bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Surgical Case-Mix and Discharge Decisions: Does Within-Hospital Coordination Matter?
Authors: Bavafa Hessam , Örmeci Lerzan , Savin Sergei , Virudachalam Vanitha 
Published: December 2021

How to Assess the Benefits of Coordination in Managing Hospital Resources In providing patient care, hospitals rely on multiple types of resources, such as operating rooms, recovery beds, labs, and diagnostic equipment, that are often controlled and managed as separate entities and by different decision makers. In “Surgical Case-Mix and Discharge Decisions: Does Within-Hospital Coordination Matter?” Hessam Bavafa, Lerzan Örmeci, Sergei Savin, and Vanitha Virudachalam focus on the interaction between “front-end’’ resources, such as operating rooms, and “backroom’’ resources, such as recovery beds, and compare hospital profitability under the fully coordinated, optimal approach to hospital resource management and under alternative decentralized approaches often encountered in practice. The paper identifies settings in which the benefits of coordination are likely to be high as well as settings in which those benefits are at best moderate. In a given hospital, only hospital managers are in a position to estimate with any degree of certainty potential costs of coordinated management of hospital resources, and the paper’s analysis of the benefits of coordination empowers hospital managers to make informed decisions on the desirability of replacing the often decentralized “status quo” by centralized resource management.
Maggot debridement therapy to treat hard-to-heal diabetic foot ulcers: a single-centre study
Authors: Nair Harikrishna KR , Ahmad Nazni Wasi , Ismail AA , Alabed Alabed Ali A , Zheming Benjamin Oh , Kaur Gurpreet , Hassan Haslinda , Supaat Nurulkhusna Imam 
Published: December 2021

Objective: Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) has seen a resurgence in recent years in the treatment of hard-to-heal wounds, as a result of rising antibiotic resistance. The sterilised larvae of Lucilia cuprina have been used in MDT in Malaysia since 2003, with encouraging results for the treatment of hard-to-heal diabetic wounds. We report a case series of 30 patients selected from our clinic by convenient sampling with diabetic lower limb ulcers treated with MDT. The average age of patients receiving MDT was >50 years. Of the 30 patients in the study, nine were female and 21 were male. All patients had underlying diabetes, two patients had leg ulcers and 28 patients had diabetic foot ulcers. Sterilised Lucilia cuprina larvae were applied via a standard method of 10 maggots per square centimetre and dressed with sterile gauze. The study endpoint was defined as ≤5% coverage with slough or necrotic tissue following three successive applications of MDT. In this study, maximum debridement of wounds was achieved in 96.6% (29 patients) of our patients, with ≤5% coverage with slough or necrotic tissue, in addition to a reduction in wound-related pain, as assessed by a visual analogue scale. No adverse events were reported. The findings of this study support the use of MDT as a safe, efficacious, and cost-effective method of managing diabetic wounds.
Die Rolle von 3D-Modellen im Wertschöpfungsprozess von physischen und virtuellen Konsumgütern
Authors: Korbel Jakob J. , Zarnekow Rüdiger 
Published: December 2021

