification. Numerical results show that the minimum insertion loss and linewidth at operating wavelengths of 1556.2 nm, 1555.4 nm, and 1554.6 nm are 0.47 dB and 0.2 nm, respectively. The channel cross talk is lower than

−

16.23

d
B

. The (de)multiplexer has the advantages of low loss, small size [

19.35
×
11.53

(

µ

m

2

)

per channel], and easy cascading structure, and can realize three-channel dense wavelength division (de)multiplexing with a channel spacing of 0.8 nm and be used in highly integrated large-capacity optical fiber communication systems.
Uniformity improvement of two-dimensional surface relief grating waveguide display using particle swarm optimization
Authors: Ni Dongwei , Cheng Dewen , Liu Yue , Wang Ximeng , Yao Cheng , Yang Tong , Chi Cheng , Wang Yongtian
Published: June 2022

Augmented reality head-mounted displays (AR-HMDs) based on diffractive waveguides have been a challenging and rewarding research topic focusing on near-eye displays. The size of the exit pupil and uniformity of the image illuminance are two important factors that affect the display performance of the diffractive waveguide. In this paper, a novel method for optimizing high uniformity of two-dimensional (2D) diffractive waveguide is proposed. A straight-line 2D surface relief grating (SRG) waveguide with divided grating regions is designed. An illuminance uniformity evaluation model of the energy propagation process is established, and non-sequential ray tracing is utilized to optimize the diffraction efficiency of multi-regions grating to achieve illuminance uniformity distribution. Then, the uniformity distribution of the diffraction efficiency in different fields of view (FOVs) is realized by combining the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and rigorous couple wave analysis (RCWA) to optimize the grating structural parameters, which further ensures the uniformity of the exit pupil illuminance and angular illuminance. The waveguide with exit pupil expansion (EPE) has exit pupil size of 16 mm × 14 mm at an eye relief (ERF) of 20 mm, exit pupil illuminance uniformity of 91%, and angular uniformity illuminance of 64%.
Synchronous and asynchronous pulsating dual solitons in lasers
Authors: Du Yueqing , He Zhiwen , Gao Qun , Liu Lingxiao , Zeng Chao , Mao Dong
Published: June 2022

Pulsating solitons are intriguing objects in laser physics and nonlinear science. Recently, emerging works on the pulsating multi-solitons have raised interest in interactions and synchronizations within multiple breathers. However, with their separation of the order of nanoseconds, the evolution and underlying dynamics of multiple pulsating solitons remain uncharted. In this work, we bring initial insights into the pulsating dual-soliton (PDS) with a separation of three orders of magnitude of the pulse duration. Chaotic, synchronous, and asynchronous pulsations are revealed to be controlled by the pump power. Specifically, two solitons can pulsate synchronously in the form of a frozen limit cycle. The asynchronous PDS at a high pump power brings the rotating limit cycle in the phase space. Unveiling the evolutionary dynamics of PDS, this work has potential in all-optical storage, signal encoding, and time division multiplexing communications.
Fiber optofluidic Coriolis flowmeter based on a dual-antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide
Authors: Li Zhipei , Gao Ran , Xin Xiangjun , Zhang Han , Chang Huan , Guo Dong , Wang Fu , Zhou Sitong , Yu Chao , Liu Xinyu
Published: June 2022

A microfiber optofluidic flowmeter based on the Coriolis principle and a dual-antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A hollow hole in a hollow-core fiber is fabricated as an optofluidic channel to move the liquid sample, which forms a dual-ARROW in the hollow-core fiber. Two sides of the hollow-core fiber are used as two adjacent Fabry–Perot resonators based on the refractive index modulation of a CO2 laser, which is used to investigate the vibration signals of the two resonators. The flow rate can be measured based on the Coriolis force by calculating the phase difference between the two ARROWs. The experimental results show that a flow rate sensitivity of 8.04 deg/(µl/s) can be achieved for ethanol solution. The proposed micro Coriolis fiber optic flowmeter can be used in various fields, such as food production, medicine, bioanalysis, etc.
Network assisted analysis of de novo variants using protein-protein interaction information identified 46 candidate genes for congenital heart disease
Authors: Xie Yuhan , Jiang Wei , Dong Weilai , Li Hongyu , Jin Sheng Chih , Brueckner Martina , Zhao Hongyu
Published: June 2022

