bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Heterogeneity in COVID-19 patient volume, characteristics and outcomes across US Department of Veterans Affairs facilities: an observational cohort study
Authors: Bravata Dawn M , Myers Laura J , Perkins Anthony J , Keyhani Salomeh , Zhang Ying , Zillich Alan J , Dysangco Andrew , Lindsey Reese , Sharmitha Dev , Myers Jennifer , Austin Charles , Sexson Ali , Arling Greg
Published: March 2021

Objective

Studies describe COVID-19 patient characteristics and outcomes across populations, but reports of variation across healthcare facilities are lacking. The objectives were to examine differences in COVID-19 patient volume and mortality across facilities, and understand whether facility variation in mortality was due primarily to differences in patient versus facility characteristics.

Design

Observational cohort study with multilevel mixed effects logistic regression modelling.

Setting

The Veterans Health Administration (VA) is the largest healthcare system in the USA.

Participants

Patients with COVID-19.

Main outcome

All-cause mortality within 45 days after COVID-19 testing (March–May, follow-up through 16 July 2020).

Results

Among 13 510 patients with COVID-19, 3942 (29.2%) were admitted (2266/3942 (57.5%) ward; 1676/3942 (42.5%) intensive care unit (ICU)) and 679/3942 (17.2%) received mechanical ventilation. Marked heterogeneity was observed across facilities in median age (range: 34.3–83.9 years; facility mean: 64.7, SD 7.2 years); patient volume (range: 1–737 at 160 facilities; facility median: 48.5, IQR 14–105.5); hospital admissions (range: 1–286 at 133 facilities; facility median: 11, IQR 1–26.5); ICU caseload (range: 1–85 at 115 facilities; facility median: 4, IQR 0–12); and mechanical ventilation (range: 1–53 at 90 facilities; facility median: 1, IQR 0–5). Heterogeneity was also observed in facility mortality for all patients with COVID-19 (range: 0%–29.7%; facility median: 8.9%, IQR 2.4%–13.7%); inpatients (range: 0%–100%; facility median: 18.0%, IQR 5.6%–28.6%); ICU patients (range: 0%–100%; facility median: 28.6%, IQR 14.3%–50.0%); and mechanical ventilator patients (range: 0%–100%; facility median: 52.7%, IQR 33.3%–80.6%). The majority of variation in facility mortality was attributable to differences in patient characteristics (eg, age).

Conclusions

Marked heterogeneity in COVID-19 patient volume, characteristics and mortality were observed across VA facilities nationwide. Differences in patient characteristics accounted for the majority of explained variation in mortality across sites. Variation in unadjusted COVID-19 mortality across facilities or nations should be considered with caution.
Comparative cohorts of retinopathy of prematurity outcomes of differing oxygen saturation: real-world outcomes
Authors: Choo May May , Grigg John , Barnes Elizabeth H , Khaliddin Nurliza , Kamalden Tengku Ain , Ahmad Kamar Azanna , Choo Yao Mun , Lim Chin Theam , Martin Frank Joseph
Published: March 2021

Objective

An ongoing third epidemic of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is contributed largely by developing nations. We describe a cohort of infants in a single neonatal unit where two limits of oxygen saturation were administered, to show real-world outcomes from trend in neonatology for higher oxygen to improve survival.

Methods and analysis

This retrospective, comparative study of prospectively collected data in an ROP screening programme included infants indicated by gestational age ≤32 weeks, birth weight <1501 g, ventilation for 7 days or requiring oxygen >1 month, who underwent dilated fundoscopic examination from age 4 weeks, every 2 weeks until full retinal vascularisation. Infants with ROP were examined weekly and treated where indicated. Data were divided into two epochs. Epoch 1 oxygen saturation targets were [88–92%], epoch 2 targets [90–95% (99%)] with allowance of increase to 20% for several hours after procedures. Outcome measures included development of ROP, treatment, mortality, sepsis and intraventricular haemorrhage.

Results

A total of 651 infants underwent examination between 2003 and 2016. The incidence of ROP in epoch 1 was 29.1% and epoch 2 was 29.3% (p=0.24). ROP progression doubled in epoch 2 (5 vs 11%, p=0.006), proportion of cases treated halved (14% vs 6%, p=0.0005), sepsis was halved (78.5% vs 41.2%, p<0.0001) and intraventricular haemorrhage doubled (20.2% vs 43.8%, p=0.0001) in epoch 2. Mortality was 4% and 0% in epochs 1 and 2, respectively.