ZusammenfassungDie Rolle von 3D-Modellen hat sich für Unternehmen, die sich auf die Wertschöpfung im Bereich der physischen und virtuellen Konsumgüter konzentrieren, in den vergangenen Jahren erheblich verändert. Für herstellende und Handelsunternehmen stellen virtuelle Produkte heute für die Entwicklung und den Vertrieb von physischen Gütern ein essenzielles Medium dar, wobei vermehrt auf virtuelle Umgebungen basierend auf Augmented und Virtual Reality zurückgegriffen wird. Eine Vielzahl an Spieleentwicklern hingegen generiert einen maßgeblichen Teil ihrer Einnahmen nicht mehr durch den Vertrieb ihrer Software, sondern den Verkauf von virtuellen Gütern in ihren Spieleumgebungen. Ziel der Studie ist es, basierend auf einer Literaturanalyse, die Rolle von 3D-Modellen in den Wertschöpfungsprozessen beider Domänen zu beschreiben sowie die durch die beschriebenen Trends entstandenen Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede in den Prozessen zu identifizieren, die Möglichkeiten zur Kooperation und dem Austausch von Wissen bieten. Die Ergebnisse implizieren, dass durch den Einsatz von 3D-Modellen über den gesamten Wertschöpfungsprozess neue 3D-Modell-Arten entstanden sind, die mit ihren jeweiligen Abhängigkeiten in einem Wertschöpfungsprozessmodell festgehalten sind. Zudem zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass nicht-funktionale Attribute von 3D-Modellen von zunehmender Bedeutung sind, die Nutzer eine tragende Rolle in den Wertschöpfungsprozessen spielen und sich Möglichkeiten zur Kooperation hinsichtlich der Erstellung von Augmented und Virtual Reality Umgebungen, der Produktion voneinander abhängiger Güter und dem Austausch von 3D-Modellen basierend auf virtuellen Assets ergeben.
Filaggrin gene polymorphisms are associated with atopic dermatitis in women but not in men in the Caucasian population of Central Russia
Authors: Dvornyk Volodymyr , Ponomarenko Irina , Belyaeva Tatyana , Reshetnikov Evgeny , Churnosov Mikhail 
Published: December 2021

Background and purpose
This study aimed to analyze the gender-specific association of the filaggrin (FLG) gene polymorphisms with atopic dermatitis (AD) in Caucasians from the central region of Russia.

Methods
The study sample consisted of 906 female (including 474 patients with AD and 432 controls) and 406 male (such as 226 patients with AD and 180 controls) participants. Genotyping of ten polymorphisms of the FLG gene was done. The logistic regression was used to analyze the associations. A total of 125 SNPs (seven AD-associated SNPs and 118 proxy SNPs, r2≥0.8) FLG gene were used for the in silico functional annotation analysis in the females.

Results
Significant associations were identified between seven SNPs of the FLG gene (rs12130219, rs61816761, rs558269137, rs12144049, rs3126085, rs471144, rs6661961) and AD in females: rs12144049 was associated independent individually (for allele C OR = 1.71, 95%Сl 1.19–2.46, рperm = 0.004 and OR = 1.76, 95%Сl 1.18–2.63, рperm = 0.006 according to the additive and dominant genetic models, respectively) and seven SNPs of the FLG gene within 14 haplotypes. Haplotype GGT [rs61816761-rs3126085-rs12144049] showed the strongest association (OR = 0.55, рperm = 0.001). No association between the analyzed SNPs and AD was determined in the male group. The subsequent bioinformatic analysis predicted the SNPs of the FLG gene that possessed epigenetic and non-synonymous effects, were involved in the control of gene expression and alternative splicing of genes that contribute to AD pathophysiology.

Conclusion
Polymorphisms of the FLG gene are associated with AD in females but not in males in the Caucasian population of Central Russia.
Age-related mortality in 61,993 confirmed COVID-19 cases over three epidemic waves in Aragon, Spain. Implications for vaccination programmes
Authors: Casas-Deza Diego , Bernal-Monterde Vanesa , Aranda-Alonso Angel Nicolás , Montil-Miguel Enrique , Julián-Gomara Ana Belen , Letona-Giménez Laura , Arbones-Mainar Jose M. 
Published: December 2021