De novovariants (DNVs) with deleterious effects have proved informative in identifying risk genes for early-onset diseases such as congenital heart disease (CHD). A number of statistical methods have been proposed for family-based studies or case/control studies to identify risk genes by screening genes with more DNVs than expected by chance in Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) studies. However, the statistical power is still limited for cohorts with thousands of subjects. Under the hypothesis that connected genes in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks are more likely to share similar disease association status, we developed a Markov Random Field model that can leverage information from publicly available PPI databases to increase power in identifying risk genes. We identified 46 candidate genes with at least 1 DNV in the CHD study cohort, including 18 known human CHD genes and 35 highly expressed genes in mouse developing heart. Our results may shed new insight on the shared protein functionality among risk genes for CHD.
Optimising the balance of acute and intermediate care capacity for the complex discharge pathway: Computer modelling study during COVID-19 recovery in England
Authors: Onen-Dumlu Zehra , Harper Alison L. , Forte Paul G. , Powell Anna L. , Pitt Martin , Vasilakis Christos , Wood Richard M.
Published: June 2022

Objectives

While there has been significant research on the pressures facing acute hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been less interest in downstream community services which have also been challenged in meeting demand. This study aimed to estimate the theoretical cost-optimal capacity requirement for ‘step down’ intermediate care services within a major healthcare system in England, at a time when considerable uncertainty remained regarding vaccination uptake and the easing of societal restrictions.

Methods

Demand for intermediate care was projected using an epidemiological model (for COVID-19 demand) and regressing upon public mobility (for non-COVID-19 demand). These were inputted to a computer simulation model of patient flow from acute discharge readiness to bedded and home-based Discharge to Assess (D2A) intermediate care services. Cost-optimal capacity was defined as that which yielded the lowest total cost of intermediate care provision and corresponding acute discharge delays.

Results

Increased intermediate care capacity is likely to bring about lower system-level costs, with the additional D2A investment more than offset by substantial reductions in costly acute discharge delays (leading also to improved patient outcome and experience). Results suggest that completely eliminating acute ‘bed blocking’ is unlikely economical (requiring large amounts of downstream capacity), and that health systems should instead target an appropriate tolerance based upon the specific characteristics of the pathway.

Conclusions

Computer modelling can be a valuable asset for determining optimal capacity allocation along the complex care pathway. With results supporting a Business Case for increased downstream capacity, this study demonstrates how modelling can be applied in practice and provides a blueprint for use alongside the freely-available model code.
Towards a concrete landscape: Assessing the efficiency of land consumption in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana
Authors: Osman Adams , Yawson David Oscar , Mariwah Simon , Dadson Ishmael Yaw
Published: June 2022

Most existing studies on land consumption have used a reactive approach to assess the phenomenon. However, for evidence-based policies, an initiative-taking forecast has been touted to be more appropriate. This study, therefore, assessed current trends and efficiency of land consumption in the Greater Accra Region from 1987 to 2017, and predicted a 30-year future land consumption in a “business-as-usual” scenario. The study adopted maximum likelihood image classification techniques and “combinatorial or” to model land cover change for Greater Accra from 1987 to 2017 while the UN-Habitat land efficiency index was employed to model efficiency of land consumption. In addition, Leo-Breiman Forest based regression, was used to model a future land cover by using the 30 years land cover change as a dependant variable and a series of natural and anthropogenic factors as independent variables. Results showed that artificial surfaces increased from 4.2% to 33.1%, with an annual growth rate of 22.1% in 30 years. Land consumption was highly inefficient as only 4.2% of the region had a good proportion of population per land area. Factors which influenced artificial surface growth were population, distance from water bodies, poverty index, distance from sacred groves, proportion of agriculture population with a small margin of influence from soil and geology type. Landscape prediction showed that artificial surfaces will increase to 92.6% as more places are coated with concrete. The high rate of land inefficiency provides an opportunity for re-zoning by the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority of Ghana to accommodate the growing population.
Big data-based risk assessment of poultry farms during the 2020/2021 highly pathogenic avian influenza epidemic in Korea
Authors: Yoon Hachung , Lee Ilseob , Kang Hyeonjeong , Kim Kyung-Sook , Lee Eunesub
Published: June 2022