Conclusion

Incidence of ROP did not differ, although ROP cases that worsened doubled with higher oxygen targets. ROP cases requiring treatment decreased, as did sepsis and mortality. Intraventricular haemorrhage cases doubled.
Monotonic and cyclic behaviour of root-reinforced sand
Authors: Karimzadeh Ali Akbar , Leung Anthony Kwan , Hosseinpour Saied , Wu Zhaoyi , Fardad Amini Pedram
Published: March 2021

Plant roots are known to provide mechanical reinforcement to soils upon shearing and seismic loading. However, the effects of different stress paths on root reinforcement remain unclear. Moreover, whether and how roots provide resistance to soil liquefaction upon cyclic loading have rarely been studied. The objective of this study is to conduct a series of undrained triaxial tests to investigate the monotonic and cyclic behaviour of rooted sand. Roots of vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides L.), which has been advocated for use in shallow slope stabilisation purposes, were used for testing. The root diameters ranged between 0.3 and 1.5 mm, while the root volume ratios (RVRs) were 0.23%, 0.45%, and 0.67%. It was discovered that the root reinforcement effect was anisotropic and path-dependent. Along the extension path, when the major principal stress was perpendicular to the predominant root orientation, the root-induced increase in soil friction angle was approximately 10°. This increase was much greater than that along the compression path, where the change was minimal. The presence of roots prevented the limited flow failure at some RVRs and cyclic stress ratios (CSRs) (which occurred in the unreinforced sand) and the failure mode of the root-reinforced soil switched to cyclic mobility. The liquefaction resistance was improved with an increase in root volume, and this improvement was more remarkable at higher CSRs.
Transport of finite chains with free ends through thin channels
Authors: Coste Christophe , Saint Jean Michel
Published: March 2021

We describe the transport of a finite chain of [Formula: see text] identical particles in a thermal bath, through thin channels that forbid any crossing with a conceptually and technically simple method, that is neither restricted to the thermodynamic limit (infinite systems with finite density) nor to overdamped systems. We obtain analytically the mean squared displacement of each particle. Regardless of the damping, we identify a correlated regime for which chain transport is dominated by the correlations between individual particles. At large damping, the mean squared displacement evidences the typical single file behavior, with a time dependence that scales as [Formula: see text]. At small damping, the correlated regime is rather described by a diffusion-like behavior, with a diffusivity which is neither the individual particle diffusivity nor the Fickian diffusivity of the chain as a whole. We emphasize that, for a chain with free ends, the fluctuations of the chain ends are larger by a factor two than the fluctuations of its center. This effect is observed whatever the damping [Formula: see text], but the duration of this fluctuations enhancement is found to scale as [Formula: see text] for low damping and as [Formula: see text] for high damping. We discuss the relevance of this model to the transport of actual systems in confined geometries.
Enhanced Content-Based Image Retrieval Using Information Oriented Angle-Based Local Tri-Directional Weber Patterns
Authors: Kumar Gangavarapu Venkata Satya , Mohan Pillutla Gopala Krishna
Published: March 2021

In diverse computer applications, the analysis of image content plays a key role. This image content might be either textual (like text appearing in the images) or visual (like shape, color, texture). These two image contents consist of image’s basic features and therefore turn out to be as the major advantage for any of the implementation. Many of the art models are based on the visual search or annotated text for Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) models. There is more demand toward multitasking, a new method needs to be introduced with the combination of both textual and visual features. This paper plans to develop the intelligent CBIR system for the collection of different benchmark texture datasets. Here, a new descriptor named Information Oriented Angle-based Local Tri-directional Weber Patterns (IOA-LTriWPs) is adopted. The pattern is operated not only based on tri-direction and eight neighborhood pixels but also based on four angles [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]. Once the patterns concerning tri-direction, eight neighborhood pixels, and four angles are taken, the best patterns are selected based on maximum mutual information. Moreover, the histogram computation of the patterns provides the final feature vector, from which the new weighted feature extraction is performed. As a new contribution, the novel weight function is optimized by the Improved MVO on random basis (IMVO-RB), in such a way that the precision and recall of the retrieved image is high. Further, the proposed model has used the logarithmic similarity called Mean Square Logarithmic Error (MSLE) between the features of the query image and trained images for retrieving the concerned images. The analyses on diverse texture image datasets have validated the accuracy and efficiency of the developed pattern over existing.
Neuro-optimized numerical treatment of HIV infection model
Authors: Bilal Anas , Sun Guangmin , Mazhar Sarah , Junjie Zhang
Published: March 2021

In this paper, a neuro-optimized numerical method is presented for approximation of HIV virus progression model in the human body. The model is composed of coupled nonlinear system of differential equations (DEs) containing healthy and infected T-Cells and HIV free virus particles. The coupled system is transformed into feedforward artificial neural network (ANN) with Mexican hat wavelet function in the hidden layers. Two meta-heuristic algorithms based on chaotic particle swarm optimization (CPSO) and its hybrid version with local search technique are exploited to tune the parameters of ANN in an unsupervised manner of error function. A comprehensive testbed is established to observe the virus growth per day with performance metric containing fitness value, computational time complexity and convergence. The proposed solutions are compared with state of art Runge–Kutta method and Legendre Wavelet Collocation Method (LWCM). The core advantages of the proposed scheme are getting the solution on continuous grid, consistent convergence, simplicity in implementation and handling strong nonlinearity effectively.
Automatic Speech Recognition for Indoor HRI Scenarios
Authors: Novoa José , Mahu Rodrigo , Wuth Jorge , Escudero Juan Pablo , Fredes Josué , Yoma Néstor Becerra
Published: March 2021