BackgroundRisk for severe COVID-19 increases with age. Different vaccination strategies are currently being considered, including those aimed at slowing down transmission and those aimed at providing direct protection to those most at risk.MethodsThe objectives of the current study were i) to assess age-related incidence and survival between PCR-diagnosed COVID-19 cases (n = 61,993) in the Autonomous Community of Aragon from March to November 2020, and ii) to characterize age differences regarding the course of the disease in hospitalized patients in a tertiary university hospital.ResultsWe found a similar incidence of COVID-19 in individuals between 10 and 79 years. Incidence increased in those over 80 years possibly because of the elevated transmission within the nursing homes. We observed a profound disparity among age groups; case fatality rates (CFRs) were near 0 in cases younger than 39 years throughout different waves. In contrast, there was an age-dependent and progressive increase in the CFRs, especially during the first pandemic wave. SARS-CoV-2 infection caused a more severe and rapid progression in older patients. The elderly required faster hospitalization, presented more serious symptoms on admission, and had a worse clinical course. Hospitalized older individuals, even without comorbidities, had an increased mortality risk directly associated with their age. Lastly, the existence of comorbidities dramatically increased the CFRs in the elderly, especially in males.ConclusionThe elevated incidence of COVID-19 and the vulnerability of the elderly call for their prioritization in vaccination and targeted prevention measures specifically focused on this aged population.
Reoperation rates for recurrence of fibroids after abdominal myomectomy in women with large uterus
Authors: Kramer Katherine J. , Ottum Sarah , Gonullu Damla , Bell Capricia , Ozbeki Hanna , Berman Jay M. , Recanati Maurice-Andre 
Published: December 2021

Background
The population of women undergoing abdominal myomectomy for symptomatic large fibroid uterus is unique. We seek to characterize the timing, risk factors as well as the presenting symptoms which led patients to undergo repeat surgery in this patient population.

Methods and findings
We followed 592 patients who underwent an abdominal myomectomy from March 1998 to June 2010 at St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center and presented later during the study period with a recurrence of symptoms attributable to a reemergence of fibroids and who chose to undergo repeat surgical management. Twelve percent of patients exhibited symptoms of fibroid uterus which led to reoperation within the study period. The mean age at repeat surgery was 44.1 ± 0.6 years old (n = 69) and the mean time between operations was 7.9 ± 0.3 years. Presentation was variable but included bleeding, pain and infertility. Patients presented for surgery with a significantly smaller sized uterus than at their initial surgery. Timing between surgeries correlated with age at initial surgery and uterine size but race, number of fibroids, aggregate weight of fibroids removed, operative time or blood loss at the initial surgery did not correlate. Data is suggestive that intraperitoneal triamcinolone may reduce reoperation rates but not timing of recurrence.

Conclusion
These results may help in counseling patients, particularly younger women, on the risks of fibroid recurrence necessitating repeat surgery. Further research is necessary to assess if triamcinolone can alter fibroid reurrence in patients who undergo uterus sparing procedures.
A ‘curriculum moment’ for Adult and Community Education and Training: Acknowledging the voices and experiential knowledge of lecturers and students at community learning sites
Authors: Natheem Hendricks  , Kaylianne Aploon-Zokufa  
Published: December 2021

Curriculum reform and development is, first and foremost, a political project. It involves the selection, organisation and distribution of particular knowledge structures. But factors such as student and teacher demographics deeply influence the ways in which curricula can be implemented, enacted and used as a catalyst for change. In South Africa, a particular ‘curriculum moment’ has emerged in the field of Adult and Community Education and Training (ACET) through the establishment of community colleges, along with the introduction of new educator qualifications for ACET. In this article, we draw on the reflective diary entries of student lecturers on an Advanced Diploma for Educators of Adults (ADEA) course who are lecturers at community learning sites, to reflect on this moment of curriculum construction in the development of a new Diploma in Adult and Community Education and Training (DipACET). The analysis shows that while curriculum reform is crucial to professionalising the field, it will have a very limited impact if the voices of the lecturers and students at community learning sites are marginalised in the process. These lecturers have experiential knowledge which sets them apart as crucial drivers of the curriculum. Moreover, they select and organise the content to be taught, determine how it is to be taught, and decide on the kinds of knowledge that should be privileged at sites where the curriculum is implemented. We also delineate what counts as valuable knowledge and for whom it is valuable in the field of adult and community education.
Evidences of Transformative Learning in Service-Learning Reflections
Authors: Hullender Ren , Hinck Shelly , Wood-Nartker Jeanneane , Burton Travus , Bowlby Sue 
Published: December 2021