Outbreaks of H5-type highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry have been reported in various parts of the world. To respond to these continuous threats, numerous surveillance programs have been applied to poultry raising facilities as well as wild birds. In Korea, a surveillance program was developed aimed at providing a preemptive response to possible outbreaks at poultry farms. The purpose of this study is to comprehensively present the risks of HPAI evaluated by this program in relation to actual outbreak farms during the epidemic of 2020/2021. A deep learning-based risk assessment program was trained based on the pattern of livestock vehicles visiting poultry farms and HPAI outbreaks to calculate the risk of HPAI for farms linked by the movement of livestock vehicles (such farms are termed “epidemiologically linked farms”). A total of 7,984 risk assessments were conducted, and the results were categorized into four groups. The proportion of the highest risk level was greater in duck farms (13.6%) than in chicken farms (8.8%). Among the duck farms, the proportion of the highest risk level was much greater in farms where breeder ducks were raised (accounting for 26.4% of the risk) than in farms where ducks were raised to obtain meat (12.8% of the risk). A higher risk level was also found in cases where the species of the outbreak farm and epidemiologically linked farms were the same (proportion of the highest risk level = 13.2%) compared to that when the species between the two farms were different (7.9%). The overall proportion of farms with HPAI outbreaks among epidemiologically linked farms (attack rate, AR) was 1.7% as HPAI was confirmed on 67 of the 3,883 epidemiologically linked farms. The AR was highest for breeder ducks (15.3%) among duck farms and laying hens (4.8%) among chicken farms. The AR of the pairs where livestock vehicles entered the inner farm area was 1.3 times (95% confidence interval: 1.4–2.9) higher than that of all pairs. With the risk information provided, customized preventive measures can be implemented for each epidemiologically linked farm. The use of this risk assessment program would be a good example of information-based surveillance and support decision-making for controlling animal diseases.
Mechanical nociceptive assessment of the equine hoof after navicular bursa anesthetic infiltration validated by bursography
Authors: Cota Letícia de Oliveira , Malacarne Bruno Dondoni , Dias Lucas Antunes , Neto Antônio Catunda Pinho , Kneipp Maria Luiza Arruda , Cavalcante Marina Alcântara , Cunha Marina de Souza Luz da , Paz Cahuê Francisco Rosa , Carvalho Armando de Mattos , Faleiros Rafael Resende , Xavier Andressa Batista da Silveira
Published: June 2022

The analgesic specificity of navicular bursa (NB) anesthetic infiltration is still questionable. The study aimed to determine the mechanical nociceptive threshold of non-specific analgesia in the dorsal lamellar stratum, as well as in the sole, coronary band, and heel bulbs of the hoof, after navicular bursa anesthetic infiltration. Six healthy horses with no clinical or radiographic changes of the digits and no communication between the NB and the distal interphalangeal joint, were used. After random selection, the NB of one of the forelimbs was infiltrated with 2% lidocaine and the contralateral one with lactated ringer’s solution. Contrast was added to confirm radiographic infiltration. The mechanical nociceptive threshold was determined using a portable pressure dynamometer, before and at various times after the infiltration, in 10 points of the hoof. The effects of time and treatment were verified by ANOVA (P<0.05). There was no statistical difference in the values of the mechanical nociceptive threshold (P>0.05) in all regions evaluated. However, in one of the six hooves that receives lidocaine, complete absence of response to the painful stimulus (maximum force of 6 Kg over an area of 38.46 mm2, for a maximum of 4 seconds) was observed in the dorsal lamellae between 30 and 60 min after infiltration. In conclusion, lidocaine infiltration of NB did not promote significant increases in the nociceptive threshold of the sole, coronary band, bulbs of the heel and dorsal lamellae clinically healthy horses. However, the occurrence of analgesia in one of the six hooves subjected to NB anesthesia indicates that the technique may not be fully specific in few horses.
Development and psychometric evaluation of the emergency nurses’ professional resilience tool
Authors: Norouzinia Roohangiz , Yarmohammadian Mohammad Hosein , Ferdosi Masoud , Masoumi Gholamreza , Ebadi Abbas
Published: June 2022

Background

There is no specific tool for measuring the professional resilience of emergency nurses. Therefore, the present study aimed to design and psychometrically evaluate a new tool named the emergency nurses’ professional resilience tool.