This article presents a stand-alone automatic speech recognition system that accounts for listener movement, time-varying reverberation effects, environmental noise, and user position information for beamforming approaches in an HRI setting. We raise the importance of replacing the classical black-box integration of automatic speech recognition technology in HRI applications with the incorporation of the acoustic environment representation and modeling, and of the target source direction. Test data were recorded on a real robot under various moving conditions. For addressing the time-varying acoustic channel problem and incorporating environmental effect during training, clean speech samples were passed through estimated static channel responses and noise was added. Beamforming is investigated regarding oracle source tracking using, for instance, image processing. The proposed strategy is interesting for the robotics community, because it allows the development of voice-based HRI with limited training data and without relying on third-party technologies or Internet access eliminating the need to upload data to the cloud. In our mobile HRI scenario, the resulting speech recognition engine provided an average word error rate that is at least 19% and 34% lower than publicly available speech recognition APIs with the playback (i.e., loudspeaker) and human testing modalities, respectively.
A Review of Empirical Likelihood
Authors: Lazar Nicole A.
Published: March 2021

Empirical likelihood is a popular nonparametric analog of the usual parametric likelihood, inheriting many of the large-sample properties of the latter construct. This article presents a review of the empirical likelihood approach from its introduction 30 years ago, up to recent theoretical developments. Aspects of computation and connections between empirical likelihood and other likelihood-type quantities are also explored. The article ends with a discussion of some directions for future research.
Extreme Value Analysis for Financial Risk Management
Authors: Nolde Natalia , Zhou Chen
Published: March 2021

This article reviews methods from extreme value analysis with applications to risk assessment in finance. It covers three main methodological paradigms: the classical framework for independent and identically distributed data with application to risk estimation for market and operational loss data, the multivariate framework for cross-sectional dependent data with application to systemic risk, and the methods for stationary serially dependent data applied to dynamic risk management. The article is addressed to statisticians with interest and possibly experience in financial risk management who are not familiar with extreme value analysis.
Neuromedin U Suppresses Collagen-Induced Arthritis through ILC2-Th2 Activation
Authors: Zhang Yuanyuan , Qin Yi , Chen Zhu
Published: March 2021

Neuromedin U (NMU) is an evolutionarily conserved neuropeptide which was previously thought to have a proinflammatory property. Recently, it was reported that NMU induced rapid ILC2 activation and Th2 responses in allergic diseases. However, whether NMU could launch such responses in arthritis is not known. In this study, we investigated the effect of NMU administration on arthritis and its underlying mechanisms. C57BL/6 male mice were induced with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and treated with NMU-23 or PBS at an early stage of induction. NMU-23 dramatically inhibited clinical onset and severity of arthritis, accompanied with decreased bone erosion and number of osteoclasts. Mechanistically, NMU-23 administration induced the expansion of ILC2 and elevated eosinophil, IL-5, and IL-13 expression in the joint of arthritic mice. Although levels of Th2 cells are slightly increased, Gata3 expression level is also upregulated. Further, NMU-deficient (NMU-/-) mice develop less severe CIA compared with control. Interestingly, the proportion of ILC2 and FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) was elevated in NMU-/- mice. Taken together, our results reveal a previously unknown anti-inflammatory effect of NMU in CIA by inducing ILC2-Th2 activation.
Electronic Vaping-Induced Methicillin-Sensitive Staphylococcus Aureus Pneumonia and Empyema
Authors: Patil Sachin M. , Beck Phillip Paul , Patel Tarang Pankaj , Dale Swaney Richard , Dandachi Dima , Krvavac Armin
Published: March 2021

Pneumonia is a severe acute inflammation of the lower respiratory tract due to infectious pathogens. Pathogens responsible include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. Pneumonia categorizations include community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), hospital-acquired pneumonia, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. It is the single most common cause of infection-related mortality in the United States. Among the typical bacterial CAP causes, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is responsible for less than 5% of all cases. Among the S. aureus, methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) is slightly more common than the methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). CAP caused by S. aureus is associated with worse clinical outcomes compared to streptococcal pneumoniae. Although S. aureus CAP occurs throughout the year, it is less common except during the influenza season when there is a spike. Multiple studies have stratified risk factors for MRSA infection. MSSA pneumonia in immunocompetent young patients is uncommon due to healthy host defense mechanisms. However, certain individual risk factors promote infection, such as intravenous drug abuse. Recent multiple research studies implicate increased virulence of S. aureus in colonized patients after exposure to electronic cigarette vapor exposure (ECVE), resulting in pneumonia. A PubMed search revealed no MSSA community-acquired bacterial pneumonia due to ECVE. We report a 38-year-old female who developed acute MSSA pneumonia, which was complicated by left empyema due to ECVE from JUUL device with third-party compatible cannabidiol pods. The patient completed treatment successfully with a chest tube placement followed by fibrinolysis and intravenous antibiotics.
Statistical Characteristics of Raindrop Size Distribution during Rainy Seasons in Northwest China
Authors: Zeng Yong , Yang Lianmei , Tong Zepeng , Jiang Yufei , Zhang Zuyi , Zhang Jinru , Zhou Yushu , Li Jiangang , Liu Fan , Liu Jin
Published: March 2021