Abstract A major shift in university course work involves activities outside the traditional classroom in which students are required to apply knowledge from the coursework in real-life service-learning environments. Such complex learning contexts generate a level of disequilibrium or anxiety that may or may not result in transformative learning. This phenomenological study examined student reflective writings from an Honors service-learning course at a medium-sized mid-western university for evidences of transformative learning, the precipitating disequilibria, and the significant pedagogical structures underlying growth. All students learned and all students encountered disquieting experiences; however, only half the participants exhibited varying levels of transformative learning. Results indicate that transformative learning requires time, space, and appropriate scaffolding to develop or augment personal internal systems of adjusting what one thinks and how one thinks about new information and experiences. The results further suggest that a framework of iterative service experiences, grounded in course content, readings, faculty-student-community dialogue, and continuous, thoughtfully designed, reflective practice can maximize transformative learning potentials. Future research should continue to explore how service-learning is experienced by individual participants and what contextual factors are essential for increasing the likelihood that transformative learning will occur.
Elle
Authors: Kingsbury Kyle , Alvaro Peter 
Published: December 2021

Users who care about their data store it in databases, which (at least in principle) guarantee some form of transactional isolation. However, experience shows that many databases do not provide the isolation guarantees they claim. With the recent proliferation of new distributed databases, demand has grown for checkers that can, by generating client workloads and injecting faults, produce anomalies that witness a violation of a stated guarantee. An ideal checker would be sound (no false positives), efficient (polynomial in history length and concurrency), effective (finding violations in real databases), general (analyzing many patterns of transactions), and informative (justifying the presence of an anomaly with understandable counterexamples). Sadly, we are aware of no checkers that satisfy these goals.
We present Elle: a novel checker which infers an Adya-style dependency graph between client-observed transactions. It does so by carefully selecting database objects and operations when generating histories, so as to ensure that the results of database reads reveal information about their version history. Elle can detect every anomaly in Adya et al's formalism (except for predicates), discriminate between them, and provide concise explanations of each. This paper makes the following contributions: we present Elle, demonstrate its soundness over specific datatypes, measure its efficiency against the current state of the art, and give evidence of its effectiveness via a case study of four real databases.
Scotch
Authors: Kiefer Martin , Poulakis Ilias , Breß Sebastian , Markl Volker 
Published: December 2021

Sketching algorithms are a powerful tool for single-pass data summarization. Their numerous applications include approximate query processing, machine learning, and large-scale network monitoring. In the presence of high-bandwidth interconnects or in-memory data, the throughput of summary maintenance over input data becomes the bottleneck. While FPGAs have shown admirable throughput and energy-efficiency for data processing tasks, developing FPGA accelerators requires a sophisticated hardware design and expensive manual tuning by an expert.
We propose Scotch, a novel system for accelerating sketch maintenance using FPGAs. Scotch provides a domain-specific language for the user-friendly, high-level definition of a broad class of sketching algorithms. A code generator performs the heavy-lifting of hardware description, while an auto-tuning algorithm optimizes the summary size. Our evaluation shows that FPGA accelerators generated by Scotch outperform CPU- and GPU-based sketching by up to two orders of magnitude in terms of throughput and up to a factor of five in terms of energy efficiency.
Toward a better understanding and evaluation of tree structures on flash SSDs
Authors: Didona Diego , Ioannou Nikolas , Stoica Radu , Kourtis Kornilios 
Published: December 2021