Method

This mixed-method sequential exploratory study was conducted in two phases: (1) item generation using literature review and evaluation of the results of a qualitative study and (2) psychometric evaluation of the developed scale. The face, content, and construct validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis), reliability (internal consistency, relative, and absolute), and accountability were assessed in the population of Iranian nurses (N = 465) during March 2019-June 2020.

Results

The tool designed for assessing the professional resilience of Iranian nurses included 37 items. The average scale content validity index (S-CVI/Ave) was equal to 0.94. The exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors, including professional competencies, emotional-cognitive characteristics, external support, in addition to behavioral and cognitive strategies, and explained 75.59% of the whole variance. Cronbach’s alpha and intraclass correlation were 0.915 and 0.888, respectively. Construct validity for five factors was established with acceptable model fit indices [Chi–square/df = 1336.56/619, p < .001]; [Comparative Fit Index [CFI] = 0.96]; [Non-Normed Fit Index [NNFI] = 0.96]; [Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.074 and 90 Percent Confidence Interval = (0.069; 0.080)]; and [SRMR = 0.095].

Conclusions

According to the findings of the current study, the emergency nurses’ professional resilience tool can be used by healthcare managers as a valid and reliable scale to evaluate the professional resilience of nurses to designate them as nurses working in emergency and disaster situations.
Magnitude of job satisfaction and intention to leave their present job among nurses in selected federal hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Authors: Woldekiros Aynye Negesse , Getye Elsabet , Abdo Ziyad Ahmed
Published: June 2022

Background

Job dissatisfaction issues and health workers’ intention to leave is an increasing problem that threatens the function of the health care sector worldwide, especially in developing countries, including Ethiopia. As part of future evidence, this study was intended to assess nurses’ job satisfaction and intention to leave their current work and its associated factors in federal public hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Method

An institutional based cross-sectional study design was used to conduct the study. A simple random sampling technique was employed to select 408 nurses from selected federal hospitals in Ethiopia. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Logistic regression was employed to identify the predictor variables with consideration of statistical significance at P <0.05 adjusted odds ratios calculated at 95% CIs.

Result

The magnitudes of job satisfaction and intention to leave their current job among nurses in this study were 47.7% and 80.6%, respectively. Salary is imbalanced with demands [AOR = 2.85 (1.24, 6.57)], managers who have no personal plan for developing skills [AOR = 3.74 (1.58, 8.87)], stressful jobs [AOR = 0.28 (0.11, 0.71)], health problems are a reason for having thoughts about changing jobs [AOR = 3.02 (1.17, 7.79)], and a lack of development [AOR = 4.13 (1.51, 11.3)] were identified as determinant factors for intention to leave.

Conclusion

The overall intention to leave their current job among nurses working in selected federal hospitals in Ethiopia was high. The government of Ethiopia should balance the salary of nurses with the current market level. Hospital leaders should plan the way nurses develop their educational and job carrier levels.
Familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis hepatitis is mediated by IFN-γ in a predominantly hepatic-intrinsic manner
Authors: Diamond Tamir , Burn Thomas N. , Nishiguchi Mailyn A. , Minichino Danielle , Chase Julie , Chu Niansheng , Kreiger Portia A. , Behrens Edward M.
Published: June 2022