Raindrop size distribution (DSD) is of great significance for understanding the microphysical process of rainfall and the quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE). However, in the past, there was a lack of relevant research on Xinjiang in the arid region of northwest China. In this study, the rainy season data collected by the disdrometer in the Yining area of Xinjiang were used for more than two years, and the characteristics of DSDs for all samples, for two rain types (convective and stratiform), and for six different rain rates were studied. The results showed that nearly 70% of the total samples had a rainfall rate of less than 1 mm·h−1, the convective rain was neither continental nor maritime, and there was a clear boundary between convective rain and stratiform rain in terms of the scattergram of the standardized intercept parameter (

log

10

N

w

) versus the mass-weighted average diameter (

D

m

). When the raindrop diameter was less than 0.7 mm, DSDs of the two rainfalls basically coincided, while when the raindrop diameter was greater than 0.7 mm, DSDs of convective rainfall were located above the stratiform rain. As the rainfall rate increased,

D

m

increased, while

log

10

N

w

first increased and then decreased. In addition, we deduced the

Z
−
R

(radar reflectivity-rain rate) relationship and

μ
−
Λ

relationship (shape parameter-slope parameter of the gamma DSDs) suitable for the Yining area. These conclusions are conducive to strengthening the understanding of rainfall microphysical processes in arid regions and improving the ability of QPE in arid regions.
A Recommendation Approach for Rating Prediction Based on User Interest and Trust Value
Authors: Chen Hailong , Sun Haijiao , Cheng Miao , Yan Wuyue
Published: March 2021

Collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm is one of the most researched and widely used recommendation algorithms in personalized recommendation systems. Aiming at the problem of data sparsity existing in the traditional collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm, which leads to inaccurate recommendation accuracy and low recommendation efficiency, an improved collaborative filtering algorithm is proposed in this paper. The algorithm is improved in the following three aspects: firstly, considering that the traditional scoring similarity calculation excessively relies on the common scoring items, the Bhattacharyya similarity calculation is introduced into the traditional calculation formula; secondly, the trust weight is added to accurately calculate the direct trust value and the trust transfer mechanism is introduced to calculate the indirect trust value between users; finally, the user similarity and user trust are integrated, and the prediction result is generated by the trust weighting method. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm can effectively improve the prediction accuracy of recommendations.
Continuous Spinal Anesthesia following Inadvertent Dural Puncture during Epidural Placement for an Emergency Laparotomy
Authors: Emyedu Andrew , Kyoheirwe Bernadette , Atumanya Patience
Published: March 2021

Summary. Emergency exploratory laparotomy conducted under continuous spinal anesthesia using a standard epidural set following an accidental dural puncture. Background and Objectives. Continuous spinal anesthesia is one of the least utilized regional anesthesia techniques globally. It could be an alternative anesthesia technique for abdominal and lower limb surgeries following an accidental dural puncture. The aim of this report was to describe a case in which continuous spinal anesthesia was successfully conducted for emergency exploratory laparotomy following an accidental dural puncture during epidural placement. Case Report. A 38-year-old male presented to our accident and emergency unit with a one-day history of colicky abdominal pain associated with constipation, abdominal distension, and vomiting. He was diagnosed with intestinal obstruction and underwent an emergency exploratory laparotomy under continuous spinal anesthesia using a standard epidural set following an accidental dural puncture. Conclusion. This case demonstrates that in case of an accidental dural puncture during epidural placement, the catheter can be advanced into the intrathecal space and continuous spinal anesthesia conducted for abdominal surgeries using a standard epidural catheter.
A Review on Bamboo Resource in the African Region: A Call for Special Focus and Action
Authors: Bahru Tinsae , Ding Yulong
Published: March 2021