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are extensively used to deploy persistent data stores, as they provide low latency random access, high write throughput, high data density, and low cost. Tree-based data structures are widely used to build persistent data stores, and indeed they lie at the backbone of many of the data management systems used in production and research today.
We show that benchmarking a persistent tree-based data structure on an SSD is a complex process, which may easily incur subtle pitfalls that can lead to an inaccurate performance assessment. At a high-level, these pitfalls stem from the interaction of complex software running on complex hardware. On the one hand, tree structures implement internal operations that have non-trivial effects on performance. On the other hand, SSDs employ firmware logic to deal with the idiosyncrasies of the underlying flash memory, which are well known to also lead to complex performance dynamics.
We identify seven benchmarking pitfalls using RocksDB and WiredTiger, two widespread implementations of an LSM-Tree and a B+Tree, respectively. We show that such pitfalls can lead to incorrect measurements of key performance indicators, hinder the reproducibility and the representativeness of the results, and lead to suboptimal deployments in production environments. We also provide guidelines on how to avoid these pitfalls to obtain more reliable performance measurements, and to perform more thorough and fair comparisons among different design points.
Investigating the relationship between linguistic changes in L2 writers’ paraphrasing, paraphrasing performance and L2 proficiency
Authors: Di Zhang Emily , Yu Shulin 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
While the typology of paraphrasing revolves around linguistic changes of paraphrasing, little is known about the importance of different types of linguistic changes and their relationship between paraphrasing performance and L2 proficiency. Empirical enquiry has focused on L2 writers’ inappropriate paraphrasing performance against the norm of L1 writer, which is problematic in that L2 and L1 writers displayed considerable variation in paraphrasing. The present study drew upon 202 Chinese EFL writers’ written responses in a paraphrasing test to look into the discrete linguistic transformations in paraphrasing and examine how the frequency of different linguistic changes in paraphrasing relates to their paraphrasing performance and L2 proficiency. Correlation analysis was run to analyze the relationship between the frequency of linguistic changes and paraphrasing performance. Multivariate analysis of variance analysis was conducted to examine how the frequency of linguistic changes relates to L2 proficiency. The findings revealed that Conceptual Transformation had the highest significant correlation with paraphrasing scores, followed by Lexical Transformation and then Syntactic Transformation. The frequency of Synonym Substitution, Morphology, Multiple Word Units, Phrase/Clause Shift, Active/Passive Shift and Conceptual Transformation increased as L2 writers’ proficiency levels increased. Implications are drawn from the findings for paraphrasing instruction and assessment, research in paraphrasing and L2 writers’ academic writing practice.
Classification of plant diseases using machine and deep learning
Authors: Lamba Monika , Gigras Yogita , Dhull Anuradha 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
Detection of plant disease has a crucial role in better understanding the economy of India in terms of agricultural productivity. Early recognition and categorization of diseases in plants are very crucial as it can adversely affect the growth and development of species. Numerous machine learning methods like SVM (support vector machine), random forest, KNN (k-nearest neighbor), Naïve Bayes, decision tree, etc., have been exploited for recognition, discovery, and categorization of plant diseases; however, the advancement of machine learning by DL (deep learning) is supposed to possess tremendous potential in enhancing the accuracy. This paper proposed a model comprising of Auto-Color Correlogram as image filter and DL as classifiers with different activation functions for plant disease. This proposed model is implemented on four different datasets to solve binary and multiclass subcategories of plant diseases. Using the proposed model, results achieved are better, obtaining 99.4% accuracy and 99.9% sensitivity for binary class and 99.2% accuracy for multiclass. It is proven that the proposed model outperforms other approaches, namely LibSVM, SMO (sequential minimal optimization), and DL with activation function softmax and softsign in terms of F-measure, recall, MCC (Matthews correlation coefficient), specificity and sensitivity.
A review on the corrosion resistance of electroless Ni-P based composite coatings and electrochemical corrosion testing methods
Authors: Shozib Imtiaz Ahmed , Ahmad Azlan , Abdul-Rani Ahmad Majdi , Beheshti Mohammadali , Aliyu Abdul’Azeez Abdu 
Published: December 2021

Abstract
This paper aims to review the impact of different factors influencing the corrosion resistance of electroless Ni-P based coatings. Emphasis has been given onto the impact of phosphorus content, incorporation of alloying elements, addition of particles and heat treatment which have been discussed in detail and critically reviewed. The effect of corrosive media and coating process parameters on corrosion resistance are studied concisely. Furthermore, the role of the incorporation of various elements and particles’ contents on the corrosion resistance of electroless Ni-P coating are studied systematically. This paper also presents an overview of the latest electrochemical corrosion measuring techniques. The following approaches deserve special attention in the analysis: localized electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (LEIS), scanning vibrating electrode technique (SVET), scanning ion-selective electrode technique (SIET), scanning droplet cell (SDC), scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), scanning Kelvin probe (SKP) and novel contactless technique (NCT).