Interferon gamma (IFN-γ) is the main cytokine driving organ dysfunction in Familial Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (FHL). Blockade of IFN-γ pathway ameliorates FHL hepatitis, both in animal models and in humans with FHL. Hepatocytes are known to express IFN-γ receptor (IFN-γ-R). However, whether IFN-γ induced hepatitis in FHL is a lymphocyte or liver intrinsic response to the cytokine has yet to be elucidated. Using a IFNgR−/− bone marrow chimeric model, this study showed that non-hematopoietic IFN-γ response is critical for development of FHL hepatitis in LCMV-infected Prf1−/− mice. Lack of hepatic IFN-γ responsiveness results in reduced hepatitis as measured by hepatomegaly, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and abrogated histologic endothelial inflammation. In addition, IFN-γ non-hematopoietic response was critical in activation of lymphocytes by soluble interleukin 2 receptor (sIL-2r) and recruitment of CD8+ effector T lymphocytes (CD8+ CD44hi CD62Llo) (Teff) and inflammatory monocytes. Lastly, non-hematopoietic IFN-γ response results in increased hepatic transcription of type 1 immune response and oxidative stress response pathways, while decreasing transcription of genes involved in extracellular matrix (ECM) production. In summary, these findings demonstrate that there is a hepatic transcriptional response to IFN-γ, likely critical in the pathogenesis of FHL hepatitis and hepatic specific responses could be a therapeutic target in this disorder.
What influences Bangladeshi Boro rice farmers’ adoption decisions of recommended fertilizer doses: A case study on Dinajpur district
Authors: Sunny Faruque As , Fu Linlin , Rahman Md Sadique , Karimanzira Taonarufaro Tinaye Pemberai , Zuhui Huang
Published: June 2022

Due to the combined effect of biotic and abiotic constraints, rising population pressure, and inelastic demand in the crop and horticulture sector, Bangladesh has had to adopt heavily subsidized and intensified fertilizer policies to enhance crop productivity, achieve and sustain self-sufficiency in food production, and food security provision. Although the initiative has played a vital role in boosting production, it has also invigorated the unbalanced amount of fertilizer application practices raising questions about maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services while feeding the nation’s population. Further research in this area must thus be applied to monitor and improve this sector. This study attempts to understand the issue by investigating the factors influencing Boro rice farmers’ adoption decisions of recommended fertilizer doses. The study employs an ordered probit model with a sample selection approach. The investigation is based on collected data from 405 randomly selected farmers using a face-to-face interview method. The farmers were classified into low, middle, high and non-adopter groups. The study revealed that farmers’ age, land typology, soil water retention, knowledge, and availability of cow dung significantly influenced farmers’ decision to apply fertilizers. However, farmers’ carry an aversion to following recommendations for fertilizer application due to their ambiguity about the whole system, their current fertilizer application-seeking behavior, and the lack of understanding of the environmental benefits of adoption. These issues urge policy interventions to initiate village-based demonstration programs that synthesize better synergies between recommended dose adoption, yield amelioration, sustainable soil care, and economics.
Redefining colonial identities in contemporary transnational westerns: Tracker (2010) and Black ’47 (2018)
Authors: Paryż Marek
Published: June 2022

In this article, I discuss two contemporary films that exemplify the use of the western genre for historical reassessments in varied national contexts: Tracker (2010, dir. Ian Sharp, New Zealand/UK) and Black ’47 (2018, dir. Lance Daly, Ireland). The two films employ similar plot structures, based on the motif of pursuit. In Tracker, set in the aftermath of the Boer wars, a former Boer fighter, now in New Zealand, searches for an assimilated Māori sailor who has been accused of killing a British soldier. In Black ’47, set in Ireland at the time of the Great Famine, an Irishman who served in the British colonial army in the Middle East strives to take revenge on the landowner responsible for the death of his relatives. A mission is organized to prevent him, led by an alienated veteran of the colonial wars. Tracker and Black ’47 show that as a result of colonization various directions of mobility emerged that triggered reinventions of predefined identities within the colonizer/colonized binary. In the two films under discussion, the use of the western helps to address the problem of identity construction by exploring the experience of liminality as a factor behind the dissolution of colonial cultural hierarchies. The protagonists of Tracker and Black ’47 embody the kind of mobility that signifies lasting displacement, seen as a larger syndrome of the era of colonial empires.
Compassion
Authors: Matos Marcela , Pereira Marco
Published: June 2022