The African region has untapped bamboo resource potential with immense socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological significances. Despite the long history of bamboo in the region, its contribution is at the infant stage. Therefore, the present study aimed at reviewing the existing literature supported by research experience on bamboo resource in the region. The review process mainly focused on four main specific objectives. These include (1) review extensively African countries that owned the resource and identify the species in each country, (2) identify and document species, generic, and taxonomic tribes of each bamboo species, (3) assess and report bamboo area coverage from available nations, and (4) highlight the existing experiences of special opportunities, challenges, and successful achievements on bamboo resource in representative African countries. The review process found out that a total of 4.56 million ha total bamboo area and 115 bamboo species are reported from 48 African countries. Hence, the African region shares 12.3% of the global bamboo resource and contributed 7.3% of the total bamboo species. Of this, 89.6% of the region is endowed with indigenous bamboo species. Among indigenous species, O. abyssinica is the most widely distributed in 38 African countries. Madagascar ranked first with 37 indigenous species, while Ethiopia led by 25 introduced bamboo species. Nowadays, Ethiopia has 1.44 million ha total indigenous bamboo area coverage, which accounted for 31.6% of the African region and 3.89% of the world total. Therefore, more detail and comprehensive research on species taxonomy, resource base inventory, silvicultural applications, and socioeconomic study is recommended.
Comparison of ESP programming platforms
Authors: Rak Filip , Wiora Jozef
Published: March 2021

The growing popularity of ESP boards has led to the development of several programming platforms. They allow users to develop applications for ESP modules in different programming languages, such as C++, C, Lua, MicroPython, or using AT Commands. Each of them is very specific and has different advantages. The programming style, efficiency, speed of execution, level of advancement, or memory usage will differ from one language to another. Users mostly base their choice depending on their programming skills and goals of the planned projects. The aim of this work is to determine, which language is the best suitable for a particular user for a particular type of project. We have described and compared the mentioned languages. We have prepared test tasks to indicate quantified values. There is no common rule because each of the languages is intended for a different kind of user. While one of the languages is slower but simpler in usage for a beginner, the other one requires broad knowledge but offers availability to develop very complex applications.
Enhancement of energy consumption estimation for electric vehicles by using machine learning
Authors: Cabani Adnane , Zhang Peiwen , Khemmar Redouane , Xu Jin
Published: March 2021

Three main classes are considered of signiﬁcant inﬂuence factors when predicting the energy consumption rate of electric vehicles (EV): environment, driver behaviour, and vehicle. These classes take into account constant or variable parameters which inﬂuences the energy consumption of the EV. In this paper, we develop a new model taking into account the three classes as well as the interaction between them in order to improve the quality of EV energy consumption. The model depends on a new approach based on machine learning and especially k-NN algorithm in order to estimate the EV energy consumption. Following a lazy learning paradigm, this approach allows better estimation performance. The advantage of our proposal, in regards to mathematical approach, is taking into account the real situation of the ecosystem on the basis of historical data. In fact, the behavior of the driver (driving style, heating usage, air conditioner usage, battery state, etc.) impacts directly the EV energy consumption. The obtained results show that we can reach up to 96.5% of accuracy about the estimated of energy-consumption. The proposed method is used in order to ﬁnd the optimal path between two points (departure-destination) in terms of energy consumption.
Deployment of internet of things-based cloudlet-cloud for surveillance operations
Authors: E. Abel Edje , Muhammad Shafie Abd Latiff , Howe Chan Weng
Published: March 2021

This research proposes the design of internet of things (IoT) camera/toxic gas sensors for the surveillance of a nation’s borders. Also, a wearable radio frequency identification (RFID) tag with built-in body-temperature/heartbeat sensors, for monitoring the health status and locations of military personnel while on border patrol duty or in battlefield combats. Mobile micro-controllers are deployed to gather sensed data retrieved from the sensors/RFID tags and transmitted to a cloudlet situated at the command control center, located 200 meters away from the sensor devices. Consequently, sensed data are dispatch to the cloud data center when there is a need for offline data mining or analysis. The distinguishing feature of our proposed system from previous researches is that the health status and locations of troops (soldiers) are monitored while they are in border patrol duty or in battlefield combats. Also, the introduction of cloudlet services closer to the IoT sensor devices for collection of sensed data. This way, the sensed data or information gathered at the cloudlet will aid timely information retrieval that will speed up intelligence gathering for strategic military operations, especially in critical situations. This is an innovative attempt to apply IoT-enabled cloudlet-based cloud computing to support military operations.
Expert system for heart disease based on electrocardiogram data using certainty factor with multiple rule
Authors: Sumiati Sumiati , Saragih Hoga , Abdul Rahman Titik , Triayudi Agung
Published: March 2021

Limited public health services in remote areas, where the lack of transportation infrastructure, facilities, communication facilities and minimal medical personnel, especially for areas with underdeveloped, foremost, and regular (3T) status. The limitation of medical personnel is one of the factors for the high mortality rate of heart disease. On the other hand, the development of information technology, especially in the field of computing, is very fast in the era of the industrial revolution 4.0, but not yet used optimally, especially in the health sector. This study aims to develop a system or software that can replace a doctor for the process of identifying heart defects based on an expert system. Expert system developed with the certainty factor with multiple rule approach. System testing is carried out from the results of the system validity with experts, so that the system test results produce a certainty factor value for a normal heart of 0.95 and an accuracy level of 95%, while the certainty factor (CF) value for an abnormal heart is 0.99 and produces an accuracy rate of 99%.
The determinant factors of school organizational change in Madura, East Java, Indonesia
Authors: Rozikin Mochammad , Muslim Abd. Qadir , Pratama Bayu Indra
Published: March 2021

