bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Parsimonious Mixtures of Seemingly Unrelated Contaminated Normal Regression Models
Authors: Perrone Gabriele , Soffritti Gabriele 
Published: December 2023

AbstractIn recent years, the research into linear multivariate regression based on finite mixture models has been intense. With such an approach, it is possible to perform regression analysis for a multivariate response by taking account of the possible presence of several unknown latent homogeneous groups, each of which is characterised by a different linear regression model. For a continuous multivariate response, mixtures of normal regression models are usually employed. However, in real data, it is not unusual to observe mildly atypical observations that can negatively affect the estimation of the regression parameters under a normal distribution in each mixture component. Furthermore, in some fields of research, a multivariate regression model with a different vector of covariates for each response should be specified, based on some prior information to be conveyed in the analysis. To take account of all these aspects, mixtures of contaminated seemingly unrelated normal regression models have been recently developed. A further extension of such an approach is presented here so as to ensure parsimony, which is obtained by imposing constraints on the group-covariance matrices of the responses. A description of the resulting parsimonious mixtures of seemingly unrelated contaminated regression models is provided together with the results of a numerical study based on the analysis of a real dataset, which illustrates their practical usefulness.
Evolution of Media Coverage on Climate Change and Environmental Awareness: An Analysis of Tweets from UK and US Newspapers
Authors: Zammarchi Gianpaolo , Romano Maurizio , Conversano Claudio 
Published: December 2023

AbstractClimate change represents one of the biggest challenges of our time. Newspapers might play an important role in raising awareness on this problem and its consequences. We collected all tweets posted by six UK and US newspapers in the last decade to assess whether 1) the space given to this topic has grown, 2) any breakpoint can be identified in the time series of tweets on climate change, and 3) any main topic can be identified in these tweets. Overall, the number of tweets posted on climate change increased for all newspapers during the last decade. Although a sharp decrease in 2020 was observed due to the pandemic, for most newspapers climate change coverage started to rise again in 2021. While different breakpoints were observed, for most newspapers 2019 was identified as a key year, which is plausible based on the coverage received by activities organized by the Fridays for Future movement. Finally, using different topic modeling approaches, we observed that, while unsupervised models partly capture relevant topics for climate change, such as the ones related to politics, consequences for health or pollution, semi-supervised models might be of help to reach higher informativeness of words assigned to the topics.
A New Regression Model for the Analysis of Microbiome Data
Authors: Ascari Roberto , Migliorati Sonia 
Published: December 2023

AbstractHuman microbiome data are becoming extremely common in biomedical research due to the relevant connections with different types of diseases. A widespread discrete distribution to analyze this kind of data is the Dirichletmultinomial. Despite its popularity, this distribution often fails in modeling microbiome data due to the strict parameterization imposed on its covariance matrix. The aim of this work is to propose a new distribution for analyzing microbiome data and to define a regression model based on it. The new distribution can be expressed as a structured finite mixture model with Dirichlet-multinomial components. We illustrate how this mixture structure can improve a microbiome data analysis to cluster patients into “enterotypes”, which are a classification based on the bacteriological composition of gut microbiota. The comparison between the two models is performed through an application to a real gut microbiome dataset.
Cleantech, Telehealth, and Other Emerging Technologies for Improving African Women’s Adaptation to Climate Change
Authors: Adeola Ogechi , Evans Olaniyi , Ngare Innocent 
Published: December 2023

AbstractDigital technologies hold great potential for empowering women in Africa and advancing their social and economic development. This chapter examines the impact of technologies such as cleantech, telehealth, edtech, blockchain, and artificial intelligence on women’s empowerment. Improving access to information and communication technologies (ICT) and increasing women’s participation in STEM fields is crucial for empowering women and promoting sustainable development in African nations. These technologies can be leveraged to empower women and enhance their lives, but it is important to ensure that their development and deployment take into consideration the impacts of climate change, which represents one of the greatest existential threats to modern society. The chapter concludes by highlighting the importance of utilising digital technologies in addressing the challenges posed by climate change and contributing to a more sustainable future for all, with a focus on empowering women.
Green Reskilling of African Women for Climate Action
Authors: Adeola Ogechi , Evans Olaniyi , Ngare Innocent 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe concept of “green growth” is gaining global momentum as a means of mitigating the environmental impact of human activities. However, transitioning to a green economy requires new green skills and a shift in mindset. Empowering women intentionally and strategically, particularly in Africa, can unlock the continent’s untapped potential and drive economic growth due to their significant labour force. Green reskilling is a crucial aspect of the green economy as it promotes gender equality and empowers women, leading to poverty alleviation and economic growth. This chapter underscores the importance of green reskilling for African women and the need to create gender-sensitive policies and strategies for climate change mitigation at all levels—local, regional, and national. By doing so, women can play a more active role in driving the transition to a greener and more sustainable future for Africa.
Support Planning with People with Disabilities
Authors: Araten-Bergman Tal 
Published: December 2023