Compassion is an ancient concept but novel hot topic across the social sciences, from psychology, to sociology, to health, to communication and media, to politics and beyond. Burgeoning research has demonstrated the benefits of compassion for mental health and emotion regulation (e.g., MacBeth & Gumley, 2012; Matos et al., 2022), physiological health (e.g., Fredrickson et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2020; Klimecki et al., 2014), and interpersonal and social relationships (e.g., Crocker & Canevello, 2012; Yarnell & Neff, 2013). In particular, self-compassion has been shown to be a protective factor, increasing resilience to common mental health issues (e.g., shame, self-criticism; MacBeth & Gumley, 2012; Muris & Petrocchi, 2017) and promoting wellbeing (Zessin et al., 2015). In addition to compassion offering wellbeing benefits, compassion and self-compassion can also be cultivated and enhanced through interventions, in diverse populations and contexts, where they have been shown to promote well-being and to diminish mental health difficulties (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, shame, self-criticism) (e.g., Craig et al., 2020; Ferrari et al., 2019; Kirby et al., 2017).
Given the global challenges facing our world and the need for collective action, and inspired by the notion in evolutionary science that a conscious evolution toward a more compassionate world is possible (see Wilson, 2020), this special issue of the journal Psychologica presents research, applications and multi-cultural considerations related to compassion. In this special issue, several researchers and clinicians, including prominent names in the field and history of compassion, such as Prof. Paul Gilbert, made valuable contributions to expand the science of compassion and disseminate this knowledge into community, educational, clinical and public health settings. These studies are focused on different cultures (Portuguese, Australian, Singaporean), populations (clinical and nonclinical), age groups (adolescents and adults), clinical conditions (Borderline Personality Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder Hoarding Disorder), and applications (compassion-based programs for adolescents and adults, for distinct clinical conditions and with different formats). Let us give you a short-guided tour through the headlines of this special issue. (...)
PLAYwithHEART
Authors: Oliveira Sara , Cunha Marina , Rosado António , Ferreira Cláudia
Published: June 2022

Estudos recentes documentaram um aumento em diferentes indicadores de psicopatologia associado à prática desportiva. A literatura tem mostrado os benefícios das competências de mindfulness, aceitação e compaixão na prática desportiva. No entanto, o contributo destes processos nunca foi testado de forma integradora e estruturada. Neste protocolo, pretende-se descrever um estudo quase-experimental que tem como objetivo o desenvolvimento e teste de eficácia do programa PLAYwithHEART, baseado nas terapias contextuais em atletas adolescentes. Este programa é constituído por oito sessões semanais de 45 minutos cada. De forma a analisar a eficácia do programa de intervenção, será conduzido um estudo não randomizado controlado com lista de espera (grupo controlo vs. grupo experimental). Um total de 189 participantes serão recrutados através do contacto com clubes desportivos portugueses e responderão a três momentos de avaliação. O presente estudo está registado na plataforma ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04850872). O programa PLAYwithHEART visa diminuir os níveis de ansiedade desportiva e aumentar a qualidade de vida dos atletas, através da promoção de competências como o mindfulness, a aceitação e a auto-compaixão, e da diminuição dos níveis de vergonha e autocriticismo, para lidar com os desafios do contexto desportivo. Este estudo poderá ter implicações práticas que poderão contribuir para o reconhecimento do desporto como contexto de oportunidade para a promoção da saúde e bem-estar.
Efeito das Ações de Marketing na Escola sobre o Comportamento de Consumo
Authors: Afonso Ana , Afonso Óscar , Bandeira Ana Maria
Published: June 2022

O nosso estudo visa analisar o efeito das acções de marketing nas escolas, impulsionadas por empresas de alimentos saudáveis, sobre o comportamento de consumo dos estudantes, para compreender se estes (a) demonstram maior preferência por alimentos e bebidas saudáveis; (b) optam por levar esses bens para casa; estão conscientes de que consumir esses bens é um hábito saudável; e (c) percebem que as vendas das empresas que produzem esses alimentos e bebidas saudáveis melhoram. Desejamos contribuir para a literatura, utilizando um exercício experimental em três escolas do distrito do Porto, Portugal. A nossa amostra incluía 307 estudantes com idades compreendidas entre os 6 e 16 anos, sendo 153(154) estudantes pertencentes ao grupo experimental (de controlo). Os resultados da regressão confirmam as nossas hipóteses. Em particular, constatámos que o nível de educação dos pais não parecia ter impacto, os resultados entre os estudantes do sexo masculino e feminino são muito próximos e que a idade dos estudantes não afectou os resultados entre grupos, mas afectou os valores de pontuação.
O «Sol» e o «Soberano»
Authors: Reis Arthur
Published: June 2022