Organizational change is a phenomenon that must be faced and carried out by every individual in the organization to achieve organizational goals. Embodiments of organizational change often occur not because it suits the needs of the organization but because of personal interests and power. This study aimed to determine the main factors that can create change, namely the relationship of leadership and political pressure of school principals that influence organizational change in the Public Secondary School in Madura, East Java, Indonesia. This research used a quantitative approach to survey methods. Based on the achievement of its objectives, this study included causal explanation research, the analysis of this study using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and a sample of about 650 people collected from 1000 respondents taken from 130 schools through probability sampling techniques using AMOS software. The results showed that the leadership and political pressure of regional heads were the main factors of organizational change at SMPN (Public Secondary School) in Madura, East Java. Organizational Change depends very much on the role of the political pressure of the regional head through education policy, as well as the role of the principal's leadership in running the wheels of the organization so that the school's goals can be achieved. This study also showed that the principal's leadership as an intermediary variable from political pressure shows no influence because the political pressure of the regional head is directly related to organizational change.
Views of secondary school students on ideal teacher qualifications: A phenomenological analysis
Authors: Kalkan Fatma , Dağlı Emine
Published: March 2021

This research aimed to reveal the views of secondary school students on ideal teacher qualifications. For this purpose, research was carried out in a phenomenological pattern, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The study was carried out with 76 students who were studying in a secondary school in the 2017-2018 academic year. The data were obtained with the repertory grid technique and interview technique. As a result of the analysis of the data, it was seen that the qualifications of the teachers considered ideal by the participants were among the general competencies of the teaching profession. According to the results of this research, ideally, teachers are expected to provide good and fun lessons, not discriminate among students, be friendly and calm in communications with students, and ensure discipline and democracy in the classroom environment.
Teachers’ feelings of safeness in school-family-community partnerships: Motivations for sustainable development in moral education
Authors: Thi Ngoc Lien Nguyen , Thi To Khuyen Nguyen , Thi Tho Nguyen , Ngan Hoa Nguyen , Thi Hanh Nguyen , Cam Tho Chu , Duy Hai Tuong , Van Bien Nguyen
Published: March 2021

This study aims to get insights into teachers' safety feelings in families, schools, and communities’ partnerships to facilitate the Vietnam context’s moral education process. We used a survey method with the instrument having 19 Likert-scale items, namely teachers' feelings of safeness in SFC partnerships (SSFC). The data from 371 Vietnamese teachers followed a simple random sampling strategy. We conduct multiple regression analyses to get insight into the relationship between four groups of variables and teachers' feelings of safeness, namely teachers’ background, collaborated actions between teachers and families, families’ mental encouragement for teachers, and collaborated actions between families and communities. These results find that the school level, collaborated actions between teachers and families, and families’ mental encouragement for teachers are statistically significant to teachers’ feelings of safety. Moreover, the variable group of collaborated actions between teachers and families records the highest positive beta value in multiple regression analyses. In other words, the improvement of collaborated actions between teachers and families is a critical motivation to leverage teachers’ feelings of safeness in SFC partnerships. These results provide valuable information for sustainable development in moral education.
The influence of sorogan method in learning history to increase historical understanding and historical awareness
Authors: Fadli Muhammad Rijal , Sudrajat Ajat , Aman Aman , Amboro Kian
Published: March 2021

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the sorogan method in history learning to improve students' historical understanding and historical awareness. The research method used a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design, and the sampling technique used a cluster sampling with a sample size of 96 students. Collecting data through observation, interviews, and tests of historical understanding and awareness. Meanwhile, data analysis to determine the effect and differences of the sorogan method to increase understanding and historical awareness using the independent sample t-test and N-gain score test. The results showed that there were a significant influence and difference between the two groups, namely the experimental and control classes based on the results of the independent sample t-test, the hypothesis H0 was rejected with a significance value of 0.000<0.05, further strengthened by the results of the N-gain score test which was included in the criteria low and medium. This means that there is an influence and increase from the implementation of the sorogan method on historical understanding and awareness and getting a positive response from teachers and students, because the sorogan method is student-centered, and the teacher acts as tutorship/mentorship.
Fuzzy logic decission maker for automatic feeder and water quality monitoring system
Authors: Wardhany Vivien Arief , Yuliandoko Herman , Subono Subono , J A Wildan , Iskandar Tomy , Harun A. L M. Udin , Puja A I Gede
Published: March 2021