AbstractPerson-centred planning is often seen as a panacea, but without the addition of thoughtful processes and person-centred actions, it too often becomes a meaningless paper exercise. Planning has many purposes: from determining funding and setting broad life goals to creating detailed blueprints for the delivery of a specific type of support. Whatever its purpose, planning with people with disabilities requires collaboration, time, skilled facilitation and knowledge about the person and their support networks. This chapter discusses the nature of support planning, outlines its core principles and processes and considers these in the context of service systems and disability support organisations.
Building Quality and Safeguarding into Disability Service Provision
Authors: Hough Alan , McEwen Jade 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe processes of building quality and safeguarding are important in ensuring that people who use disability services have high-quality support that meets their needs and helps them achieve their goals. High-quality support and services are key safeguards against abuse and neglect. What constitutes good quality varies by each individual, stakeholder group, and type of service. However, compliance with regulatory obligations is the minimum that disability service providers and workers must achieve. This chapter attempts to demystify what workers and providers should do to deliver high-quality and safe supports, while still acknowledging the complexity involved. It argues that strategies for achieving high-quality and safe supports should be integrated into standard ways of working, rather than approached as a box-ticking exercise disconnected from day-to-day practice. It explains the key terms and core concepts, the levels for action, and the reactive and proactive strategies which can be implemented by managers.
Supporting Community Participation
Authors: Bigby Christine 
Published: December 2023

AbstractMany people with intellectual disabilities remain excluded from communities and socially isolated despite decades of policies aiming at furthering their participation. The meaning of community participation is often vague, and outcomes expected from support service poorly defined. Evidence shows that carefully designed programs and skilled practice can support individuals with intellectual disabilities to be actively engaged in communities of their choice. This chapter reviews approaches to supporting community participation. It provides exemplars of different program designs, support worker skills and organisational features necessary to provide quality and individually tailored support for participation by people with intellectual disabilities. Finally, the chapter considers the types of community development strategies that create the foundations for social inclusion.
Relationship-Based Practice with People with a Mild Intellectual Disability Who Have Been Socially Marginalised and Excluded
Authors: Ellem Kathy , Venables Jemma 
Published: December 2023

AbstractQuality of life is greatly enhanced by supportive relationships in one’s life. People with a mild intellectual disability who have been socially marginalised face significant difficulties in building positive, life-affirming relationships. This chapter discusses the importance of relationship-based practice with this group of people and illustrates how disability support workers, organisations, and systems can support authentic and caring relationships with this group. Relationship-based practice can provide the context in which people with a mild intellectual disability can build individual capacity, knowledge, and resources to navigate the challenges of everyday life.
Tool condition monitoring of diamond-coated burrs with acoustic emission utilising machine learning methods
Authors: Jessel Thomas , Byrne Carl , Eaton Mark , Merrifield Ben , Harris Stuart , Pullin Rhys 
Published: December 2023

AbstractWithin manufacturing there is a growing need for autonomous Tool Condition Monitoring (TCM) systems, with the ability to predict tool wear and failure. This need is increased, when using specialised tools such as Diamond-Coated Burrs (DCBs), in which the random nature of the tool and inconsistent manufacturing methods create large variance in tool life. This unpredictable nature leads to a significant fraction of a DCB tool’s life being underutilised due to premature replacement. Acoustic Emission (AE) in conjunction with Machine Learning (ML) models presents a possible on-machine monitoring technique which could be used as a prediction method for DCB wear. Four wear life tests were conducted with a $$\varnothing $$
∅
1.3 mm #1000 DCB until failure, in which AE was continuously acquired during grinding passes, followed by surface measurements of the DCB. Three ML model architectures were trained on AE features to predict DCB mean radius, an indicator of overall tool wear. All architectures showed potential of learning from the dataset, with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) models performing the best, resulting in prediction error of MSE = 0.559 $$\mu $$
μ
m$$^{2}$$