O processo de independência do Brasil foi marcado por uma ampla divulgação de pensamentos liberais e iluministas a partir do debate de ideias e disputa de grupos políticos. Através de jornais, livros, panfletos e outros impressos, além da ocupação dos espaços públicos e manifestações populares, a partir de 1820 houve uma crescente valorização de valores como separação de poderes, sistema representativo e governo constitucional. Todavia, no ano de 1823 foi publicado um panfleto que divulgava questionamentos e críticas ao iluminismo, ao sistema representativo e à separação de poderes. Este artigo pretende analisar esse impresso para entender seus argumentos e elucidar melhor alguns elementos do ano em que foi publicado, bem como, a partir de uma abordagem que investiga a linguística contextualista, relacionar suas ideias e sua repercussão com a sociedade em que circulou.
Distributed Computing in a Pandemic
Authors: Alnasir Jamie
Published: June 2022

The current COVID-19 global pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 betacoronavirus has resulted in over a million deaths and is having a grave socio-economic impact, hence there is an urgency to find solutions to key research challenges. Much of this COVID-19 research depends on distributed computing. In this article, I review distributed architectures -- various types of clusters, grids and clouds -- that can be leveraged to perform these tasks at scale, at high-throughput, with a high degree of parallelism, and which can also be used to work collaboratively. High-performance computing (HPC) clusters will be used to carry out much of this work. Several bigdata processing tasks used in reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 require high-throughput approaches, and a variety of tools, which Hadoop and Spark offer, even using commodity hardware. Extremely large-scale COVID-19 research has also utilised some of the world's fastest supercomputers, such as IBM's SUMMIT -- for ensemble docking high-throughput screening against SARS-CoV-2 targets for drug-repurposing, and high-throughput gene analysis -- and Sentinel, an XPE-Cray based system used to explore natural products. Grid computing has facilitated the formation of the world's first Exascale grid computer. This has accelerated COVID-19 research in molecular dynamics simulations of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein interactions through massively-parallel computation and was performed with over 1 million volunteer computing devices using the Folding@home platform. Grids and clouds both can also be used for international collaboration by enabling access to important datasets and providing services that allow researchers to focus on research rather than on time-consuming data-management tasks.
Analysis of sentiments on the onset of Covid-19 using Machine Learning Techniques
Authors: Arya Vishakha , Mishra Amit Kumar Mishra , González-Briones Alfonso
Published: June 2022

The novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has struck the whole world and is one of the most striking topics on social media platforms. Sentiment outbreak on social media enduring various thoughts, opinions, and emotions about the Covid-19 disease, expressing views they are feeling presently. Analyzing sentiments helps to yield better results. Gathering data from different blogging sites like Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, YouTube, Instagram, etc., and Twitter is the largest repository. Videos, text, and audio were also collected from repositories. Sentiment analysis uses opinion mining to acquire the sentiments of its users and categorizes them accordingly as positive, negative, and neutral. Analytical and machine learning classification is implemented to 3586 tweets collected in different time frames.  In this paper, sentiment analysis was performed on tweets accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic, Coronavirus disease. Tweets are collected from the Twitter database using Hydrator a web-based application. Data-preprocessing removes all the noise, outliers from the raw data. With Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK), text classification for sentiment analysis and calculate the score subjective polarity, counts, and sentiment distribution. N-gram is used in textual mining -and Natural Language Processing for a continuous sequence of words in a text or document applying uni-gram, bi-gram, and tri-gram for statistical computation. Term frequency and Inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) is a feature extraction technique that converts textual data into numeric form. Vectorize data feed to our model to obtain insights from linguistic data. Linear SVC, MultinomialNB, GBM, and Random Forest classifier with Tfidf classification model applied to our proposed model. Linear Support Vector classification performs better than the other two classifiers. Results depict that RF performs better.