Feeding is one of the most important factors in vanammei shrimp culture. Feeding time must be scheduled regulary and it is prohibit from being late. Because it can affect to the development and growth of vanammei shrimp. The Research of monitoring and control system of vanammei shrimp feeding continues to be developed. The development of hardware and software in this study prioritizes monitoring of pH conditions, oxygen levels, and pond temperatures. The measurement results of pH, oxygen levels and pond temperature can be used as decision makers for vanammei shrimp feeding schedules. The decision making system using the Fuzzy Logic method. The development of control devices for feeding aims to set a schedule for feeding automatically. The use of monitoring devices and automatic Feeder control of shrimp feeding can reduce the accumulation of leftover shrimp feed, so that feeding can be more efficient.
Health education on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis prevention among tuberculosis patients
Authors: Malini Hema , Huriani Emil , Lenggogeni Devia Putri , Herlina Shinta
Published: March 2021

The high incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the community due to the lack of socialization or the provision of health education about MDR-TB. During this time, health education is only focused on tuberculosis (TB) generally. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of health education on the behavior of MDR-TB prevention in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in two Community Health Centers in Padang. This study design is quasi-experimental with pre and post-test groups only. The program intervention of health education was conducted for a month with lecture method and group discussion using flipchart and video as media. The sampling technique used purposive sampling were 29 patients with TB who are still in the phase of treatment. Data collection used a set of questionnaires. The data analysis in this study using statistical tests t-test. The results showed, there is a significance influence of health education on knowledge with p-value=0.000 (p≤0.05) and attitude with p-value=0.000 (p≤0.05). The result also showed that 65.5% of patients taking medication regularly. It was also that there is the effect of health education on the behavior of MDR-TB prevention in TB patients. It is expected that the providing of health education on the prevention of behavior on MDR-TB is emphasized on the motivation and self-efficacy of the patients and involvement of supervision on taking medication.
Psychological impact among health workers in effort to facing the COVID-19 in Indonesia
Authors: Nasrullah Dede , Natsir Muhammad , Twistiandayani Retno , Rohayani Lilis , Siswanto Siswanto , Sumartyawati Ni Made , Hasanah Uswatun , Surya Direja Ade Herman
Published: March 2021

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Indonesia has a psychological impact among health workers who are working in hospital and caring for patients with positive COVID-19. This study aimed to examines the psychological impact among health workers in effort to facing the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in Indonesia. Snowball sampling technique was employed to gather the sample in the eight islands. The health workers were responded to the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS-42) questionnaire, with the total of 644 respondents. The results of this study showed that about 65.8% of respondents experienced anxiety due to COVID-19 outbreak, There were 3.3% experienced extremely severe anxiety and 33.1% experienced mild anxiety. Whereas those experienced stress due to COVID-19 outbreak were 55%, extremely severe stress levels were 0.8% and mild stress were 34.5%. Health workers who experienced depression were 23.5%. There were 0.5% with very severe depression and mild depression was 11.2%. There is a closed correlation between anxiety (r=0.152 p=0.000), stress (r=0.086 p=0.029), and depression (r=0.111 p=0.005), to the worried of being alienated if infected coronavirus (COVID-19). The Indonesian government has to handle the anxiety, stress and depression that occurs in health workers in particular and can provide protection to medical personnel so that they do not feel alienated by those around them.
Quality of self-management among diabetes mellitus patient
Authors: Sidiq Rapitos , Widdefrita Widdefrita , Amos John , Novelasari Novelasari , Mahaza Mahaza , Ismail Ismail
Published: March 2021

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that has very high morbidity and mortality rate. This disease cannot be cured but can be controlled with good self-management. This research determined the quality of self-management of diabetics at community health centers in Padang City in 2019. This is a descriptive-analytic study with amount of samples 105 people with diabetes. Data collection was carried out from July to November 2019 at seven community health centers in Padang City, namely: Nanggalo, Lapai, Alai, Andalas, Ambacang, Kuranji and Pauh community health centers. Data were collected by interviewing and processed by the stages of coding, editing, tabulating, and transferring. Data were analyzed by bivariate and multivariate analysis (Chi-square and logistic regression) with a significant level of 0.05 (5%). The results showed that 60% of the quality of self-management in good category. Factors that significantly affect the quality of self-management are physical exercise/sports (p-value=0.003), education (p-value=0.006) and regularity of taking medication (p-value=0.021). The quality of self-management is largely good and physical exercise greatly affects the quality of self-management of diabetes mellitus patients.
Generalized anxiety disorder associated with individual work performance of Indonesian medical personnel during COVID-19 outbreak
Authors: Sujadi Eko , Fadhli Muhammad , Meditamar Muhd. Odha , Kamil Dairabi , Jamin Ahmad , Yandri Hengki , Indra Syaiful
Published: March 2021