2

after optimisation. Additionally, links between AE kurtosis and the tool’s run-out/form error were identified during an initial review of the data, showing potential for future work to focus on grinding effectiveness as well as overall wear. This paper has shown that AE contains sufficient information to enable on-machine monitoring of DCBs during the grinding process. ML models have been shown to be sufficiently precise in predicting overall DCB wear and have the potential of interpreting grinding condition.
Imaging of flame propagation and temperature distribution in an all-metal gasoline engine with endoscopic access via anisole fluorescence
Authors: Shahbaz Muhammad Ali , Jahangir Saad , Kaiser Sebastian A. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractLaser-based optical diagnostic tools are widely used to investigate in-cylinder processes in internal combustion engines. For laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), many tracers have been used in the past. Recently, anisole has been characterized spectroscopically for engine-relevant pressures and temperatures and emerged as a potentially advantageous alternative to more commonly used tracers in the past due to its photo-physical properties. Its high fluorescence quantum yield and large absorption cross section result in high signal intensity. This is particularly beneficial for endoscopic imaging systems, which typically have worse light collection efficiency than traditional imaging systems in fully optically accessible engines with transparent liners. In this work, we exploited the strong anisole LIF signal in two single-shot experiments: to image flame propagation, and the instantaneous gas-phase temperature during compression stroke and gas exchange process. Measurements were performed in a production gasoline engine modified for endoscopic optical access via an advanced UV endoscope system. First, LIF of anisole was compared to that of toluene during compression stroke. Anisole LIF yields a much higher signal-to-noise ratio and better image quality with lower tracer concentrations. Due to the higher signal of anisole LIF, small structures of the turbulent flame burning into the anisole/isooctane mixture were well visible after ignition. Second, the red-shift of the anisole fluorescence spectrum with increasing temperature and oxygen partial pressure was exploited for ratiometric temperature measurements based on single-shot images. The available spectroscopic data were used to develop several signal ratio models, which were calibrated in situ using a heated tracer/bath gas mixture introduced inside the combustion chamber. The calibrated signal ratio models were then extrapolated to the engine-relevant ranges. Models with two-step exponential interpolation show better agreement with the adiabatic temperature than linear or 3D surface exponential interpolation. The gas-phase temperature images based on single shots were obtained using one selected model, showing a near uniform and a stratified temperature distribution during the compression stroke and gas exchange process, respectively.
Hypoxic and hypercapnic burrow conditions lead to downregulation of free triiodothyronine and hematocrit in Ansell’s mole-rats (Fukomys anselli)
Authors: Henning Yoshiyuki , Adam Kamilla , Gerhardt Patricia , Begall Sabine 
Published: December 2023

AbstractAfrican mole-rats live in self-dug burrow systems under hypoxic and hypercapnic conditions. Adaptations to hypoxia include suppression of resting metabolic rate (RMR) and core body temperature (Tb). Because the thyroid hormones (THs) thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) are positive regulators of RMR and Tb, we hypothesized that serum TH concentrations would also be downregulated under hypoxic conditions. To test this hypothesis, we kept Ansell’s mole-rats (Fukomys anselli) in terraria filled with soil in which they were allowed to construct underground burrows to achieve chronic intermittent hypoxia and hypercapnia. The animals stayed in these hypoxic and hypercapnic burrows voluntarily, although given the choice to stay aboveground. We collected blood samples before and after treatment to measure serum T4 and T3 concentrations as well as hematological parameters. The free fraction of the transcriptionally-active T3 was significantly decreased after treatment, indicating that cellular TH signaling was downregulated via peripheral mechanisms, consistent with the assumption that aerobic metabolism is downregulated under hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, we found that hematocrit and hemoglobin concentrations were also downregulated after treatment, suggesting that oxygen demand decreases under hypoxia, presumably due to the metabolic shift towards anaerobic metabolism. Taken together, we have identified a potential upstream regulator of physiological adaptations to hypoxia in these highly hypoxia-tolerant animals.
Evaluation of insemination, blood feeding, and Plasmodium vivax infection effects on locomotor activity patterns of the malaria vector Anopheles darlingi (Diptera: Culicidae)
Authors: da Silva Bastos Alessandra , dos Santos Najara Akira Costa , Andrade Alice Oliveira , Pontual José Daniel Costa , Araújo Jéssica Evangelista , Medeiros Jansen Fernandes , da Silva Araújo Maisa 
Published: December 2023

AbstractCircadian behavioral patterns in mosquitoes can be observed through their locomotor activity, which includes fundamental behaviors such as foraging, mating, and oviposition. These habits, which are fundamental to the life cycle of Anopheles mosquitoes, are closely related to pathogen transmission to humans. While rhythmic cycles of locomotor activity have been described in Anopheles species, no studies have been conducted on Anopheles darlingi species, the main malaria vector in the Amazon region. The aim of this study was to investigate how insemination status, blood meal, and Plasmodium vivax infection affect the locomotor activity of An. darlingi. The experiments were performed with 3- to 10-day-old An. darlingi females, which had been fed with 15% honey solution. These mosquitoes were obtained from the Malaria Vector Production and Infection Platform (PIVEM)/FIOCRUZ–RO. The experimental groups were divided into four categories: virgin vs. inseminated, unfed virgin vs. blood-fed virgin, unfed inseminated vs. blood-fed inseminated, and infected blood vs. uninfected blood. Locomotor activity was monitored using the Flybox equipment, capturing images that were subsequently converted into video to measure the insect activity, using PySoLo software. The periodicity and rhythmicity of mosquito locomotor activity were analyzed using MatLab® software. The locomotor activity of An. darlingi females showed a nocturnal and bimodal pattern under LD conditions. When comparing the insemination states and blood meal, there was a reduction in the locomotor activity in inseminated and blood-fed females. However, the P. vivax+ infection did not increase locomotor activity of An. darlingi species.
A Pluridisciplinary Tracheostomy Weaning Protocol for Brain-Injured Patients, Outside of the Intensive Care Unit and Without Instrumental Assessment: Results of Pilot Study
Authors: Gallice Thomas , Cugy Emmanuelle , Germain Christine , Barthélemy Clément , Laimay Julie , Gaube Julie , Engelhardt Mélanie , Branchard Olivier , Maloizel Elodie , Frison Eric , Dehail Patrick , Cuny Emmanuel 
Published: December 2023

AbstractConcurrently to the recent development of percutaneous tracheostomy techniques in the intensive care unit (ICU), the amount of tracheostomized brain-injured patients has increased. Despites its advantages, tracheostomy may represent an obstacle to their orientation towards conventional hospitalization or rehabilitation services. To date, there is no recommendation for tracheostomy weaning outside of the ICU. We created a pluridisciplinary tracheostomy weaning protocol relying on standardized criteria but adapted to each patient’s characteristics and that does not require instrumental assessment. It was tested in a prospective, single-centre, non-randomized cohort study. Inclusion criteria were age > 18 years, hospitalized for an acquired brain injury (ABI), tracheostomized during an ICU stay, and weaned from mechanical ventilation. The exclusion criterion was severe malnutrition. Decannulation failure was defined as recannulation within 96 h after decannulation. Thirty tracheostomized ABI patients from our neurosurgery department were successively and exhaustively included after ICU discharge. Twenty-six patients were decannulated (decannulation rate, 90%). None of them were recannulated (success rate, 100%). Two patients never reached the decannulation stage. Two patients died during the procedure. Mean tracheostomy weaning duration (inclusion to decannulation) was 7.6 (standard deviation [SD]: 4.6) days and mean total tracheostomy time (insertion to decannulation) was 42.5 (SD: 24.8) days. Our results demonstrate that our protocol might be able to determine without instrumental assessment which patient can be successfully decannulated. Therefore, it may be used safely outside ICU or a specialized unit. Moreover, our tracheostomy weaning duration is very short as compared to the current literature.
Robot-assisted laparoscopy does not have demonstrable advantages over conventional laparoscopy in endometriosis surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Csirzó Ádám , Kovács Dénes Péter , Szabó Anett , Fehérvári Péter , Jankó Árpád , Hegyi Péter , Nyirády Péter , Sipos Zoltán , Sára Levente , Ács Nándor , Szabó István , Valent Sándor 
Published: December 2023

Abstract
Background
Endometriosis is a chronic condition affecting 6–10% of women of reproductive age, with endometriosis-related pain and infertility being the leading symptoms. Currently, the gold standard treatment approach to surgery is conventional laparoscopy (CL); however, the increasing availability of robot-assisted surgery is projected as a competitor of CL. This study aimed to compare the perioperative outcomes of robot-assisted laparoscopy (RAL) and CL in endometriosis surgery.

Objectives
We aimed to compare the effectiveness and safety of these two procedures.

Methods
A systematic search was conducted in three medical databases. Studies investigating different perioperative outcomes of endometriosis-related surgeries were included. Results are presented as odds ratios (OR) or mean differences (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results
Our search yielded 2,014 records, of which 13 were eligible for data extraction. No significant differences were detected between the CL and RAL groups in terms of intraoperative complications (OR = 1.07, CI 0.43–2.63), postoperative complications (OR = 1.3, CI 0.73–2.32), number of conversions to open surgery (OR = 1.34, CI 0.76–2.37), length of hospital stays (MD = 0.12, CI 0.33–0.57), blood loss (MD = 16.73, CI 4.18–37.63) or number of rehospitalizations (OR = 0.95, CI 0.13–6.75). In terms of operative times (MD = 28.09 min, CI 11.59–44.59) and operating room times (MD = 51.39 min, CI 15.07–87.72;), the RAL technique remained inferior.

Conclusion
RAL does not have statistically demonstrable advantages over CL in terms of perioperative outcomes for endometriosis-related surgery.

Graphical abstract