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has the potential to affect the mental health of medical personnel. This study aimed to investigate the anxiety experienced by medical personnel during the COVID-19 outbreak and its correlation with individual work performance. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 501 Medical Personnel in Indonesia. Anxiety level and work performance were assessed by the GAD-7 and IWP-1.0. Data analysis techniques used were descriptive statistics, Man-Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Spearman's Rank-Order Correlation. The results showed that 33.33% of the participants did not experience anxiety, followed by moderate, mild, and severe levels (31.14%, 27.74%, and 7.78%). Furthermore, the level of anxiety was different in terms of sex, age, and type of medical personnel, while there was no difference in the length of time of work. The results of the correlation analysis showed that anxiety was correlated with task performance and contextual performance, but there was no correlation with the counter-productive work behavior. There is a crucial need for psychological assistance to medical personnel in orders to reduce their anxiety as well as improve their performance.
Interaction Between the Angiotensin-(1–7) Mas Receptor and the Dopamine D2 Receptor
Authors: Rukavina Mikusic Natalia L. , Silva Mauro G. , Mazzitelli Luciana R. , Santos Robson A.S. , Gómez Karina A. , Grecco Hernán E. , Gironacci Mariela M.
Published: March 2021

Ang (angiotensin) 1–7 MasR (Mas receptor) and D2R (dopamine D2 receptor) stimulation is coupled to anti-inflammatory responses. In the present work, we investigated the hypothesis that the anti-inflammatory action mediated by both receptors results from MasR-D2R heteromerization. Human monocyte (THP-1) cells differentiated to macrophages and exposed to lipopolysaccharide were employed. Ang (1–7) and the D2R agonist SUM (sumanirole) induced a decrease in proinflammatory IL (interleukin) 6 release in human macrophages exposed to a proinflammatory stimulus. The Ang (1–7)–induced decrease in IL-6 was blocked by the D2R antagonist. Conversely, the SUM induced decrease in IL-6 was prevented by the MasR antagonist and when MasR expression was downregulated, suggesting MasR-D2R interaction. Co-immunoprecipitation assay in THP-1 cells and in human monocyte differentiated macrophages from peripheral blood mononuclear cells confirmed MasR-D2R interaction. To avoid the influence from other receptors, MasR-D2R interaction was characterized in transfected human embryonic kidney 293T cells. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer analysis showed that MasR and D2R formed a constitutive heteromer, which was not modified by their agonists. Ang (1–7) and dopamine stimulated ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase) 1/2 and Akt (protein kinase B) phosphorylation only in cells expressing MasR-D2R heteromers, but not in cells expressing each receptor alone. Ang (1–7)–stimulated ERK1/2 and Akt phosphorylation was prevented by D2R blockade while the effect of dopamine was prevented by MasR blockade, reinforcing the fact that MasR-D2R heteromers are involved in ERK1/2 and Akt activation induced by their agonists. Our findings provide new evidence regarding the mechanisms underlying the cross-talk between the Ang (1–7)/MasR axis and the dopaminergic system in response to a proinflammatory process.
A comparative evaluation of the nutritional quality of three wild populations of female mitten crabs (Eriocheir sensu stricto) in northern China
Authors: Zhang Dongdong , Jiang Xiaodong , Zu Lu , Zhou Wenquan , Luo Min , Cheng Yongxu , Wu Xugan
Published: March 2021

There are three major wild populations of mitten crab (Eriocheir sensu stricto), Suifenhe River (SF), Tumenjiang River (TM) and Liaohe River (LH) in northern China. However, the information on the nutritional quality of these three populations of crabs is still scarce. Thus, we investigated and compared the tissue indices, total edible yield, proximate composition, fatty acid compositions and amino acid contents of these wild crab populations. We showed that: (1) TM population had the highest meat yield among the three populations; (2) TM recorded the highest moisture and the lowest total lipid content in ovary and muscle; (3) a higher level of total n-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids was found in TM, except for the ovary in SF; (4) the three populations had similar essential amino acids scores. In conclusion, Eriocheir s.s. from these three populations all showed a high nutritional quality suitable for humans, especially the TM, which contains more eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid.
Infrasound Generation by Meteorological Fronts and Its Propagation in the Atmosphere
Authors: Chunchuzov I. P. , Kulichkov S. N. , Popov O. E. , Perepelkin V. G.
Published: March 2021

Infrasound parameters (amplitudes, coherences, grazing angles, azimuths, and horizontal phase speeds) derived during the passage of warm and cold fronts through the networks of microbarometers in the cities of Dubna and Moscow are presented. The significant differences observed in the temporal variations of the parameters of infrasound from warm and cold fronts are discussed. Such differences must be taken into account when detecting infrasound precursors of atmospheric storms. A possible mechanism for the generation of infrasound by the turbulent airstream flowing around the geometric irregularities of the meteorological front is proposed. The observed effect of internal gravity waves on the parameters of infrasound and its frequency spectrum is explained.